UL partners with Qatar University
By: Cory Birdsong
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Department of Mass Communication has announced it has formed a partnership with the University of Qatar to share faculty, students, and educational techniques.
Philip Auter, the professor who spearheaded the effort to link the two universities, said it is the result of a grant called the Middle East Partner Initiative, a U.S. Department of State program that seeks to form educational links between the Middle East and the United States.
“Our faculty are going to go there and teach and also learn things from them,” said Auter. “Their faculty are going come here and teach, and we’re going to have students coming here as well.”
“It’s probably is going to entail exchanges of faculty, and maybe cooperative research ventures, and maybe even some student [exchanges,]” said communication department head Michael Maher, Ph.D. “We could bring some of their students here for our undergraduate and our graduate program, and perhaps if some of our adventuresome students wanted to spend a semester or a year in Qatar, I think that would be available also.”
Two faculty members from Qatar University, Ashraf Galai Hassan, Ph.D., an associate professor, and Mahmoud M. Hammoud, chairperson of the department of mass communications and information science as well as the college of arts and sciences, visited UL Lafayette this week as an introduction to the university and its community.
“It gives some kind of insight into the things we are looking forward to [implementing ourselves],” said Hammoud.
Hassan said he and Auter were considering commencing a research project on the perceptions of Arabic peoples by Americans, as well as Arabic perceptions on Americans, to begin the program. He said the research would focus on media coverage.
Hassan said he felt Americans and Arabs have a bad perception of one another, and he felt “we have to correct the image of each other.”
He also said he was interested in how Qatar University’s broadcasting program can benefit from the arrangement, which has a relationship with the Al Jazeera network, headquartered in Qatar.
“This would be extremely important for Qatar University,” he said. He also said Qatar University is interested in seeking accreditation.
“They’re interested in getting accredited,” affirmed Maher, “and, of course, this department’s been through three accreditation reviews. [...] I think we can serve as a sounding board and maybe as a consultant to them in their quest for accreditation.”
Maher said Qatar University would be seeking accreditation from the same accreditation agency as UL Lafayette, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
“I’m delighted to have them here,” said Maher. “If there’s lack of understanding between this nation and any other part of the world, it’s certainly the Middle East.”
“I think the more we can get to understand them and their world and their worldview,” he continued, “and the more they can learn about us, the better chances we will have at living cooperatively, and I look forward to getting to know them better.”
Last update: 2007-05-09