Campus life goes on at A&M branch in Qatar amid diplomatic upheaval

Sherzod Madrahimov woke up late last Monday, and his wife told him the news: Saudi Arabia and other countries had severed diplomatic ties with Qatar amid accusations that the nation supported terrorism.

Madrahimov checked Facebook, read a few articles and went to work in Education City, which houses branch campuses run by top U.S. colleges, including Texas A&M University, where he works.

Qatar was in a diplomatic crisis. Air, sea and land borders between nations closed. But life on campus and out in the city felt normal for Madrahimov, an organic chemistry professor. The biggest change? A popular brand of milk from Saudi Arabia was no longer available at a local supermarket, he said.

“The school’s working. Education City, everything is going on as it has been,” he said by phone.

Texas A&M faculty, students and administrators have said that the Qatar campus — a gated complex near the capital city, Doha — is operating normally this week despite the political disarray. Countries that are cutting off diplomatic ties are accusing Qatar of supporting terror groups in the region, which Qatar denies.

Still, the crisis in Qatar raises questions about how U.S. colleges like Texas A&M will consider their branch campuses moving forward.

Thinking of the ‘risks’

International offshoots of top American universities serve as both a revenue stream for campuses and a way to broaden the mission of Western higher education. Political tumult, experts say, reminds campuses of the possible hazards, too.

“This will cause a number of folks to think carefully about what the risks are, in a very real way,” said Jason Lane, a founder of the Cross-Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany. “Those in Education City have not had to experience the risks. They’re heavily buffered. How this plays out will be interesting.”

The 2,500-acre Education City is populated by U.S. universities offering top programs, such as engineering at Texas A&M and business administration at Carnegie Mellon University.

Through the Qatar Foundation, the government has heavily subsidized these American programs to bolster and diversify its economy beyond petroleum. The American programs have also served as a diplomatic link between Qatar and the U.S., Lane said.

“It’s viewed as a crown jewel of branch campus expansion,” he said.

The Qatar Foundation said operations would continue though it was “saddened” by the regional situation.

“These events have no impact on our operations nor our future plans, and we remain committed to developing local, regional and international talent,” said Mayan Zebeib, a spokesman, in an email. “We look forward to welcoming a fresh intake of undergraduate and postgraduate students next term.”

‘Amicable’ interactions

Texas A&M has operated a full-fledged campus in Qatar since 2003, enrolling about 550 students last fall. Students receive the same degree in Doha as they would in College Station. Alumni wear the same Aggie ring.

Though the Qatar campus enrolls students from around the region, the campus can feel insulated from the tumult of Middle Eastern politics and current events, current and former students said. As at elite schools in the United States, many students focus on their campus life and extracurricular activities.

Except during the Arab Spring in 2011, when some tensions arose, “interactions between students were always amicable,” said Osama Mikawi, a graduate of Texas A&M who studied for two years in Qatar before transferring to College Station. He said there was no rift between Qatari students and those from Gulf Cooperation Council nations.

Milivoj Belic, a Texas A&M physics professor, said in an email that life continues as usual in Education City this week. Stores are stocked, restaurants are busy and planes are flying, he added.

“People go around after their jobs and everything appears quite normal, albeit slowed down, which is usual for the month of Ramadan,” he said.

Cesar Malave, the dean of the Qatar engineering program, emailed faculty and students on Monday, encouraging them to stock up on food, water and prescriptions and warning them that travel plans may be affected by border and air space closures. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Two faculty members also said that the university tested an emergency communications program this week.

“We are in touch with our students, faculty and staff in Qatar and our branch campus is operating as normal,” Texas A&M President Michael Young said in a statement.

Education City’s other campuses said summer classes would continue and that administrators would keep faculty and students informed, the Associated Press reported. Houston Community College once advised the Community College of Qatar, but that contract ended in May 2015, a spokeswoman said.

Online expansion

Texas A&M’s contract with Qatar ends in 2023, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post in 2016. The Qatar Foundation pays more than $75 million a year to operate Texas A&M’s campus, the Post reported from those documents.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said financial pressures on the Qatar Foundation have forced budget cuts in Education City, jeopardizing potential future operations. Political instability creates more uncertainty, he said.

“The Education City pitch initially was that this was a stable, secure location in the Middle East,” Ulrichsen said. “That is now being called into question.”

Colleges and universities, once rushing to expand internationally, are now more hesitant, said Karly Ford, a higher education professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Once, these operations were a sign of prestige, she said. Today, universities would be more likely to expand online, with less expensive upkeep and immunity from politics.

“We lived in a different world (then), when the rhetoric really was, ‘the U.S. is a global leader,’” she said. “If you were to sit down and say, resources are limited, what are we going to invest in to get a bang for our buck, it would be very hard to make a case for an international branch campus.” lindsay.ellis@chron.com twitter.com/lindsayaellis