Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) and the Qatari Businesswomen Association (QBWA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently at the VIP Majlis of the Texas A&M Engineering Building in Education City.
Through this agreement, the branch campus and QBWA will partner to support female students and educate girls and their families about engineering to attract more girls to study engineering, according to a statement.
QBWA will also work with current and former Tamuq female students through activities such as a speaker series, mentoring, internships, a self-development programme and other professional and social networking events.
The Qatari Businesswomen Association is keen to support female current and former engineering students and considers women’s participation in different fields to be very important. Therefore, it has been working to build strong partnerships with different organisations locally and internationally specially those that focus on women’s advancement, the statement adds.
Aisha Alfardan, vice-chairwoman of QBWA, lauded the agreement, saying she considered it a new step taken by the association to achieve its goals. She said, “We have found in Texas A&M University at Qatar an important and capable partner who can develop the new generation of women in Qatar and qualify them to play their key role in further developing the country.
“We are very happy to collaborate with Texas A&M University and are confident that this partnership will greatly benefit both sides, achieve our common goals and have a positive impact on Qatari women in particular and Qatari society in general.”
Through this MoU, the partners will deliver a set of projects and programmes that mainly focuses on the empowerment of students by offering QBWA membership to the interested students, which will give them access to various events organised by QBWA, as well as working to provide a number of internship opportunities for Texas A&M at Qatar female students through the network companies and institutions owned or run by members of the QBWA.
It also enhances the possibility of co-operation between the two parties in many other areas, including educating and empowering women through the exchange of experiences and participation in conferences and events.
Dr Mark H Weichold, dean and CEO of Texas A&M at Qatar, said, “Texas A&M at Qatar is proud that nearly 40% of our enrolled students are female and of the contributions our current and former female students are making in Qatar. We look forward to working with the Qatari Businesswomen Association to attract even more girls to engineering and support and empower women once they’ve graduated from Texas A&M and entered the workplace.”