College of the North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q) graduated the largest class in its 14-year history, with 547 students, yesterday at a ceremony at Qatar National Convention Centre.
Students graduated from over 30 programmes. The number of graduates include 238 from Business Studies, 123 from Engineering Technology, 80 from Health Sciences and 106 from Information Technology programmes.
The ceremony was attended by HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi, HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit, prominent Qatari entrepreneur HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, and Qatar Petrochemical Company CEO and CNA-Q’s Joint Oversight Board vice-chair Dr Mohamed al-Mulla.
A total of 48% of the graduates of the Class of 2016 are Qataris. The 12th graduation ceremony was also an opportunity to celebrate the biggest news for the campus since its establishment in 2002 – that CNA-Q will be offering applied degrees in the near future.
The news was announced in Doha on Monday by Minister of Advanced Education and Skills, Gerry Byrne, representing the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where the home campus of CNA is located.
“Through strong partnerships, CNA-Q will continue to offer quality education and help raise Qatar’s knowledge base to build future leaders,” he told the ceremony.
CNA-Q’s Class of 2016 co-valedictorians, Hamad Lari, a chemical processing technology graduate, and Khadija Salim, a business management – marketing graduate, addressed the gathering at the ceremony.
“We are so pleased to see strong, capable graduates enter the Qatari workforce year after year,” said CNA president Dr Ann Marie Vaughan.
The guest speaker of the graduation ceremony, Qatar Stock Exchange CEO Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori, addressed them with a speech on his personal study experience and practical life after graduation, as well as the lessons learnt.
Al-Mansoori advised the graduates that ambition does not stop at any certain level and thoughts of advancement and improvement are always an obsession of any successful individual or institution that endeavours to stay successful.
“The sea of knowledge knows no boundaries and learning does not begin or end with your education.”
He also advised the students to focus on achieving goals and not to be afraid of failure because sometimes failure could be the first step to success.
With the addition of the Class of 2016, the total number of graduates CNA-Q has produced reaches more than 5,000. As many as 61% of the students at CNA-Q are Qatari nationals
A total of 57% of CNA-Q students are sponsored by local companies and will be hired into the workforce once they have completed their studies.