Gerd Nonneman to make Qatar ‘top centre in region for knowledge creation’

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar’s (SFSQ) new dean Gerd Nonneman has challenged the education industry stakeholders in Qatar to commit to transformational improvement with the goal of placing the country among the region’s leading centres of knowledge creation. Sharing his vision for the future with more than 100 distinguished guests at an event that marked his first official reception in his new position, Nonneman said now that the Education City universities are past the start-up phase, they should start exploring practical ways in which to collaborate and synergise. “When the Qatar Foundation leadership encourages us to collaborate, using and creating synergies, they will find an open door at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar,” said Nonneman. “We at Georgetown SFS-Qatar want this and we are increasingly working toward delivering along these lines. It’s a case of finding the most effective way of going about it,” he added. The dean’s reception served as an opportunity for deans at Education City-based universities, dozens of ambassadors to Qatar, a number of SFSQ faculty and staff to meet the institution’s new head and also connect with each other. Nonneman stressed that SFSQ is continuously looking at engaging not just with other Education City universities, but with Qatar University, and the wider community. “We’re looking at learning in the community, undertaking joint research projects, and engaging the private sector,” he added. With the other members of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, “we are also going to be thinking about joint certificates in areas where there is an obvious synergy to be had. We are thinking for instance of science, technology and international affairs, or media and politics, or international business and politics,” noted Nonneman. “Georgetown SFS-Qatar is one of a number of foreign-based institutions who’ve been brought in as part of the vision that HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and QF have of planting a seed - educating not just a group of people directly, but stimulating the wider higher education sector. “And that’s how I see our role as well. We are not just a replication of Georgetown’s Washington DC campus; what we are and what I want us to be, is part of the bigger exercise of raising the level of quality education in Qatar and of educating groups of highly intelligent, very able students, Qatari and others,” added Nonneman. He made a point of noting how SFSQ and other Education City universities are now developing their mission, “moving into the next phase by really pushing the research mission, not only in areas that are directly applicable in Qatar and the region, but also fields where we can achieve globally visible excellence. These are challenges we’re keen to take on, together with QF,” he concluded. Before taking charge of SFSQ in October 2011, Nonneman was on the faculty at Britain’s University of Exeter since 2007, where he served as director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies before becoming director of its Centre for Gulf Studies. Prior to that, he was Professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics at the University of Lancaster. From 1998-2002, Nonneman was the Executive Director of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies; and in 2003-2004, he worked for Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs designing a curriculum for the Diplomatic College.