Qatar (Foundation)

Visit of the Foundation (november 2009)

The Foundation was set up  in 1995, and eight years later it opened Education City – an impressive campus comprising six different universities with 2,500 students of 85 nationalities.  Only 40 percent are Qataris.   Lectures are given in a wide array of subjects, from medicine and international relations to business, design and the graphic arts.  Unlike in much of the Arab world, the universities are broadly open to women.  With the adjoining Sidra medical research centre and a large science and technology park, the campus sees itself as a gateway between Qatar and the outside world.  Several prestigious American universities have set up branches here, including the Weill Cornell Medical College, Georgetown University and Carnegie Mellon University.   In a bid to extend this spirit of cooperation to France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy passed to Sheikha Mozah a list of French institutions and academies that are also interested in joining the Qatari project.  They include well-known establishments such as the HEC business school, the Louis-le-Grand lycée, the Pasteur institute, the Necker hospital, the Insititute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive System (IRCAD), the Cité de la musique music centre and the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie science museum. For her part Sheikha Mozah made clear that she is interested in working with a wider range of partners, including foundations such as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s.  Both passionately interested in the causes they have made their own,  the two women struck an instant rapport and have made plans for future meetings.