VCUQatar celebrates record enrollment with 91 students

Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQatar) recently set a record with the number of student enrollments for Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs.

Dean Akel Kahera welcomed the 91 new students to the VCUQatar campus. VCUQatar is home to students from numerous nations with 61 percent of the student body being Qatar citizens and the remaining 39 percent coming from 41 different countries.

The 91 incoming students increase the student count by 12 percent with a total of 363 students, including 86 undergraduates -- foundation, fashion, graphic and interior design, painting and printmaking, and art history -- as well as five graduate students. VCUQatar also hosts 32 Education City cross-registered students and three exchange students from the base campus in Richmond, Virginia.

“VCUQatar's Bachelor in Art History program, which started with a handful of students five years ago, is confidently moving towards full capacity, with applications to the program up approximately 19 percent as compared to last year,” Greet Provoost, assistant dean for enrollment and registration services, said. “Furthermore, approximately 40 percent of applicants to VCUQatar's Bachelor of Fine Arts programs completed an Art Portfolio Course offered through VCUQatar's Community Education Program, which helped them to better understand the significance and value of creating an outstanding art portfolio and thus submit a stronger application for admission.”

VCUQatar alumni represent some of the top businesses and organizations in Qatar’s cultural and creative sectors, in addition to making a footprint in the international challenges threatening the advancement of Qatar’s future. The university is entering its 19th year and continues to uphold the same values of human, social and economic development throughout the region as it did in its birth.

“In my role as dean, my primary duties are to build a community of scholars, to set direction and to achieve a common purpose as defined in our mission and vision,” Kahera said. “In so doing, I remain committed to the proposition that VCUQatar is creative, critical, dynamic, curious and original.”

The first students graduated from what was originally known as Shaqab College of Design Arts in 2002. Later deemed VCUQatar, the university was the first branch campus originated at Qatar Foundation in 1998.