Three US branch campuses based in Qatar have created Education City¡¯s first joint university programme in a move that signals a new ¡°collaborative¡± approach for the higher education hub.

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine ¨C Qatar have co-designed a new course that is set to launch in January and would be open to any Education City student in their junior year.

Omran Hamad Al-Kuwari, executive director of the Qatar Foundation, the principal funder of the Education City site that houses the campuses, said that the course has a working title of ¡°happy society¡± and will ¡°investigate important themes of happiness and wellness from the design, medical and technological lens¡±. It will be taught by academics at the three institutions.

In an interview with Times Higher Education, Mr Al-Kuwari cited the new joint programme, which will contribute credits to students¡¯ degrees, as just one example of the way in which Education City is improving the integration between the hub¡¯s branch campuses.

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Georgetown University in Qatar and Northwestern University in Qatar have also joined forces to allow students to study a major subject at one institution and a minor at the other.

Meanwhile, changes to class timetables and locations mean that students at any of the six undergraduate campuses can now cross-register and take courses for credit at other institutions in the hub.

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Mr Al-Kuwari said that the collaborative approach would create a ¡°very unique, innovative environment¡± for students.

¡°You¡¯re coming, you¡¯re attending one university, but you have access to six, which is rare,¡± he said.

¡°At some universities, even cross-registering between colleges is difficult. We think this is a very nice added value.¡±

He hopes that the joint major-minor degrees will provide ¡°a good model¡± that can be ¡°scaled up even further¡±, he added.

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Visits to the outposts¡¯ main campuses have also inspired the Qatar Foundation to explore new ways of enhancing the student experience, he said.

For example, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts¡¯ Richmond campus in the US has a Center for the Creative Economy, which brings students together with the private sector.

¡°We¡¯re looking at that model to see if we can localise it for our students,¡± said Mr Al-Kuwari.

Although each campus works individually to attract students and faculty, Mr Al-Kuwari added that the foundation was looking to introduce its own marketing strategy to publicise Education City as a ¡°whole value proposition¡±.

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But he suggested that there were no plans to expand the number of campuses.

¡°Each programme that has come has come for a reason,¡± he said. ¡°For now, we¡¯re very happy with the partners we have.¡±

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ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com