Texas A&M University moves to close Qatar campus
The Texas A&M University System plans to close its branch campus in Qatar by 2028, ending a multidecade partnership that has allowed students to obtain both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Middle East.
The system’s Board of Regents on Thursday authorized Texas A&M President Mark Welsh to terminate the university’s contract with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a state-led nonprofit in Qatar that funds the engineering-focused campus.
The board decided to reassess the contract due to “heightened instability” in the Middle East, system officials said in a news release. Students will be able to complete their education, university officials said, and the future of the branch’s 70 faculty and 110 staff members will be discussed as the school forms a transition team.
“The Board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States,” Board Chairman Bill Mahomes said in a statement. “By the middle of the 21st century, the university will not necessarily need a campus infrastructure 8,000 miles away to support education and research collaborations.”
The decision comes one month after A&M countered reports that scrutinized the partnership. A research organization called the Institute for Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy sent a letter to senior U.S. officials in January, accusing Texas A&M of taking unreported and unregulated funding from Qatar. The group claimed that Qatar, which is considered a U.S. ally, has “substantial ownership of nuclear research and sensitive weapon development rights at the university.”
The organization had also published those allegations in a 17-page report claiming that Qatar funds Hamas and maintains ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Welsh denied the A&M-specific allegations in a January letter to the campus community, although he did not mention the report or institute by name. Research and funding processes at the Qatar branch campus abide by state and federal research and export control regulations, he said.
He also said the campus does not offer a nuclear engineering program or classes on the subject. No nuclear technology, weapons and defense or national security research is conducted there, nor does the campus have a connection to nuclear reactor research done in Texas or the Los Alamos National Lab, Welsh said.
“The insinuation that we are somehow leaking or compromising national security research data to anyone is both false and irresponsible,” Welsh said at the time.
The branch campus opened in 2003 to advance education and research in chemical, mechanical and petroleum engineering, taking advantage of the location in an oil-heavy region. A&M is one of six U.S. universities operating in Qatar at the foundation’s “Education City.” More than 1,500 engineering students have graduated since the A&M branch’s opening, and more than 730 students currently attend.
In a motion to authorize the contract termination, Regent Mike Hernandez said that further action will be taken to complete the education of current students and treat facility staff fairly.
The board passed the motion 7-1, with Regent Michael Plank voting against.
“Over the last two decades, the Qatar campus has advanced ideals, graduated exceptional Aggie engineers, and is cemented as an important legacy of Texas A&M,” said Welsh. “As we look to the future of our land-, sea- and space-grant university, the global exchange of research and education will continue to be integral to our worldclass campuses here in the U.S.”