Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

If you are a young man or woman, thinking about college, there is surely much on your mind. I don’t know what has brought you to our website. It may never even have occurred to you that you might study in Doha, Qatar. So why should you think about this option, now?

Here is the best reason I know: Everyone – students, faculty and staff – who joins the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) is taking part in a path-breaking adventure in the history of higher education. For the first time, Georgetown and other leading universities have established branch campuses far from home that are offering the identical degree programs as those offered on the main campus. This is a major change for all of the world’s leading universities, which in the past have insisted that to earn a degree, students must be resident on the home campus. Now, something new is happening in Doha. And students who are part of this adventure have already declared it a success.

The School of Foreign Service in Qatar is a branch of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service on the Georgetown University main campus in Washington, D.C., and offers the same undergraduate degree program as that in Washington, leading to the same diploma as awarded to students on the main campus. Students in Doha follow the same curriculum and study with many of the same teachers as their classmates in Washington. In May 2009, our first graduating class will cross the stage and pick up the same diploma in Doha as in Washington.

I say this is an adventure, because all of us are challenged to be Georgetown, and at the same time to be Georgetown in a new environment. There are, to be sure, some differences: SFS-Qatar is not located in Washington, DC, and does not offer the wide range of course and other experiences that are available to students on the main campus. On the other hand, students in Qatar study in very small classes, with close supervision by Georgetown faculty, and surrounded by a cosmopolitan student body that includes students from 26 different countries – and the number is growing. Most of us who have been involved in this adventure consider it the opportunity of a lifetime. We are not only learning together, but we are creating a new model for higher education in the 21st century.

If Doha is right for you – that is, you are looking for a world-class education in the intimacy of small classes and located in one of the world’s most dynamic regions – then join us. We are looking for outstanding young men and women who want to study and be part of the world. Those of us who teach and work with Georgetown students in Qatar look forward to having you share this adventure with us.

James Reardon-Anderson
Dean
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar

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