Education opportunities in Qatar
Published 27 October 2014
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1. Market potential
The Qatar education and training market has been identified as a high value education opportunity (HVO) for the UK owing to:
- Significant business opportunities already having been secured by UK education and training providers
- Significant potential for future business - accessible value to the UK in excess of £100 million
- Opportunities existing across a number of sub-sectors – including schools (K-12), vocational education and training (TVET), higher education (HE) and CPD/professional training
- UK education and training expertise being highly valued in Qatar across a range of industries
2. Large-scale education and training opportunities in 2015/16
Qatar is a UKTI Education priority market and a Qatar high value education and training opportunity has been identified based on the following areas:
- Building and operating international schools in Lusail City
- Opening and operating international schools in and around Doha
- Delivering a range of education and training programmes being driven by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) in areas including technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and Special Educational Needs (SEN)
3. Additional market information
3.1 Geographical considerations
The State of Qatar is located on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula, bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south. The GDP per capita in 2012 was the highest in the world. The population is 2.2 million, circa 90% of whom are foreign nationals. Circa 200,000 foreign nationals are Western expats.
3.2 Education sector overview
A large and growing Western expat population continues to drive demand for private international schools. The Qatar National Vision 2030 outlines plans to transform the country into a global knowledge-based economy. The plan places developing human resources as the main priority for the next 15 years. The education sector has been allocated a £4.7 billion budget for 2015, an increase of circa 7% on 2014 and double the budget of five years ago.