Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Doha, Qatar — On Thursday, October 30, Dr. Fathy Saoud, president of Qatar Foundation, led the official groundbreaking for the building that will house the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar on the Education City campus.

The 37,000 square meter building will include classrooms, offices, a library and other facilities for more than 200 undergraduate and graduate students. It was designed by the architectural firm of Legoretta and Legoretta of Mexico City, which also designed the neighboring buildings now occupied by the Qatar campuses of Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M Universities.

The groundbreaking ceremony highlighted the importance of worker safety in the planning and construction of the building. "Qatar Foundation has played a pioneering role in ensuring the safety of workers on the Georgetown University building and throughout Education City," said SFS-Qatar Dean James Reardon-Anderson. "One of the reasons that Georgetown is proud to be a partner with Qatar Foundation, and a resident of Education City, is the commitment of our hosts to the safety and welfare of the workers who are providing a place for us to live and work."

The Georgetown building will be the first civil construction project in Qatar to integrate requirements for safety into all aspects of the project. Qatar Foundation is working with URS, an engineering and technical services company that specializes in construction safety, to ensure that the project conforms to the highest international safety standards.

The building team will have onsite Health and Safety Administrators to ensure that construction proceeds according to internationally recognizing standards. Additionally, an external safety review team will audit the site regularly.

The School of Foreign Service in Qatar opened in 2005, offering its undergraduate program in international affairs in Education City. Four years later, SFS-Qatar has 150 students majoring in International Politics and Culture and Politics, and completing certificate programs in American Studies and Arab and Regional Studies. The first students to complete their studies on the Education City campus will graduate next May with the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) degree – identical to the degree offered on the Georgetown University Main Campus in Washington, D.C.

The Georgetown building, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2010, will be located on the Dukhan highway, across from the site of the Sidra Medical Center and east of the Weill Cornell Medical College facility, which was completed in 2003.