The Honors Program at Qatar University (QUHP) was approved in 2008 and was officially launched in the fall of 2009. It began with four students and its popularity increased as a result of its excellent learning opportunities within the students’ specialized study plan. The plan went through several revisions and was altered until the new plan was launched in the spring of 2021.
The numbers of students enrolled in (QUHP) are 550 from all the colleges in the university and the program accepts nearly 100 hand picket students every semester.
While discussing about the new plan introduced at QUHP, Prof. Abdrabo Soliman, Director of QUHP said, “The new plan has been designed in a flexible manner that considers the different interests of students, their specializations, and global trends in education. The modules address Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, and Leadership in an era of enhanced scientific research skills.”
According to the new plan, regardless of the student’s major, students will be equipped with advanced modern skills preparing them for the job market. The Honors program was modified to magnify the skills the students potentially need to acquire to become successful in the future job market in contrast to increasing their workload or making their current study plans more difficult than they already are.
“We did so by developing a study plan based mainly on two credit hour courses and eight modules, each module being a five weeks’ course focused on a particular feature they may need in the future such as leadership, entrepreneurship and so on. Not only is learning based in the classroom but we constantly provide the Honors students with opportunities and propriety to attend workshops to strengthen their skills,” he added.
Recently Mrs. Solange from Microsoft Qatar taught the Honors students how to use Microsoft Sway as it will be a required skill in the honors program. The idea behind using Microsoft sway is to teach the students how to form an E-portfolio that shall collect the work they shall be conducting over the 6 semester period.
The Honors program has revealed significant success as it has provided the students with numerous opportunities that are preparing them to excel in the job markets and to achieve their personal goals.
Prof. Abdrabo said that, “The program has provided students with workshops and trainings on applications such as Microsoft Sway, Nvivo, Spss, Endnote and many more. In addition to providing them with the chance to conduct interviews and be the in the position of the interviewer and create their own CV’s and that’s not the half of it this only being the tip of the iceberg.”
While telling about the upcoming events, workshops and conferences, He said, “We are currently organizing activities with various organizations such as Qatar Career Development Center- QCDC, Microsoft and many more other to benefit our students and to provide them the best experience possible alongside beneficial learning opportunities.
The Honors Program provides the students with numerous perspectives from multiple entrepreneurs, with the organization of the Innovation café, on how to become socially innovative and how to seize opportunities. The Honors program study methodology isn't like any other course in the university but rather is more open-ended, enabling students to provide their opinions.
“Consequently, this increases the student’s confidence when expressing themselves and their views, in addition to widening their horizons and discovering their selves further, and testing their limits,” said Prof. Abdrabo.
While sharing his personal intake on being the Director, He said that, “Being the Director of this program is a great pleasure as it allows me to help the students reach their full potential by providing them with different experiences and opportunities. Therefore, we search for everyone who can support and adopt our energies of our students and communicate with us to put forward any new ideas that will enhance the program’s outcomes and goals.”
Source: Qatar University