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| Students who are studying abroad under the QU scholarship programme during an event |
The event was attended by the envoys from British, Canadian, US and French embassies and was also an opportunity to strengthen relationships with the embassies of countries hosting most of the scholarship students.
QU president Prof Sheikha Abdulla al-Misnad alongside other deans, heads of department, faculty and staff were also present to congratulate the students.
A number of students, including Muna al-Marzouqi, who is currently pursuing a master of law degree at University of California-Berkeley, US; Aiman Erbad, PhD computer science at University of British Columbia, Canada; Farha al-Kuwari, PhD statistics at University College of London, UK; Aisha Ahmadi, MA specialising in clinical mental health counselling at University of Colorado-Denver, US; and Sarah al-Marri, master in education, University of Washington-Seattle, US, presented their views on the topic “My Scholarship
Experience”.
During their speeches, they spoke of various academic and extracurricular activities they had been involved in while pursuing their studies.
For instance, Ahmadi is an active intern in the clinical mental health counselling programme at UC-Denver and al-Marri started a focus group for minority students in the education programme at UW-Seattle.
She also started the first Muslim Students’ Association and serves as its president at one of the university’s branch campuses.
Sharing his experience, Erbad stressed the importance of making the right choice of thesis supervisors and Al-Marzouqi encouraged her colleagues to interact with students from other nationalities in order to improve their language skills, while al-Kuwari shared the very positive experience she had during her previous master’s studies at Oxford, and in the UK in general, mainly due to the environment of tolerance she found there.
In her remarks, Prof al-Misnad said: “We are proud of the scholarship students and cannot wait to have them back with us as faculty members who will be transferring all the knowledge and experience they gained at the top universities. Qatar University, through its scholars, is contributing to the four pillars of the National Vision 2030 and preparing Qatari nationals for the future challenges and demands of the country as it takes a leading role in the global arena.”
Scholarships Office director Cesar Wazen said: “This gathering comes after a series of events at the beginning of the academic year to introduce the embassies of the four main countries that our students have chosen to pursue their graduate studies. Now, prospective applicants can be acquainted with the experiences shared by fellow Qataris in making their decisions for study abroad.”
Prof al-Misnad also presented a trophy to the Supreme Education Council’s Higher Education Institute (HEI) acting director Ahmad Janahi as a token of appreciation from the QU scholars for ensuring follow-up of their needs.
HEI’s responsibilities were passed on to the Scholarships Office at the beginning of the academic year.
