COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Editor's Note: The attached video aired in August 2023.
Following a 7-1 vote from the Texas A&M Board of Regents on Thursday, a multi-year process will be started to shut down the university's branch campus in Qatar.
According to the university, a team will be assembled to help the students, faculty and staff that are at the campus to allow degrees to be finished and research obligations to be fulfilled. During the vote, only Regent Michael Plant dissented.
“The Board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States,” said Board Chairman Bill Mahomes in a news release. “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.”
In 2003, the campus was established as a hub for research and advancement in different engineering fields, specifically chemical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering. The Qatar campus is also one of six U.S. universities in Doha, with Virginia Commonwealth University, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, and Northwestern also having campuses in the area.
“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 General (Ret.) Mark A. Welsh III, president of Texas A&M University. “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 world-class campuses here in the U.S.”
“The work in Qatar is great work,” Mahomes said. “But it is a fraction of what Texas A&M accomplishes year after year.”
The university also noted that one of the factors behind the decision was the growing tensions between nations, particularly in the Middle East, which has seen significant escalation over the past four months, particularly in the Gaza Strip and most recently between the U.S. and Iranian proxy groups.
The U.S. considers Qatar an ally, as the nation is home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. Major Texas-based energy companies also operate in the country.
Click here to read the full release on the Texas A&M University System website.
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