July 10, 1998
Contact: Louise Dudley
	  (804) 924-1400


U.VA. TO SEEK AGREEMENT FOR NEW UNIVERSITY IN MIDDLE EAST

	The University of Virginia may establish a university in the
Middle East emirate of Qatar within the next few years, the Board of
Visitors announced today at its annual summer retreat.
	The board authorized U.Va. administrators to negotiate with the
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development and
to bring a proposed agreement back to the board for review and further
action.
	University officials have been exploring the idea since late
last year, when representatives of the nonprofit foundation approached
U.Va. about a possible long-term association.  The foundation, which is
funded by the ruling family and other private sources to advance
educational
opportunities in Qatar, intends to establish a selective, fully
coeducational, small university in Doha, Qatar's capital city on the
Persian Gulf.
	"The foundation's aim is to improve the overall quality of the
Qatari educational system at all levels," said U.Va. President John T.
Casteen III. "In particular, they want to follow the American model of
higher education in establishing the curriculum and standards for this
new
university, whose mission will be to prepare future leaders for
business, research and government.
  	"Their goals mesh well with the University's ongoing programs in
that region and with our larger mission to prepare broadly educated
students for leadership roles in the United States and abroad."
	Provost Peter W. Low is one of several U.Va. officials involved
in discussing the terms of the arrangement.  While there is agreement
about the concept, a formal contract has not yet been drafted, he said.
	"One key element is that this enterprise would be undertaken
with no financial risk to the University, either initially or over the
long term," Low said.  "Its degree programs would be based on rigorous
general education requirements, followed by more specialized study in
engineering,			
business management, computer and information technology, and sciences."
	The new university would be responsible to the Board of Visitors
for academic and administrative matters, he said, and would be expected
to comply with requirements of the State Council of Higher Education for
Virginia (SCHEV) and of the University's regional accrediting body, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).  Both SCHEV and
SACS
would need to approve the awarding of U.Va. degrees at an affiliated
campus, Low said.
	In addition to Casteen and Low, board member Champ Clark and
U.Va. faculty member W. Nathaniel Howell visited Doha this spring to
meet with Sheikha Mouza al-Misnad, the emir's wife, and foundation
officials. Howell, a former ambassador to Kuwait, directs the
University's Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies Program, the only
university-based program in the United States focused on that region.
	Qatar, an independent state since 1971, is located on a
peninsula that extends east from the Arabian mainland north of Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  Doha, a deepwater port, is the
country's largest city and commercial center.
	Qatar's modern economy is based on oil, which has been produced
there commercially since 1949.  It also has significant natural gas
reserves.

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