TEXAS A&M QATAR CAMPUS TO CLOSE BY 2028

Bryan-College Station, Texas. The Texas A&M University System’s Board of Regents agreed Thursday to begin a multi-year process of closing the flagship campus in Qatar. “The Board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States,” stated Bill Mahomes, the board chairman. “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 makes no immediate changes to campus operations or services. The deal with the Qatar Foundation specifies that the termination will take four years. In the following days, the university administration will form a team to ensure that several imperatives are met: students complete their education, faculty and staff are supported, and research commitments are properly performed. Texas A&M at Qatar (TAMUQ) was founded in 2003 to further teaching and research in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering. TAMUQ is one of six US universities in Qatar’s Education City.

“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,” stated 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.” Qatar is a peninsula that shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and is located across the Persian Gulf from Iran. The United States considers Qatar an ally. The country has the largest US military installation in the Middle East. Qatar is home to a large number of American industries, notably big oil companies headquartered in Texas.

Due to increased insecurity in the Middle East, the Board of Regents agreed to reassess the university’s actual presence in Qatar in the fall of 2023. Regents held an executive session with Welsh and other top officials on Thursday morning. During the afternoon public session, Regent Mike Hernandez moved to terminate the arrangement with the Qatar Foundation. The motion was seconded by Regent Randy Brooks and carried 7-1. Regent Michael Plank dissented. Mahomes stated that the board determined that Texas A&M can best accomplish its fundamental goal — educating and serving Texans while advancing knowledge and innovation through world-class research — by concentrating its efforts on Texas.

“The work in Qatar is great,” Mahomes stated. “But it is a fraction of what Texas A&M accomplishes year after year.” He stated that Texas A&M and related System entities collaborate on research with approximately 30 different countries without having separate campuses on foreign soil. “The university has numerous other ways to give international students opportunities to be Aggies and to give Aggies opportunities to study internationally,” Mahomes told reporters.