Professor Mohamad Abdalla, Director of Centre for Islamic Thought and Education at University of South Australia; Axel Wabenhorst, Australian Ambassador to Qatar, and other officials, during a roundtable discussion with Professor Mohamad Abdalla, Director
Higher number of students from Qatar are likely to go to Australia to get quality education under students exchange programs.
A proposal of student exchange programme between Qatar and Australia, simplification of admission procedures for Qatari students in Australia and ways for enhancing cooperation between two countries in the field of education were discussed in a round-table discussion hosted by Embassy of Australia to Qatar yesterday.
The event ‘Round-table Discussion with Professor Mohamad Abdalla’ was attended by a visiting Australian delegation sponsored by Council of Australia Arab Relation run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ambassador of Australia to Qatar, Dr Axel Wabenhorst and a number of representatives from local education sector.
The representatives included from 15 different institutions, organisations cross sectional representation from higher education universities, school sector, cultural sector, interfaith dialogue like Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar University, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation, Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmud Cultural And Islamic Center, Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) and Holy Quran Radio.
Members of the visiting Australian delegation Professor Mohamad Abdallah, Director of the Center for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE) run by University of South Australia and Associated Professor Graham Hardy, Dean and Head of School of Education, Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, University of South Australia responded the questions and concernes raised by the participants.
“There is huge potential of collaborations between two countries in education and other sectors,” Professor Mohamad Abdallah told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event. He said that the issue was discussed with Australian Ambassador about exchange program for Qatari students to go to Australia and vice-versa.
Ideas were given in the meeting for example students exchange, Abdallah said: “How to attract more Qatari students to study in Australia like those going to America and England.”
He said that a common concern was that Australia is very far country and it not much known among Qatari population specially in term of education, schooling and university.
“The purpose of the visit was also to explore initiatives of collaborations academically and otherwise so we can enhance the understanding between two countries,” said Abdallah.
Replying about the Islamic schools in Australia, a member said that there are 62 Islamic schools in Australia. Joint relationship between Qatar and Australia is quite high, said a member adding that already they had signed an MoU with Qatar University last July as a result of the of the visit they made last year.
