Higher Education Management certificate for Georgetown staff

The professional development programme provided participating GU-Q staff members with a comprehensive understanding of the higher education industry worldwide, with a special focus on the unique issues related to higher education in Qatar and the Middle East.

Successful completion of the programme gave participants an understanding of major trends in regulations, demographics, employment, technology and financing affecting the higher education market. Participating students will be able to conduct a competitive analysis of the higher education market at individual institution and national levels.

One of the course instructors, Amy Levine, said: “The professional development focus of this course means that the skills participants learn over five days in class are highly applied and can immediately be put into practice in their workplace.”

Levine is also the course programme director and director of programmes and enrolment management at the School of Continuing Studies on the Washington,DC campus of Georgetown University, where the Certificate in Higher Education was developed.

Lead instructor for the programme, Ramsey Jabaji, said: “This course gives the GU-Q staff resources to know what questions to ask and gives them the tools to critique their own work here.”

Jabaji is also a lecturer at the University of Maryland and co-ordinator for international and leadership programmes at the Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland.

The format of the course involved daily lectures, group discussion activities and applying theory to practice in relation to Qatari issues. The duration of the course work centred around a capstone project where participants were required to design a new programme, service or offering benefiting the community in Qatar.

“We brought in 10 experts in the field of higher education from all over the world who joined the class remotely through teleconferencing,” explained Jabaji. “The class on global perspectives of student affairs featured Dr Andrew West, former president of the student affairs association in the UK. He’s also the current director of student services at the University of Sheffield in the UK.”

The sessions on “Voices of Leadership in Higher Education” also included Dr Mehran Kamrava, professor and director of the Centre for International and Regional Studies at GU-Q, and Dr Denny Roberts, associate provost at Hamad bin Khalifa University, who provided a historical overview of higher education and the challenges involved in Qatar.

A total of 42 GU-Q staff members graduated from the intensive course with a Certificate in Higher Education Management. Moamer Qazafi, director of communications for the Qatar campus, noted: “This is a brilliant programme and it makes sense for anyone joining the ranks of higher education professionals in general and those involved in pedagogy or administration of university education in Qatar to learn from international experts.”