Qatari students drive rise in QU college admissions

The strength of Qatar University College of Business & Economics (QU-CBE) has risen to 4,110 with the admission of 899, comprising 75% Qataris during Fall 2016.
This was revealed by CBE dean Dr Khalid Shams M A al-Abdulqader at a press briefing to outline the key achievements, developments and future plans for the academic year 2016-2017.  
Management and Marketing Department head Dr Bader al-Esmail, Finance & Economics head Dr Salem Nechi and Accounting and Information Systems head Dr Mostafa Kamal Hassan were also present.
Dr al-Abdulqader outlined the four pillars of the college’s new strategic plan, which are: graduating high-qualified professionals who will contribute to Qatar’s growth and progress, establishing new graduate programmes specially designed to meet the needs of the labour market, promoting student engagement in research activities that develop their skills, and advancing a culture of community engagement through the development of a new strategy for expansion in executive education, and the promotion of application sessions in key areas such as human capital management, business analyses and project management.
The CBE dean stressed the importance of strengthening links with the College’s Advisory Council and various sectors of society through the establishment of partnerships with governmental and non-governmental institutions in Qatar.
He also referred to the recent agreement which was signed with “Big Four” accounting firms – Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
“This agreement aimed to establish collaboration on the development and the delivery of a tax awareness training programme for CBE students”, he said, adding, “The training sessions will be provided at QU during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years. They are designed to highlight key points in international tax principles and Qatari tax law, and will use indicative examples.”
Dr al-Abdulqader also highlighted the PhD Programme in Business Administration, launched this year. The programme is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). “This demonstrates the quality of our programmes since only 5% of business colleges in the world are accredited by AACSB.”
Dr al-Esmail explained the College’s Management and Marketing Department comprises a total of 829 students, including 658 Qatari nationals. The number of faculty has increased to 36.
Dr al-Esmail also noted that the department made a number of achievements such as the proposal of 252 new English and Arabic programmes for Fall and Spring 2016, and the publication of 48 papers in high-level journals and conferences, among many others.  
On the College’s Finance & Economics Department, Dr Nechi noted that the department offers accounting courses in Arabic for the Arabic track, while restructuring the Management Information Systems (MIS) Major in line with the needs of the labour market.
“During the academic year 2015-2016, the department approved a restructuring of the Master of Accounting programme into two tracks – thesis track and non-thesis track. The proposal is yet to be approved by the university, and we expect to implement changes in Fall 2016.”
“The Department also established a new 4 + 1 master’s programme. This five-year accounting programme will allow students to complete the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Accounting and the Master of Accounting (MAC) programmes in five years instead of six. The fourth year of the programme is a transition in which students complete their bachelor’s degree and start their master’s degree.”
Dr Nechi noted that the department will continue to advance its research initiatives through the organisation of research forums and seminars on tax awareness with the aim to ensure a full engagement with the community, the establishment of research groups and the improvement of research metrics.