Education City universities lure students

Universities from Education City are inviting the community to learn more about their academic offerings at ‘Discover Education City 2016’.
The two-day student recruitment event for higher education institutions opened yesterday. It provides participants with insight into academic offerings of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and Qatar Foundation’s partner universities and information about admissions processes and standardised testing procedures.
Discover Education City 2016 welcomes high school students, recent college graduates and working professionals until 9pm today HBKU’s Student Centre.
“Within the days we want to welcome many people as possible,” said Maryam Al Mannai, vice president of Student Affairs at HBKU speaking to The Peninsula following the official opening of ‘Discover Education City 2016.’
“The number of students at universities across Education City increases every year, now we have around 4000 students and many students have known about the universities and study programmes through events such as Discover Education City. Previously we were focusing only on undergraduate programs, the scope of Discover Education City has expanded to include graduate programs at Master’s and PhD levels,” she added.
Representatives from HBKU are also present at the event to provide visitors with information relating to testing support, financial aid, scholarship and extracurricular activities provided by HBKU.
This year HBKU will also introduce its three new programmes on cyber security, big data and computer science.
Representatives of Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU-Q), Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ), Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (GTQ), Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), HEC Paris in Qatar and UCL Qatar are present at the event to offer visitors a wide range of perspectives.
Fatima Al Kharaz, Student Recruitment and Admissions Counselor, Enrolment and registration Services, VCU-Q, said, “Discover Education City is one of the most anticipated programmes for the universities, where we meet students, parents and answer all questions and concerns about our programmes.”
She said they expect around 2,000 visitors. VCUQ at present has more than 350 students and 91 percent of them are women.
“Interior design and graphic design programmes attract students. But art history is getting more popular because of the increased activities related to museums in the country,” she added.
David Daniel, Admissions Officer, Georgetown University, said, ‘This event is an opportunity for high school students to meet all universities in Education City in one setting.
"It is a chance for them to start thinking about their futures, what they want to pursue at university and what they need to do to get there.”