Western Education in Muslim Lands: State-University Dialogue on Value Transmission in Qatar

Abstract

The question of whether a knowledge society can reflect national religious and cultural values while relying on imported higher education institutions designed to serve different ideological and social contexts, is being actively explored in countries transitioning to knowledge-based economies. This research investigates how states engage with universities in negotiating what values are taught, particularly in Muslim-majority nations hosting Western higher education institutions whose pedagogies and priorities may be shaped by legacies of colonialism, capitalism, and secularism.

Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Critical Policy Analysis, and translation studies of official policy documents, national statistical indicators, and university strategies and annual reports, this research examines policy discourse about higher education in Qatar. Analysis encompasses key terminology and problematization around education, national identity, and moral values, in order to assess whether Qatar’s desired social outcomes are being addressed through educational policymaking and university compliance.

Key questions for this research include: What are the key social and human development aims of Qatar reflected in foundational policy documents? What role does higher education play in achieving these goals? And, how can the culture and morals of a host country be reflected in their policies to affect the knowledge economy project? A thorough review of literature lays the groundwork for understanding key themes and vocabulary in the globalization of higher education, national motivations for exporting or importing international branch campuses (IBCs), key features of policies governing IBCs, and the specific context of Qatar.

Policy discourse is examined through analysis of documents as sites of power enactment and discourse following the work of Michel Foucault’s conception of the dispositif (Foucault & Gordon, 1980). Analysis combines a problematization approach (Bacci, 2009) with Critical Discourse and Policy Analysis as practiced by Fairclough (2003) and Taylor (2004), and includes a translation analysis drawing from a van Dijk’s (2009) socio-cognitive understanding of how language affects mental models and social outcomes. Key themes and vocabulary drawn from the literature were inductively coded and analyzed to identify disjuncture, indications of moral positioning, and responses to societal pressures in the policies.

This research sheds light on the emerging outcomes of IBCs in a field of study that has focused on history, typologies, and teaching in IBCs, but rarely addresses governance policy in conversation with local societies, and how IBCs affect and are affected by how a nation and its people view themselves. This research offers a new method of assessing higher education policy, statistical collection, and university reports for fitness to context, and offers concrete recommendations for ensuring universities advance a country’s social aims.

Keywords: International Branch Campus; Contextualized Education; Higher Education Governance; Critical Discourse Analysis; Knowledge-Based Economies; Value Transmission

Date of Award	25 Jun 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Rajani Naidoo (Supervisor) & Fiona Hunter (Supervisor)