John Margolis, Dean of NU-Q, speaking at a function to welcome the class of 2013.

Doha: Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) welcomed members of its Class of 2013 at the “Dean’s Convocation” on Sunday, August 16. Following a week-long “Wildcat Welcome” orientation program, these students will join returning students for the beginning of classes on August 23.

NU-Q offers undergraduate degrees in communication and journalism and began operations in summer 2008. As students and faculty are added year by year, the campus will offer full undergraduate programs by 2011-12.

The Class of 2013 includes 36 students – 19 in the communication program and 17 in journalism. Fifteen members of the Class are Qatari citizens; the balance represents 15 other nationalities.

John Margolis, Dean of NU-Q, said that he was pleased by the results of the campus’s recruitment efforts during its first year. “Applications for the Class of 2013 were 72% greater than for our inaugural class,” he said. “It is clear that we are gaining visibility in the region for our outstanding programs. Thus, we were able to increase our selectivity, offering admission to fewer than a third of the applicants. The students who are joining us this year are a remarkable group of young people, and we are delighted that they have elected to join our community.”

Additional faculty have joined NU-Q to teach the increased number of students and offer courses at both the freshman and sophomore levels. Margolis said that the communication and journalism programs have welcomed six new faculty members, four of whom have come directly from the Evanston campus. In addition, new faculty members teaching liberal arts courses have been hired in a joint arrangement with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), into whose building Northwestern will shortly be moving. According to Margolis, all faculty teaching courses at NU-Q are vetted by and hold faculty appointments in the School of Communication , the Medill School of Journalism, or the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

“With the arrival of the Class of 2013, we are effectively doubling the size of our student body and our curricular offerings,” Margolis said. “The successes we have enjoyed during our inaugural year and our ability to meet the demands of this rapid growth are tributes to the dedication and hard work of the NU-Q faculty and staff.”

Northwestern University in Qatar ’s journalism program, overseen by the Medill School of Journalism, prepares students for careers in print, broadcast and online news media. Northwestern’s School of Communication offers a major in Media Industries and Technologies, preparing students for management and creative roles in communication and media industries, and for responsible civic participation in the proliferating world of global media. Both of these programs are modeled on the curricula offered on the Evanston campus.

Northwestern University in Qatar is a partnership with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development. In the rapidly developing community in Doha called “Education City, “ In addition to Carnegie Mellon, American institutions offering degree programs in Education City are Cornell University, Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.