– By AbdulRahman Al-Nuaimi –

Degrees offered from universities around the world undergo a process of ratification in Qatar, which is a serious issue for many students who study abroad.

Based on statistics published by the Ministry of Municipality and Statistics in June 2017, approximately 20 percent of government-sponsored students (243 out of 5,250 students) study abroad. Graduates of universities in the United Kingdom, the United States or other foreign countries must present their transcripts and their diploma to an official committee at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar. The committee then has the power to decide if the degree is legitimate or not.

The committee specializes in legitimizing the degrees, making sure all graduates have actually studied in a university and obtained their degree ethically rather than buying their way to a degree. Officials at the ministry say some students “study” at universities that do not actually exist or are subpar.

“We see that there are some students, unfortunately, who head towards studying in universities that are below average and that does not help us achieve the 2030 vision of Qatar. Therefore, the committee of ratifying degrees and other committees have a goal, which is to maintain the level we are looking for. The committee’s goal is also to please the youth by making a list of the best universities, which will help our students graduate and become active members in our society,” said Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Ph.D., the deputy minister of education.

According to the latest list of accepted schools published by the ministry, Qatari students are allowed to study abroad in more than 50 countries. Each country has its own list of accredited universities; for example, the United Kingdom has 79 universities that Qatari students are approved to study at under Qatari-government financial sponsorship. There are specific measures specified for each degree.

For instance, in order for the ministry to ratify a Ph.D. obtained in the UK, the students must show that they spent at least two years in a university’s program. A bachelor’s degree, on the other hand, requires that a student spent three to four years at an institution. This must be indicated in a student’s transcript and presented to the ministry in order for the degree to be legitimized, according Khalid Al-Horr, the director of higher education at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. “The committee here, after they make sure that the degree is official, after they see that all measures have been met, such as the years of studying, they decide if it is ratified or not,” he said.

According to Al Naimi and some graduates this reporter spoke to, students sponsored by the Qatari government do not face any problems ratifying their degrees. For example, Mohammed Al-Mannai, a 21-year-old Qatari graduate of Coventry University, a university in the U.K., spent four years in London with everything arranged. The Qatari government sponsored him and paid the university through its defense attaché in London. He says he never experienced any problems with his enrollment in the university or finalizing the paperwork. The Qatari defense attaché based in London confirmed that they offer academic advisors and health insurance to sponsored Qatari students.

“I did not have any problems with the government recognizing my degree as an official bachelor’s. That amount of cooperation between the government and the universities shows how much Qatar respects and values education and wants only the best for its citizens,” Al-Mannai said.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education requires different credentials for high school graduates, based on their school curriculum. Students in British high schools in Qatar follow International General Certificate Secondary Education and Advanced Level programs for their studies. These students need at least five IGCSE certificates and at least one AS certificate to graduate. However, the ministry requires students to have earned at least two AS certificates in order to be sponsored by the government for study abroad.

If students who do not meet the ministry’s requirements still want to travel abroad for higher education, they have to pay for it themselves. Even if they do not meet the requirements but get accepted into one of Doha’s local private universities, such as the ones in Education City, the government still will not sponsor them.

“I got accepted into one of the Education City universities based in Qatar, and I am paying for my education, because I have five IGCSE’s and one AS certificate, not two AS certificates,” said Tamader Abdulla, a 20-year-old Qatari student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.

Many non-sponsored students say they struggle after coming back from studying abroad because their degrees are rejected by the ministry. Mubarak AbdulAziz, a 23-year-old Qatari, graduated from Anglia Ruskin University in London. Over the four years of his university program, he says he spent a large amount of money on education, housing and transportation because he did not receive a government scholarship due to his lower-than-required high school GPA. When he returned to Doha, he was shocked to learn that his degree would not be ratified. “Three years had passed since I graduated and they still did not legitimize my degree,” he said. “Am I supposed to wait 50 years to get the degree legitimate?”

Students who do not get sponsored by the government can still avoid the degree ratification process by getting approval from the ministry prior to traveling, according to Al-Naimi. Before traveling, every student has to get an official paper from the committee that ratifies degrees, he said. The paper should state that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education officially permits the student to travel and study at the specific university that he or she was accepted into. This process is necessary for both sponsored and non-sponsored students. When the student returns, he or she will not find any difficulty in ratifying their degree, he added

Based on noticing students who attend low-quality universities or who purchase their bachelor’s degrees through unethical means, “we decided that there should be a system of quality of education that our students receive, whether they study with their own money or by the government’s money,” Al-Naimi said.

The list of universities accredited by the ministry is updated yearly. Different universities are added and some are even removed from the list. “It’s my second year in London. This year, the Ministry of Education decided to remove my university from the list. I think it’s okay because when I entered the university, it was on the list,” said Saad Khalaf, a 21-year-old Qatari student studying at the University of Northampton in the U.K. “I do not want to keep studying in London, graduate, and return home to find out that my degree is not good enough for the committee. That is actually my biggest fear,” Khalaf added. He said that he cannot easily transfer to another university, after getting used to the campus and making many friends at his university.

However, when a university gets removed from the list, students studying there still should not face problems in ratifying their degrees if they already have the official permit stating the committee approved their study plans prior to traveling, according to AbdulAziz Al-Yami, an official from the ministry.

Some Qatari students prefer to study in Qatar simply to avoid the process of ratifying their degrees. “My friend graduated from the United States and his degree was not legitimized by the committee of ratifying degrees. He is now working as a high school graduate, even though he earned his bachelor’s. Therefore, I decided to study in Qatar to avoid the whole mess and the long process,” Fahad Abdulla, a 22-year-old Georgetown University in Qatar graduate, explained.

However, the Ministry of Education, and Higher Education does not want all the Qatari students to study in Qatar, according to Al-Naimi. The private universities at Education City offer great education and can be the perfect choice for Qatari students, since the environment is safe and they will be near their families, he said. But this does not stop the ministry from sponsoring students to travel and study outside the country. Some majors are not available at universities in Qatar and some students also want to study in different languages, such as French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese. According to Al-Naimi, these are important languages that future citizens of Qatar will need to be able to communicate in.

“Lets imagine if all graduates came from Qatar University or Northwestern University. We do not want that. We want diversity,” Al-Naimi said. “Diversity is helpful; it enriches the workplace and the community.”