With over 8000 students studying in the various branch campuses of international universities located in Education City (EC), an initiative by Qatar Foundation (QF) for education, science and community development, quite a responsibility falls upon the shoulders of QF, especially when it comes to providing education abroad here to international students from all around the world, a large percentage of the EC community, who can not afford to pay required fees in full.
One major way QF has invested in making education accessible and affordable for international students to fly from all around the globe to these prestigious universities in Qatar, such as Weill-Cornell Medicine University in Qatar (WCM-Q), Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), among others, is by providing various forms of financial aid. However, the question is: to what cost is the QF loan plan actually beneficial?
With the incoming batches of freshmen here in EC stepping out of their comfort zone and leaving all their loved ones back home to settle in their new home here in Qatar, it is often discussed in hushed conversations among students as to what the loan policy financing most these students’ education really serves.
The loan system QF has introduced consists of a scheme where students either pay the debt in full, or according to the amount of loan provided, students have to work for affiliated companies after graduation for a certain number of years. The years students might have to work range from two to six years as they are measured by the cumulative amount loaned to the student throughout the four years, with the idea of the higher the loan, the higher number of years the students have to work for QF.
This may be an easy decision and an attractive offer for a minority of the student body, but for the majority, they describe themselves as being tied down as they feel as though they are forced to postpone their goals and personal pursuits to pay off a debt that was shoved down their throats for going after quality education.
When it comes to paying off the QF debt instead of working with affiliated companies, students have to pay 15% of their wages for multiple years until the five, or six, digit number is completely paid back. Not only does this present a serious financial strain, but it hurts the chances of being approved of other bank loans, buying a house, a car, affording marriage, or even affording having children — all of which are simple things that most people hope for in their lives. If the QF loan hurts chances on having these various things that are deemed important by many, is there a point of getting one at all? A Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU-Q) alumnus stated that if she had the opportunity to go back in time and do it all over again, she would not have done taken the loan as the debt still hangs over her future plans even after years and years of payment.
Our team asked Northwestern university in Qatar on their financial aid policies to which they claimed they cannot discuss their cooperation with QF or QF policies. We have also asked QF for an interview which they denied twice. This is why the team decided to head to their financial aid office for a walk in interview and, despite avoiding sensitive questions, were asked to leave. To show how drastic the financial hold QF employs on thousands of students’ lives, our team sent out a survey online and on paper that shows the magnitude of debt owed to QF in individual cases. The survey inquires how much money is loaned to a randomly picked group of students in EC, whether they’re going to have to work for their sponsors, and whether they originally planned to.
One might argue that QF’s policy of being assigned a certain number of years shows that it is not a matter of keeping the indebted prospects in Qatar but working out their loans, yet, the graph above tells a different story. As presented in the graph above, students from different universities in Education City provided information about the amount of financial aid they are receiving per year. With outstanding amounts of money given to students ranging from 10k to 70k a year, the resulting unsustainable debt burdens impose substantial costs on students. From the data shown in the graph, it can be concluded that most students are receiving 50k-70k per year, which means that almost the full tuition cost of the Education City university is covered by Qatar foundation’s student loans. However, this implies that the students are either obligated to work for the maximum number of years indicated by Qatar Foundation, lesser years not being an option, with increasing amount of loans and are restricted to specific employers approved by Qatar Foundation, or if students choose to work for other institutions, the number of years they spend paying off their debt increases with the amount of financial aid they receive. the survey also shows that the majority of the students did not plan on working for their sponsors before the loan agreements and that they did not know how many years they will have to work, as they don’t know how much they will be loaned by their graduation.
Not only is Qatar Foundation creating massive debts that students must try to work off throughout their lives, but when it comes to inconvenience, students that could already be halfway through their academic careers might be rejected all at once. The Daily Q, NU-Q’s student-run newspaper, has reported on several occasions regarding students who were in their second and third year of college, and were still rejected of financial aid by QF, and had to go pursue education elsewhere with their debts still weighing them down.
The universities in EC, however, have made circumstances somewhat easier for students that have , but are they doing enough? Even with its huge funds, NUQ can only subsidize aid by filling the gap between the university’s estimation and QF’s. GU-Q, on the other hand, grants its students all they need to pursue their academic careers comfortably as they believe that money should not be a barrier to education. However, most EC universities reject aid applications of students if their separate aid application to QF is rejected.