The Academic Bridge Program (ABP) under Qatar Foundation has been excelling in supporting high school students from Qatar and the region to get admissions in prestigious universities across the globe with record number of placements in the recent years.
“As for the statistics, I would say in the last academic year, about 97% of our students have got admission in various universities globally. Out of these students, 65% got admitted within the Education City in Qatar, which is a high number, considering that Qatar Foundation universities are top universities globally,” Dr Saheim K al-Temimi, director of ABP told Gulf Times.
“We have tie up with various other universities around the world especially in the US and the UK. Many of our students get admissions in these universities which proves that the programme is highly successful,” he continued. ABP, established in 2001, is a premier pre-university programme meant for high school students from Qatar and other countries in the region to help them for a smooth transition from school to university education. So far, the institute has graduated over 4,000 students and 90% of them have gone on to study in various universities around the world.
Dr al-Temimi said that ABP has been scoring a steady success with the number of successful students going up every year. “Now that we have got 97%. Our target is that all our graduates, I mean 100% of students to get the opportunities. Two years back, we achieved 96%. Last year, we achieved 97%, and it shows the success and quality of the programme,“ explained Dr al-Temimi.
The director said that ABP aims to provide comprehensive academic coverage to its students to enable them with great opportunities. “So, we have made the admission criteria as 70% or what is equivalent of it in high school, in addition to a score of 4.5 and above of IELTS proficiency or what is equivalent to IELTS, such as Duolingo and TOEFL tests. Through this programme, we are actually playing a very important role to complement and to complete the educational ecosystem within Qatar,” noted the official.
“We are enablers, and supporters for students. We aim to create top calibre students in the country and the region and equip them with all the skills to go to the top universities. We work very closely with the top-rated universities nationally and internationally,” he highlighted. As for the future plans of the centre, the director said that ABP has recently introduced three academic tracks.
He stated: “Instead of having like one programme, now we have started three specialised, educational tracks. They are STEM track, social sciences track and humanities and visual arts track. We are expanding our partnerships and in the recent years we have signed many educational agreements with the well-recognised universities.”
“We also offer credit transfer. We have signed a special academic collaboration with some universities of what we call ‘One plus Three’. Through this agreement, students can complete the ABP programme here and which will be considered as one year at the academic branch, credit year. Then, they can complete the whole university programme in another three years,” revealed the director.
“We have many partnerships to offer for the students. To enable them to start the university life at the earliest. We can say with pride and confidence that ABP is providing great guidance for high school students in the country and beyond for higher education. Therefore, we are proud that the centre has become a great beacon of education excellence in the country,” he added.
