Several Indian universities are likely to open their branch campuses in Qatar in the coming years, a senior official at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, (MoEHE) has told Gulf Times.
“Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) is the first Indian University to start operations in Qatar. Recently, we signed an agreement with the university to start a branch campus in Qatar. Meanwhile, several Indian universities have shown interest in opening their branch campuses in Qatar,” disclosed Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh al-Naimi, undersecretary at MoEHE.
Dr al-Naimi along with a delegation from Qatar was in New Delhi recently to take part in a summit for higher education where about 150 universities from India had participated and organised an exhibition.
“We visited some of the universities there. We also had discussions with some of the officials of these universities. So, there could be more than one Indian university in Qatar in the coming years. However, the discussions are at the very early stages,” explained Dr al-Naimi.
“We expect that SPPU is likely to start their operations from next academic year sometime in 2020. Once all the logistics are completed, they will be able to start the campus according to the academic calendar and schedule of the university,” added the official.  He said that delegates from around 60 countries had participated in the summit. It was also attended by a number of deans, researchers and scientists from these universities.
According to Dr al-Naimi, the programmes offered by SPPU in Qatar will be decided based on the local needs and the expertise of the university. “We will examine the market needs of the country and the programmes will be designed accordingly. We will also have to see how their programmes do not clash with the courses offered by other universities in the country,” he noted.
The official noted that he had a fruitful discussion with the president of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). “ We may not be able to open a branch campus of IIT here but the official has promised to co-operate with us in several areas. We have invited him to Qatar,” added Dr al-Naimi.
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