Market Intelligence Brief - Qatar 2019-20

Qatar is a wealthy, urbanised country with an international outlook, growing demand for overseas study and strong links with the UK. The country has a favourable regulatory and policy environment for the internationalisation of its education system and has longstanding ambitions to become a regional education hub. Qatar has only two domestic universities and its education sector is relatively small in scale, with little more than 33,600 students enrolled in tertiary education in 2018. The limited domestic education capacity is a major factor in driving Qatar’s high outbound student mobility rate, supported further by high disposable incomes, and availability of funding sources for study abroad. The UK is the main destination country for outbound students, followed by the US, and recruitment numbers have grown steadily from 600 in 2007 to 2,860 in 2017. While the outlook for student recruitment remains positive, a number of challenges exist, including relatively low English language competency and the small market size with limited growth potential.