Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs to QNA: 1,500 Seats in New Government Scholarship Plan

Doha: The Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that the expected number of scholarship seats within the new government plan for the academic years (2024-2025) is 1,500 seats, compared to last year's 700 seats. The ministry attributed this to the increase in the number of education tracks from 3 to 8, with the aim of meeting all the needs of the Qatari labor market in the government and the private sectors. In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency , Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Hareb Mohammed Al Jabri reviewed the government scholarship plan, its general guidelines and most important features for the academic year (2024-2025), and its goals of economic growth, equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion as well as talent development. He affirmed that the government scholarship is an opportunity for all Qatari students to obtain a government scholarship, provided that the necessary and required condi tions are met. He explained that the ministry's specialized team studied the scholarship situation and the labor market for all sectors of the country, indicating that, for the first time, scholarships were concerned with the private sector, after previously focusing only on the needs of the government sector. Government scholarships were previously based on selecting universities in terms of general classification, while they are now moving towards private classification according to tracks, specializations and fields, to ensure the quality of the scholarship program outcomes after the completion of this journey at the university level, Dr. Al Jabri said. He noted that scholarship tracks were also previously limited to engineering, medicine, and education, while they now include tracks of engineering, science and technology, in addition to allied medicine, education and pedagogical sciences, and social sciences and humanities, which means that students of the literary track in high school will now have op portunities for scholarships. The creative economy track and the vocational track, as well as the sports track, are also included for the first time, he said, pointing out that these fields shall feed the labor market and its needs in the government and private sectors. Dr. Al Jabri noted that he had multiple tracks himself, in the field of creative economics, social and human sciences, and in the professional and sports tracks, pointing out that the ministry has paid great attention to facilitating the application process for obtaining a government scholarship or for postgraduate studies, in terms of reducing the required procedures and documents compared to previous years, in addition to setting new criteria for selection and approval of scholarship applications for postgraduate studies to obtain master's or doctoral degrees. In regard to the opportunities provided by the government scholarship policy for Qatari students, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry of Edu cation and Higher Education revealed that between 60-100 percent have opportunities for government scholarships. This has never occurred before, he said, explaining that the selection criteria used to focus on academic achievement, allowing only the distinguished students to obtain the scholarship opportunity. He indicated that students in the literary, scientific and technological tracks, whose percentages ranged between 60 percent and 100 percent, now have opportunities for scholarship. In this context, Dr. Al Jabri explained that professional diploma students can be given 60 percent internal scholarships, 70 percent internally for Tomouh Program or joining the Academic Bridge Program, 80 percent for internal scholarships for engineering, medicine, and assistant medicine majors, 75 percent for sciences, arts, and nursing majors, and 80 percent and above for external scholarship majors in seven different tracks. Source: Qatar News Agency