ABSTRACT
The Al-Thani family, Qatar's monarchy since 1850, has spent as much as $33 billion USD since 1997 to create and sustain Education City, a "mega-university" of "cherry-picked programs" from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This chapter considers historical and sociocultural factors that associate with Education City's low enrollment. Spurred by oil profits, Qatar modernized rapidly in the 1950s. Qatar's government razed and replaced traditional communities with suburbs that Qatari nationals settled into comfortably. Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV2030) is a national plan for Qatar to manage its rapid identity transformation from a developing nation into a "different kind of superpower". Regardless of the price tag, Education City exists chiefly to meet growing national demands for economic competitiveness and diversification. Lack of incentives may not be the only barrier to Qatar's human capital goals. Its primary education system may hinder students' transitions to postsecondary environments. Education City's outsized popularity among female students is not necessarily an unwelcome development.
