Surging interest in Northwestern University Tuesday, 27 July 2010 01:50

Students flock to the Northwestern University in Qatar in big numbers seeking enrollment and prompting university administration to report a significant admission rise for the new academic year.

The administration said a 25 percent rise in applications occurred in the university, raising the number of applicants from 200 to 252.

It added that a big portion of the new applicants seeks degrees in journalism and communication.

“The admission process has been very competitive,” the administration said.

Dean and Chief Executive Officer of the university, John Margolis said it was especially gratifying to see the steady increase in the number of students seeking admission to NU-Q and in the quality of student enrolment.

“More and more students and their families clearly share our sense of the importance of the fields of communication and journalism and the hunger in the region for well-educated young professionals in these fields,” Margolis said. “We look forward to greeting another strong group of students to the NU-Q community in August,” he added.

Admissions Director Mounir A Ouanaimi said the link between the objectives of the university and Qatar’s national development goals was strong. “The university brings to Qatar academic programmes in line with human development objectives and this is manifest in the interest we’re drawing,” Ouanaimi said. “We’re glad that these students will offer the manpower for the growing journalism and media industries in the country,” he added.

One such student is Yara Darwish, a fresh journalism programme student, who had multiple offers to study at other universities.

Ouanaimi said his university administration was happy at the quality of applicants this year.

He noted that NU-Q had an active outreach programme that focused on engaging with students and forging strong relationships with local counsellors.

“The University made over 180 school visits during the year and participated in multiple school fairs,” he said.

THE PENINSULA