CNA-Q hosts inaugural meeting of Academic Council

The College of the North Atlantic — Qatar (CNA-Q) hosted the inaugural meeting of its newly-established Academic Council recently.As a branch of a Canadian college, all academic regulations and programme reviews were previously governed by the home institution College of the North Atlantic (CNA), in Canada.As CNA-Q moves toward stronger local governance and a national college framework, the academic approval process for credit programmes has been shifted to take place in Qatar, within a council of academic experts.The CNA-Q Academic Council comprises internal and external advisers, including representatives from each of the college’s academic schools, a representative from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, leaders of both CNA and CNA-Q administrations, as well as student and alumni representation.“We are pleased to say the inaugural meeting of CNA-Q’s Academic Council was very successful. This type of local decision-making allows our programmes to be even more responsive to the needs of Qatar’s workforce,” said vice president — academic, Samah Gamer.“There will be absolutely no change to the type of education we offer – a high quality curriculum that is internationally-recognised and rooted in applied, experiential learning with a student-centred focus. What has changed is the provision of academic expertise and policies, so that new programmes and programme adaptations can be implemented with increased responsiveness to the needs of Qatari employers.”The first meeting was an opportunity for the council to review its mandate and orient the new 23-member team. There was also some immediate work to get done, with a number of academic programmes presented for review and discussion.“Having a Qatar-based Academic Council will help the College ensure that our programmes are responsive to an economy that is shifting toward a more knowledge-based workforce with an emphasis on STEM and emerging technologies. We aim to keep our programmes relevant to the evolving local labour market while maintaining rigorous international academic standards,” said Samah.