US universities paid $400 million a year to run branches

The Washington Post 12 March 2016

The total annual bill for six prominent US universities to run branches in the wealthy Arabian emirate of Qatar comes to more than US$400 million, writes Nick Anderson for The Washington Post.

That sum includes more than US$76.2 million a year to operate Texas A&M University at Qatar – a previously undisclosed figure that The Washington Post recently obtained through a public records request in Texas. Texas A&M provided The Washington Post with a copy of its contract to operate in Doha, Qatar, as well as budget estimates and other documents, after the state attorney general’s office ruled that the documents are public records and must be released. A Qatari foundation had petitioned Texas authorities to keep the documents secret.

Texas A&M’s branch is part of Education City, a massive venture to import elite higher education from the United States to Doha using the oil and natural gas riches of the tiny Persian Gulf nation. Others in Doha are Cornell, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and Virginia Commonwealth universities.
Full report on The Washington Post site

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