Following the recent news about the SEC scholarship list 2015, the British Council has met with the Director of Higher Education Institutional Standards at the Supreme Education Council.

The main objective of the meeting was to clarify the standards followed when setting the scholarship list 2015 while referring in the meeting to examples of institutions who approached us.

The 2015 list was based on 2 main criteria:

• Quality of teaching
• The suitability of the learning environment (including mis practices by institutions)

Quality of Teaching:

This factor is assessed based on the universities’' overall ranking as it appears at an international and a national level.

At an international level, the average of 3 different ranking systems (QS, Shanghai, THE) was calculated and identified 55 UK institutions.

To offer more opportunities to Qatari students when choosing the UK as a destination of study, the SEC wanted to include more universities, so they looked at 3 ranking systems at a national level (THE, Guardian, Independent).  They also took the average and those who appeared in the top 75% were included for all subjects in 2015 list.  This brings the total number of supported UK institutions to 92.

The suitability of the learning environment 

Once a university satisfied the quality of teaching standards represented by the ranking systems, the SEC looked at assessing the suitability of the learning environment for the Qatari students including safety & security factors, cultural factors,  educational support factors.  They based their decision on the records they keep of any observation, report and any issue faced by students through their experience with those institutions.  When records indicated any mis practice by a certain institution or unsuitability of the learning environment, a decision was made to remove the institution from the list even if they meet the first criteria of quality teaching.

Please note the following:

• The SEC still follows an open door policy; however, they made it clear that if an institution does not meet the first criteria, their request of inclusion in the list will not be considered
• The scholarship list 2014-2016 will still be valid in parallel with 2015 list until September 2015. After that, only 2015 list will be valid until a new list is released
• Self-funded students will not be affected by the SEC decision on the scholarship list; however, they are strongly encouraged to follow this list for self-funded students produced by the Equivalency Department
• There is currently no scope to include very specialised institutions in the scholarship list; however, scholarship applications to those institutions might be considered on case-by-case basis, where a decision will be made by the scholarship committee, who meet on monthly basis, after assessing the importance of the subject area to Qatar's vision and the university teaching excellence at this subject area.