History
Having been approached in 2006 by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, Northwestern agreed the following year to open its campus atAcademic programs
The curriculum leading to the award of the Bachelor of Science in Communication degree is based on that of the Northwestern University School of Communication at Northwestern's Evanston campus. Communication students at NU-Q pursue a major in Media Industries and Technologies, which combines elements of the Communication Studies and Radio/TV/Film majors offered at the Northwestern University home campus in the United States. The curriculum leading to the award of the Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree draws on that of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern's Evanston campus. This program is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Liberal arts courses are provided by Northwestern'sPre-College Programs
NU-Q offers an annuaFunding
Similar to other universities with campuses in Education City, Northwestern's facilities are entirely paid for by Qatar. In 2014, Northwestern received $45.3 million to run the Doha campus. Also like other Doha campuses of U.S. universities, Qatari students at Northwestern have their tuition covered by Qatar. Students of other nationalities either pay for their own tuition or can sometimes receive scholarship money. , tuition for the school is about $52,000 per year.Facilities
NU-Q's permanent home in Education City was designed by American architectResearch
In 2013, NU-Q launched the school's signature research project, an annual survey of media use in the MENA region. ''Media Use in the Middle East'' in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, as well the report, ''Media Industries in the Middle East'', 2016, revealed regional attitudes about government censorship, press freedom, the morality of content, entertainment preferences, and overall consumption habits, as well as provided an overview of the most prevalent business models across the MENA media landscape. NU-Q's research has been cited by academic institutions and think tanks (e.g., USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, Brookings Institution) as well as news media outlets (e.g., ''Christian Science Monitor'', ''CNN'', ''The Atlantic'', ''Al Jazeera'', ''Al-Arabiya'') around the world.Students and Student Life
Approximately half the student body is Qatari; however, regardless of passport, many students come from Qatar, representing 32 nationalities across the student body. There are about 300 students enrolled in the school. NU-Q has worked to integrate western values into its Qatar campus. For example, there are many female students that attend NU-Q. There have been some concerns that this integration, which is not as common in Qatar, may be somewhat difficult to implement, as Qatar adheres toStudents in the Field
Students have tackled subjects that are considered controversial in Qatar and throughout the Middle East. One NU-Q graduate was nominated for a student academy award for his film ''100 Steps'', which tells the story of a young boy in Pakistan who finds that his local religious school has served as a front for a radical extremists’ recruitment camp. ''Convict of 302'', a documentary by two NU-Q students about Pakistan's death penalty and anti-terrorism laws, screened at a consortium sponsored by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, DC. Students have also written stories about working conditions at local development sites in Qatar, domestic abuse, and women's issues. Another NU-Q graduate, Ismaeel Naar, was named Outstanding Young Arab Journalist of the year in 2016. Residency Journalism juniors spend ten weeks working in a professional organization somewhere around the world. Assignments have included the ''Financial Times'', ''National Geographic'', ''Huffington Post'', Grayling Public Relations, Qatar Foundation International, and ''Vogue''. The goal of the Journalism Residency is for students to get the kinds of hands-on experience that help them develop new skills, test old skills, work under deadline pressure, hone their news judgment, sharpen their fact-checking and research skills, build confidence in their capabilities, and explore new career paths not previously considered. This is a required component of the B.S. in Journalism degree program. Academic Trips This program is open to NU-Q students and assists them with learning about how organizations work in other countries. Previous trips have included Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Service Learning and Leadership NU-Q students can participate in annual Spring Break Service Learning Trips to global destinations. The goal of the trips are to connect students to the needs of the larger worldwide community, provide insight and understanding of the historical and socio-political context of the visited country, and build a strong sense of global citizenship and commitment. Students complete assigned projects and reflections as part of the experience. Trip destinations have included Brazil, China, India, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, and more. Evanston Exchange Students who are pursuing the BS degree in Communication can participate in the Evanston Communication Exchange Program during the spring semester of their junior year, where they study at Northwestern's home campus, located near Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, USA.Leadership
The leadership of NU-Q is appointed by the Northwestern University Provost, in consultation with the Qatar Foundation. The current dean isFaculty
There are 38 faculty members at NU-Q. Many of the faculty and instructors at NU-Q are not tenured which puts some limits on academic freedom for the professors. This leaves these professors answerable to the NU-Q Dean, a situation that is not dissimilar to faculty members at Northwestern's Evanston Campus. In Qatar, however, a report by Stephen Eiesenman, former President of Northwestern Faculty Senate, pointed out that the Dean has much more authority than in the United States. Additionally, if a faculty member is no longer employed by NU-Q, they must leave the country, forcing them to uproot their lives there, a situation which no doubt puts pressure on the faculty member to work within the confines of a more limited set of academic and intellectual freedoms. Additionally, faculty members at NU-Q are not eligible for tenure unless they are visiting from the Evanston or Chicago campuses. Many professors at Doha campuses of U.S. universities are incentivized to trade in their teaching positions in the U.S. for ones in Qatar with a salary premium, housing arrangements and research funding.Community
In addition to its core mission of providing undergraduate education to its students, NU-Q seeks to serve as a regional center for issues related to communication and journalism. Often in collaboration with local, regional, or international organizations, NU-Q sponsors seminars and colloquia on topics related to the media. NU-Q also sponsors short, non-credit programs for pre-college students, which are designed to expose them to developments in media. Outside of the NU-Q and Education City communities, freedom of speech is highly limited and anyone who threatened “social values” or Qatar's “general order” through any forms of news, photos, videos or audio recordings can be sentenced to prison. A report by the former president of the Northwestern University Faculty Senate conducted during his tenure as president highlighted that these implicit community values seem to be ingrained in the students, who seemed to willingly comply with these restrictions both intentionally and unintentionally.Partnerships
NU-Q has undertaken several initiatives in media education and community outreach. In 2013, NU-Q began the biannual Qatar Media Industries Forum (QMIF), bringing together top representatives in publishing, electronic media, digital media, public relations and advertising to discuss and assess the present and future of Qatar's media landscape. In 2012, the school also established separate partnerships with theCriticisms
Northwestern University has come under fire for opening a campus in Qatar for various reasons including the country's poor human rights record, which was particularly scrutinized in the years leading up to theFreedom of Speech
Concerns have been raised over whether journalism can be taught effectively in a country with limited freedom of expression and where reports of censorship arise from time to time. Additionally, some members of Northwestern's faculty have expressed "dissatisfaction with the academic and free speech protections". In an interview with the Washington Post, former Northwestern Faculty Senate President, Stephen Eisenman, said that "teaching journalism as an enterprise in which you must first learn what not to ask, is no kind of journalism instruction at all" and continued that at NU-Q this was "likely a matter of encouraging some enquiries and making others strange, awkward, rude or unserious". In an article by The Washington Post, Susan Dun, an assistant professor of communication at NU-Q said that some professors do exercise caution with statements, written work, or speeches that may reach a wider audience than just the Education City community. Mohanalakashmi Rajakumar, who taught English at Northwestern, VCU and Georgetown in Qatar published a book called ''Love Comes Later'' that was banned by Qatar in 2015 with no clear explanation whatsoever . Students at Northwestern have said that they face challenges due to the lack of first amendment rights protecting the media. Students have been harassed and intimidated when trying to capture images that would be considered routine or not offensive in the U.S. Some faculty members maintain that this teaches students persistence and creativity in overcoming obstacles to report on a story. Everette Dennis, the dean of NU-Q led a six-nation survey in 2015 that was financed by the Qatar National Research Fund and asked questions such as if people think their country is "headed in the right direction". While the UAE, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia all had answers to the question, there was no data from Qatar asReferences
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