An American education partnership in Qatar brings surprising benefits to the Middle East

I have been a vocal critic of university administrators who seem unable or unwilling to maintain order on their campuses, and particularly those who struggle to use plain language about the difference between right and wrong. I have also questioned whether our "elite" universities really earned or deserve that status when, increasingly, they have become engines for indoctrination on only one side of the political spectrum. It remains to be seen whether their latest time in the spotlight with the vitriol of anti-Americanism and antisemitism will produce needed change.

But while acknowledging that these are real problems that demand attention, it would be very wrong to let this moment devolve into the ugliness of anti-intellectualism or a crude attack on American higher education generally and its mostly positive history. 

It is a fact that America’s global dominance in the 20th Century was powered in very significant part by our universities. From the Manhattan Project to the eight million veterans who were educated under the GI Bill, America’s universities led the way. Today, American universities are without equal in science and technology research, and the fruits of that ripple across our society and economy. For example, if you or one of your loved ones ever received lifesaving medical treatment or medicine, you can bet that it emerged from a laboratory at an American university.

Consider also the importance and influence of American higher education on our export economy. To paraphrase a recent Forbes article, America’s two greatest exports are Hollywood and higher education. International students contribute about $40 billion in annual revenue to the U.S. economy, not far behind pharmaceutical exports. More than a million international students are enrolled in our universities. And for those who believe, as I do, that sharing and spreading American values globally is important, almost nothing is more influential than the experience of a young person spending four years at a U.S. university and then returning home to their communities in Europe, Africa or Asia. But that positive influence depends on whether that university experience overall is an embrace of American values and is not contemptuous of them.

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I thought about this recently while watching some of the Congressional hearings about campus unrest, and the disturbing evidence of antisemitic messages and other hate speech. This deserves the attention it is receiving, and university administrators must be called to account for inaction or worse. But I was surprised to see some of the hearing testimony go off-topic into unfounded, conspiratorial speculation that "foreign funding" was fueling campus unrest. A frequent target was Qatar, which was accused of being the "largest foreign donor" to U.S. universities. I was curious, and after looking into it, was surprised at what I found.

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Based on data compiled by the Department of Education, which distinguishes clearly between university receipts from foreign "gifts" and "contracts," Qatar is not the largest foreign donor, and is not anywhere near the top of that list. But Qatar spends about $500 million annually in contract payments, virtually all of which are expended in Qatar to fund the operation of branch campuses of six prominent American universities – Weill Cornell Medical School, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, Georgetown, and Northwestern. These payments are not donations.

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The six campuses have operated in Qatar for more than 20 years, awarding degrees to Qatari women and men, and to others who wish to study there. The idea originated with an impressive Qatari woman, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, who was determined to expand education opportunities for women, and to elevate the standards of education in Qatar and the region. It was wildly successful. Since its first graduating class in 2018, Weill Cornell-Qatar has graduated 596 medical doctors, now practicing globally. The 2024 class included 26 women and 24 men. Texas A&M Qatar has graduated 1,656 engineers. The 2024 class included 73 women and 63 men.

FILE – Students cross a sky bridge in the temporary campus of Northwestern University in Qater on the Education City campus in  Doha, Qatar, on November 2, 2015. The school is currently housed in a building built for Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. It was designed by the internationally known architecture team of Legoretta + Legoretta. Education City contains numerous buildings designed by famous architects. (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

When these campuses were established, the universities demanded and received firm commitments to total academic freedom and governance by the main campus administrators in the United States, without interference from Qatar. The universities control admissions, curriculum and everything else related to an academic institution. There is no Qatari influence campaign at these universities or their home campuses. When asked about this at a May 2, 2024, hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, said flatly there was no evidence that Qatar played any role in recent campus unrest in the United States.

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Qataris are justifiably proud of what these universities have accomplished. Americans should be too. In fact, there is a long tradition of higher education in this region. Before the Civil War, American missionaries in the Middle East secured a charter to establish the Syrian Protestant College, which became the American University of Beirut, perhaps the most influential university in that region in the past 100 years. When the United Nations Charter was signed in 1945, 20 of the 50 delegates were AUB alumni.

FILE – Male students interact in a "majlis" -- an area designated for men (by social custom) -- at Texas A&M University at Qatar on the Education City campus in Doha, Qatar, on November 2, 2015. The building was designed by Legoretta+Legoretta -- a well regarded architectural team. Buildings across the campus were designed by famous architects. (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The irony of the false accusations about Qatar’s supposed influence at American universities is that the real foreign influence runs in the opposite direction. Certainly, generations of young Qataris are profoundly influenced by the six American universities operating in Qatar. And at the Qatari branches of these six American universities there have been no reports of anti-American or antisemitic protests. Some of the main campuses of American universities could learn from their Qatari branches. That would be a better course and a wiser one than denigrating Qatar as it seeks to strengthen its relationship with the United States.

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