Doha: For some students, the workload of university classes can be intimidating. For graduates of the Academic Bridge Program (ABP), a part of Qatar Foundation’s Pre-University Education, it can seem less intimidating, as many of the students are already taking college courses.
ABP also helps to improve students’ English, math, computer, and science capabilities, while also developing their time management skills.
All six of QF’s American partner universities based in Education City allow well-qualified ABP students to take cross registration courses with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), Texas A&M University at Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), and Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar.
Since 2007, over 1,000 students have taken classes at these universities during their time at the ABP, which provides high school graduates in Qatar with the academic and personal skills required to succeed in universities at QF, and around the world. This academic year, 35 ABP students took university classes in the fall, and 73 are taking university classes in the spring semester.
Dr Mark Newmark, Assistant Director for Academic Affairs, ABP, works closely with the universities to identify qualified students and to place them in appropriate university courses. Students receive full college credit upon successful completion of the courses. Generally, about 80 percent of the students taking cross-registration classes are Qataris.
The students selected for cross-registration have a strong track record in their university courses, with over 80 percent of them earning A or B grades. “Because of the range of universities in Education City, our students have a variety of options, depending on what they are interested in studying,” said Dr Bryan K. Lewallen, Director of the ABP.
At NU-Q, for example, ABP students may enrol in courses such as journalism, political science, or sociology. “The cross-registration program helps to provide more access to more students, which benefits the universities and the students,” said Hariclea Zengos, Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Liberal Arts Program at NU-Q.
Students benefit from cross-registration by being better prepared for university. First, they become more aware of the academic expectations of university courses, including the type of reading and writing that is expected.
“The chief benefit of the cross-registration program is that it gives ABP students the opportunity to experience GU-Q first hand,” said Dr James MacGregor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at GU-Q.
GU-Q offers several cross-registration options, including a critical reading and writing course. This spring, GU-Q is also exclusively offering a section of its introductory course on International Relations to ABP students.
The benefits go beyond academia. “The cross-registration students understand the ‘culture’ of the university and how to be university students,” said Dr Byrad Yyelland, Interim Director of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Program at VCUarts Qatar, which currently has eight cross-registration students from the ABP in a variety of courses, including math and writing classes.
He also said that cross-registration means students then have one less course to take when they are admitted to university.
Students who have taken cross-registration courses agree that program is very helpful. While at ABP, Maryam Al Khater, now a freshman at GU-Q studying International Affairs was enrolled in a NU-Q journalism course one semester, and a CMU-Q psychology course the other semester.
“Cross-registration helped me understand the workload in college and how to prepare for that, especially since I knew I’d be taking five to six classes at a time,” she said.
Ahmed Al Thani, a sophomore at NU-Q majoring in communication and minoring in media and politics, adds, “The journalism course gave me perspective in terms of what to expect from NU-Q classes, which helped me determine which university I wanted to go to and helped strengthen my application to NU-Q.
Also, the course gave me some background knowledge that other freshmen might not have.”
