Tribune News Network
Doha
In an effort to strengthen relations with the most prestigious American universities, Qatar Debate, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, sent a delegation to the United States of America to expand the international sphere of debate and with deliberate steps to complement its plans and projects with a number of prestigious universities.
The delegation toured universities in the United States of America, starting with a mini-Arabic debate tournament hosted by Harvard University.
This trip comes within the framework of the outreach programme, which is one of the important pillars in Qatar Debate’s mission, and the visit included distinguished meetings at prestigious universities in the United States of America including The University of Louisville in Kentucky and Indiana University headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana.
The University of Louisville in Kentucky, has 12 colleges in science, engineering, liberal arts, human development and law and is a long-standing American university founded in 1798, with more than 21,000 students studying for their bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. Indiana University headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, is one of the most notable universities in America and has 9 branches.
Abdulrahman Al-Subaie, Director of Programmes at Qatar Debate and representative of QD, said: “QD’s activities are exceptional in terms of supporting debate resources, courses, and partnerships it builds with universities that has an American and a global presence.
These universities are home to many youths who are ambitious to learn the art of debate in Arabic, and QD is a beacon of knowledge that attracts debaters through the various events and activities it plans and runs and through partnerships with scientific and cultural institutions.
Al-Subaie added: “This visit came with a new qualitative leap through proposing educational programmes and courses in the American universities as well as a continuation of previous efforts initiated by QD, the centre already offers academic courses in other universities that can also be offered to the universities of Louisville and Indiana, including exchanging views on previous championships and discussing debates and future programmes.
On the outcomes of the visit, Al-Subaie said: “A number ofprojectswere agreed upon by the Qatar Debate with universities, including a course that focuses on debate skills, critical thinking, analysing global issues and coexistence promoted by dialogue through supporting programmes in the two universities in multiple languages, including Arabic, through which cultural events will be held to exchange feedback on the courses, exchanging expertise and training information and communicating with their counterparts in different countries of the world. There are ongoing programmes in coordination between the two universities and Qatar Debate.
It is worth mentioning that the Qatar Debate team gifted the universities the official shirt of the Qatar team participating in the Qatar World Cup 2022, which is being held for the first time in the Arab world and will kick off, on November 20.
