Becoming a Knowledge Society: State of Qatar Rationales for the Importation of a North American Branch Campus Model of Higher Education in Qatar.

摘要

Qatar is an Arab Islamic country, formerly poor and with a history of formal education that only dates back to the 1950s. Over the past two decades its economy has emerged as one of the fastest growing in the world and it has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. This study looked the State of Qatar's rationales for choosing a North American transnational branch campus model of higher education for Qatar, as well as the challenges associated with the operations and governance of the model. Seven North American branch campuses were included in the study. Six of these were American university branch campuses within Education City in Qatar and one was a Canadian technical college branch campus located outside Education City in Qatar.;The study employed constructivist grounded theory as the methodology for investigating the rationales for the establishment of the model as well as the challenges associated with the operations and governance of the model. Open-ended interviews as well as extant texts were used to generate data for the study. Six rationales for the branch campus model emerged from the data. These rationales fall within a typology of rationales that are academic, socio-cultural, economic, and political. Challenges that emerged from the participant data were English language proficiency of students, socio-cultural issues, and issues related to the operations and governance of the model itself. Factors deemed necessary for success of the model are also briefly discussed. A theory was generated in this study through systematic collection and an analysis of data regarding the nature of Qatar's rationales for importing a North American branch campus model of higher education for its people.