Monday, January 30, 2012

Arabic and English language instruction at QU

The Faculty of Law requires students complete 42 credits in English language law courses,  comprised of  27 compulsory credits in English and additional English electives totaling another 15 credits.  The list of English and Arabic courses is here. Legal research, writing and legal English classes are required in the College of Law to build on the English language skills gained in the first year Foundation Program.  As Dr. Talal Abdulla Al-Emadi said, offering a mixture of  English and Arabic in law courses provides the Qatari community with bilingual law graduates to meet the needs of the legal market . Law students are in high demand and almost all are hired immediately upon graduation in the energy sector , banks, real estate, and investment. Many international law firms hire QU law graduates with strong English skills.
The Qatari Supreme Education Council issued a decision this week  requiring Arabic to be the medium of instruction at Qatar University. The short decree  states that students are to be directly accepted in departments without the need to study the Foundation Program and Arabic will be the medium of instruction at the Faculty of Law, International affairs, Communication, and Business Administration in Fall 2012. Here is the SEC decree.
The Peninsula newspaper has the best article so far discussing the reaction of faculty, students, and the public to the announcement. My own hope is that courses at the College of Law will be altered to meet the expectations of the decree, especially the elimination of the Foundation Program, but instruction will remain bilingual. Library resources and legal research instruction will continue to support both languages.
From the front page of the Peninsula 29-Jan-12

1 comment:

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