The new academic year was inaugurated with the Annual Convocation address by Qatar University (QU) President Dr Hassan Al Derham, where he highlighted the university’s visions in the coming period and recounted the most important achievements in the past year. The convocation also honoured distinguished faculty members, employees and graduates.
During his speech, Dr Al Derham expressed his sincere appreciation of Qatar University community whose efforts has brought success to the university in various fields locally, regionally and internationally.
During the 41 years since its inception, the university interacted with its community and contributed to the development of Qatar with its academic and research expertise. The university will keep developing based on the needs of the community, expanding its faculty, academic programmes to support the road to achieving Qatar National Vision 2030.’
Qatar University is the largest in Qatar with more than 20,000 students and 40,000 alumni. It houses the largest campus in the country. Dr Al Derham noted that this is why QU must meet the aspirations of the diverse community in Qatar.
Qatar University’s new strategic plan, which covers the period from 2018 to 2022, has been launched to complement the school’s achievements and development and to begin the process of its ‘transformation’. He said that the mission, the new vision and the core values of QU are inspirations that shape the direction of the new strategy, building on a comprehensive and rigorous strategic analyses to provide the best level of education to students, encouraging them to rely on their talents and inspire them to realise their potential.
QU has been ranked 332 in the QS world university rankings 2019, a 17 position jump from its 2018 performance. The University also improved in the ‘QS Top 50 Under 50‘ ranking by one position on its 2018 performance and by 13 positions on its 2016-2017 performance. The university has made a huge improvement in the Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings by advancing its position from 75 in 2017 to 35 in the 2018 rankings.
In the academic year 2017-2018, the university has received 80 research projects funded by Qatar National Research Fund. They have research partnerships with 332 local and international institutions and has also succeeded in increasing the number of research papers by 422% between 2010-2017. The university researchers were able to publish more than 1400 research papers and registered six patents in 2017.
Following his address, Dr Al Derham distributed the following awards to outstanding members of their faculty and staff:
- Outstanding Teaching Award: Dr Husam Aldamen and Dr Lukman Thalib
- Distinguished Service Contributions for Faculty Members: Dr Nabil Ghantous and Dr Abdelsalam Gomaa Abdelsalam
- Merit Award: Dr Sumaya Al Maadeed
- Media Award: Dr Nayef Al Shamari and Dr Majed Al Ansari
- Employee of the Year Award: Maha Al Thani and Maha Al Dafa
- Young Alumnus Award: Jassim Al Namaa and Subah Al Kuwari
For updates and more information about Qatar University, visit their website at qu.edu.qa.
