The Supreme Council of Education's (SEC) surprise decision to switch the language of instruction for some key disciplines from English to Arabic at Qatar University (QU) last year caused waves of discontent and bemusement around the campus. With what is perceived as a well-established and respected institution through-out the region, could the SEC be about to bring it back 15 years with a decree which betrays little sense of research, or is it a necessary move at a strategic time to stabilise the country's cultural identity?
Effective last autumn, the disciplines of law, international affairs, media and business administration must be taught in Arabic going forward. The directive effectively scraps any English-language pre-requisites for freshmen in these disciplines and there is no decisive comment coming from the SEC that the transition will end here.
Qatar Today spoke to a group of QU students to get a sense of how they feel about this directive by the SEC and what it might mean for their prospects post-graduation. We also caught up with Prof. Sheikha Abdulla Al-Misnad, President of QU to resolve some of the key talking points surrounding it.
QU's global accreditation was largely achieved - amongst other tremendous achievements - because of their decision to switch their language of instruction for all disciplines to English a decade ago. It was seen as a bold but necessary move to bring the country's workforce to the level stipulated in the National Vision 2030.
Shaima*, a senior International Affairs student, argues that there hasn't been enough thought or research put into the decision. She was a student at the university since 2007 and the first she heard about the directive was in a newspaper article last spring.
"I'm not for or against this directive," she says. "I'm highlighting the fact that the proper tools and resources for the students should be in place - and a sufficient amount of research achieved - before decisions like this can be made. They seem to have made this one in a hurry. There are a number of reasons we think this."
Education structure
In the past, all levels of education - primary, secondary and third-level - were instructed through Arabic, but as changes began to be made to address flagging standards in education, QU first and then the secondary schools changed their language of instruction to English.
"I think you have to look at the structure of the educational system here," Shaima continued. "I studied through Arabic for 12 years before I entered state university where I was taught in English. However, I was lucky, I was good at English but the majority of students were obviously having difficulty, till they changed the medium of education in independent schools to English. This raised the standard of the students entering the university but the students coming from Arabic schools were still struggling. Now they are changing the university system back to Arabic! They are flipping the resolution - the next generation is going to suffer now. They really haven't studied this properly."
Rabea*, a Business Studies under-graduate, wonders why so much investment by parents and the country should go to waste.
"The majority of us knew we were going to be studying in English since 2001," he said "Parents have spent thousands of riyals - the country has spent millions investing in English - and now they are going to switch it back to Arabic. My own professor is saying that his subject has no books and no references in Arabic whatsoever, so how can we study the material if we don't have primary texts?"
Lack of proper resources
A big issue, as both Shaima and Rabea pointed out, is the lack of resources in Arabic. The students claim they will be unable to write to the same standard in Arabic as they are capable of in English, due to the fact that they can't get the quality required in Arabic. Shaima claims that they are told to translate their primary research from English into Arabic.
"There's no safe assigned programme in Arabic. Everything can be "copied and pasted" from the Internet in effect - after it's translated from English. None of our papers can possibly be 100% plagiarised free. I was also reading some arguments in favour of this directive: the Japanese and Chinese were doing fine without any English resources. That's because they have their own resources in their own languages after years and years of input. We don't have that in Arabic. It's a simple basic equation.
"They should first invest in translation. As a college student, I would not know what to do to write an article in Arabic to an international accredited standard. There are not enough translated updated Arabic books on subjects such as International Affairs, Business and social sciences."
What about Non-Arabic students?
Another major issue are the sizeable number of non-arabic students in the university. If a number - or the majority of disciplines - are going to be instructed through Arabic, what will become of the students coming from Asia, Europe and further afield.
"Half my family are Qatari," added Mariam*, a Computer Science under-graduate. "And when the news came through, everyone was so happy because we could all get into college without having a proficiency in English. I argued for the non-arabic speakers and wondered what would happen to them, but they countered that Education City was there for these students."
However Education City is not so cheap, so not everyone can necessarily afford it. They might teach their disciplines through English and have the finest resources and staff in the world, but it has a limitation even the most resourceful and innovative student might not be able to overcome.
"My idea is to have two sections and run them in parallel, English and Arabic," Mariam continued. "You can't force somebody to do a course in a language they are not confident with. Maybe this would be a solution?"
Sense of realism required
The students are pragmatic in that they are staunchly proud of QU and of the Arabic language in general but their sense of realism transcends this. They know they will get a better education through English, and they know they will be better prepared for further education or employment should they study through English.
"Qatar deserves a state university that teaches through Arabic - this is fair, but they should not destroy something which is really good and something which so many people have worked so hard to achieve," said Shaima. "Qatar University paid millions for the best online database. I don't know how much we have spent on our new library, which is the best in the Middle East. Are all these books going to waste? It's like as if they're just giving up.
"As an International Affairs student in the twenty-first century wanting to be seen in a global context, how are we going to be able to perform and enter this arena without the basic language skills? Some majors I can understand, but International Affairs? Qatar University are trying to teach us that we should share our ideas, not keep them bottled up, so how can we share them if we cannot articulate them in the world's language. I'm not pro-western or pro-English; I'm just saying there's a balance to everything. We have to accept that the global context is English and not Arabic."
QU: Accreditation not affected
The students were quick to point out that the university would lose the global accreditation it worked so hard to achieve - and thus leave their qualifications in limbo - but the President of QU, Prof. Sheikha Abdulla Al-Misnad, said this is not the case. They were keen to bring some clarity to matters regarding the directive.
"Language of instruction does not directly impact a university's accreditation," she said. "Accreditation is based on a set of standards that the accrediting agency expects the institution to meet regardless of the language of instruction. Qatar University has been successful in meeting these standards and in achieving accreditation and membership in some of the World's most competitive and most prominent accreditation commissions such as ABET for engineering and AACSB for business and economics and many others. As long as we sustain and continue to improve our quality standards, I am confident of our ability to remain on a par with the best universities as evidenced by our accreditation achievements."
So the ball will be firmly in QU's court to maintain the rich standards they were able to achieve through English. The students pointed out they felt their current lecturers and professors were of an exceptional standard and raised performance levels in every discipline. Whether or not QU will be able to find the same level of expertise in the Arab world remains to be seen.
With English being the established global language for business, engineering and science, how will this switch affect a student's ability to seek further education or indeed gain suitable employment in their area of expertise in the future?
"It should not affect it," Prof Sheikha Al-Misnad replied. "Although the language of instruction in the disciplines of law, international affairs, media and business administration will become Arabic, English language continues to be an important skill that we are committed to equipping our students with.
References in English will still be used and language courses through the core curriculum will be offered to all students regardless of their majors to strengthen their communication skills in a way that preserves their competitiveness in a globalised labour market. We will make sure that our students have the advantage of strong Arabic language skills in addition to English language proficiency."
© Qatar Today 2012
