The Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that the expected number of scholarship seats within the new government scholarship plan for the academic year (2024/2025) is 1,500 seats, compared to 700 seats last year, attributing this to the increase in the number of educational tracks from 3 to 8 tracks with the aim of meeting all the needs of the Qatari labor market in the public and private sectors.This came in a special interview conducted by Qatar News Agency (QNA) with Dr. Hareb Mohammed Al-Jabri, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, during which he reviewed the government scholarship plan, its general guidelines and most important features for the academic year (2024/2025), and its goals of economic growth, equal opportunities, diversity, inclusion and talent development, stressing that the government scholarship is an opportunity for all Qatari students to obtain a government scholarship, provided that the necessary and required conditions are met.He explained that the ministry's specialized team studied the status of scholarships, the labor market for all sectors of the state and their needs, noting that for the first time, scholarships are concerned with the private sector, after previously focusing on the needs of the government sector.He pointed out that government scholarships were previously based on selecting universities in terms of general classification, while now the trend is towards private classification according to tracks, specializations and fields, to ensure the quality of the scholarship program outcomes after the completion of this journey, at the university level, noting that the scholarship tracks It was previously limited only to engineering, medicine, and education, while today, for the various state sectors, it includes the tracks of engineering, science, and technology, allied medicine, education and educational sciences, graduate studies, and social sciences and humanities, which means that students of the literary track in high school now have opportunities for scholarships. In addition, for the first time, the creative economy track and the vocational track, as well as the sports track as well, all of which feed the labor market and its needs in the government and private sectors.He also pointed out that he has multiple tracks, more specializations, especially in the field of creative economics, social and human sciences, and in the professional and sports tracks, indicating that the Ministry has paid great attention to facilitating the application process for obtaining a government scholarship or for postgraduate studies as well, in terms of greatly reducing the procedures and documents required. than was the case in previous years, in addition to setting new criteria for selecting and approving scholarship requests for postgraduate studies to obtain master’s and doctoral degrees, in addition to setting standards for the concentration of students and the diversity of their presence and studies in different countries, universities, and specializations.In answer to a question related to the opportunities provided by the government scholarship policy for Qatari students, Dr. Hareb Muhammad Al-Jabri, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, revealed that between 60 percent and 100 percent have opportunities for government scholarships, which is This had not happened before because the selection criteria were focused on academic achievement, allowing only the distinguished to obtain the opportunity for scholarship. However, he noted that after reducing the rates of obtaining a scholarship, scholarship became dependent not only on academic achievement, but also on talent, and therefore Some talented people in the sports track or in the arts and manufacturing tracks and the vocational track were given the opportunity to obtain a scholarship opportunity.He stated that diversity and inclusion also included the percentages obtained, so that students in the literary, scientific and technological tracks whose percentages ranged between 60 percent and 100 percent now have opportunities for scholarship, explaining in this context that professional diploma students can be sent on scholarship with percentages of 60 percent internally and 70 percent internally for the program ( Ambition) or joining the Academic Bridge, 80 percent for internal scholarship majors in engineering, medicine, and assistant medicine, 75 percent for science, arts, and nursing majors, and 80 percent and above for external scholarship majors in 7 different tracks. Dr. Hareb Muhammad Al-Jabri, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, revealed the existence of programs for outstanding students concerned with the top ten students in both the literary and scientific tracks at the state level, so that each of them chooses the specialization he wishes to study inside or outside Qatar. .He noted that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education was also keen to review and improve the financial benefits for scholarship students in the face of the waves of high cost of living and inflation in most scholarship countries in order to spare them any financial pressures, indicating that the minimum amount for external scholarship is in the range of 14 thousand Qatari riyals, in addition to the cost. Preparing before travel and the annual ticket granted to the student to join the country of the mission, noting in this regard that with regard to studying medical specialties, the privileges are greater for the purpose of encouraging and motivating the study of this type of specialization.Regarding the privileges of the princely missions to the best 24 universities in the world, he said: “Their monthly salary reaches 20 thousand riyals, in addition to counting the years of service, and the disbursement of two business class tickets to encourage students to join these universities and study there.”He stated that the scholarship policy takes into account the diversity of cultures in terms of studying in countries with different cultures to introduce Qatari students to the civilizations and cultures of other countries. However, he cautioned that the choice in the end is up to the student himself and his conviction in it, in accordance with the criteria set by the Ministry for choosing scholarship universities to be on its lists. approved, in addition to the ministry’s standards for the placement and distribution of scholarship students in about 550 universities, including princely scholarship universities.In this context, he pointed out that the Ministry provided an advantage only for non-English speaking countries, so that the Qatari student who wishes to study there can study the language, such as studying in Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Germany, and he explained that there are Qatari students studying there and the number is in Increasing annually.He stressed the importance of students who wish to study abroad at their own expense to obtain a diploma, bachelor's, master's, or doctorate, obtaining prior approval from the ministry to do so.In a related context, he noted that increasing qualified national university capabilities would raise the country’s international indicators, which means that the success of community members in obtaining university degrees and postgraduate studies in turn raises Qatar’s international index in education, which necessarily requires assistance and facilitation of the process of obtaining these. Skills, whether through scholarship, study at private expense, or through local universities. He continued, sayingin this regard: “But on the other hand, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education is also responsible for the quality of learning outcomes, and therefore it cannot leave the field open without oversight and supervision, which at the same time is in the interest of the student not to be harmed when he joins a university that is not accredited and highly classified.” And within an unrecognized or unaccredited program, which costs him years of study, especially in sensitive specializations such as medicine and engineering, for example.”He added that the ministry seeks to strike a balance between these two aspects in terms of encouraging students to obtain academic degrees, while at the same time ensuring that the student obtains a valid qualification at a specific university. Therefore, the ministry has established the prior approval decision as an easy and simple procedure that will facilitate obtaining prior approval, and thus ensure that the selected university is among the accredited universities.He also revealed that the ministry will soon issue lists of new universities for government scholarships, pointing out the lack of Arab universities available for scholarships and study, and that the ministry senses this and has prepared a study in this regard. In his interview with QNA, Dr. Hareb Mohammed Al-Jabri praised the cooperation between the Scholarships Department, the Student Information Center at the ministry, and the Civil Service Bureau and Government Development regarding government scholarships, reviewing the nature, mechanisms, stages and various areas of this cooperation.