The Qatari government has also signed an MOU with French universities to create more language pathways to study in France.

Among the Malaysian institutions to attend the Doha exhibition were Universiti Malaysia Pahang, The University of Nottingham Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi Petronas.

Dato Ahmad Jazri, the Malaysian ambassador to Qatar, said that Malaysia had for the past three years been a preferred destination for Qatari tourists (and the number one Islamic tourist destination worldwide). He said he wanted to increase the country’s relatively small Qatari student numbers to the same level.

“Qatar is still a small market to Malaysia’s education sector as we only have 24 Qatari students currently studying in our country [but we would like to change this],” he said.

The Qatari government also recently signed an MoU with French universities to provide language training

French institutions, a number of which have branch campuses in Qatar, are also keen to attract more local students. The Qatari government recently signed an MOU with a group of institutions who will help prepare Qataris for study in France through French language pathways.

SEC said in a statement: “It is noteworthy that many French academic institutions are located in the state of Qatar, such as French Postgraduate College of Commerce in Doha, the French Institute of Qatar, Lycée Bonaparte and Lycée Voltaire, in a true example of enhancing relations between the two countries in the field of education and culture and providing students with further diverse educational opportunities.”