Boston University is competing with several universities for the chance to open a communications school in the exclusive Education City in Qatar, a Persian Gulf nation with a population of less than 1 million, university officials said over the weekend.
The Qatar Foundation contract would help create a satellite campus of BU’s College of Communication in Education City, a 2,500-acre development that already hosts branch campuses for Carnegie Mellon, Texas A’M and Georgetown universities.
University officials confirmed BU had bid on the contract, but declined to describe the proposal or what other universities were involved.
“If we move forward with the Qatar Foundation, there will be ample opportunity to talk about the proposal in the context of Boston University and our strategy for global connectedness,” President Robert Brown said in an email to The Daily Free Press.
Brown said he could not comment on BU’s competition for the Qatar contract.
University spokesman Stephen Burgay said BU had made a presentation to the Foundation, but that no winner has been named.
Citing the confidential nature of the Foundation’s selection process, Burgay said he could not specify how many other universities are in the running for the contract or when the Foundation would announce its decision. The bid was first reported in the Dec. 8 Boston Globe.
Foundation officials did not respond to an email inquiry sent Friday.
College of Communication Dean ad interim Tobe Berkovitz referred questions to Burgay, while journalism department chairman Lou Ureneck referred questions to Brown, who Ureneck described as being at the “forefront” of the process.
According to the Qatar Foundation’s website, Education City will be a comprehensive educational facility, serving citizens from “early childhood education to post-graduate study.”
Additionally, the website states, Education City is “envisioned as a hub for the generation of new knowledge — a place that provides researchers with world-class facilities, a pool of well-trained graduates, the chance to collaborate with likeminded people and the opportunity to transfer ideas into real-world applications.”
According to the Globe article, the University of Missouri — the oldest U.S. journalism school — also submitted a proposal.