學(xué)生不出門，高校入境來

Reporter： Qatar is an 1）absolute monarchy. The AlThani family are the rulers and there’s no parliament. Qatar is the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas and on a 2）per capita basis， Qataris are immensely rich because there are so few of them， just 260，000. They’re a small minority in a population of just over two million. Here’s a 3）contradiction they’ve created in their race to modernity. They’ve shown no interest in political reform， but they’ve shown a huge interest in educating their young. For now， Qatar has solved an apparent contradiction with money.

Dr. Sheikha Aisha Bin Faleh Bin Nasser Al-Thani is a member of the ruling family. Sheikha Aisha sits on the Supreme Education Council and she owns a few independent schools. For her own children， she wanted a top-flight college education.

Sheikha Aisha： I have two daughters. They’re the youngest and then， my sons， they got educated in Britain. But when it came to my daughters， I was worried. Where will I send them？ I can’t send them to England. I can’t send them to the States. And one of them was—she wanted to go to the States.

Reporter： In the end， Sheikha Aisha’s daughter went to Northwestern， but not in Evanston， Illinois. She went to Northwestern’s branch in Education City， EC for short， right in Doha. Rather than have to choose between a U.S. education and keeping their kids at home， the Qataris opted to have it both ways. EC is home to degree-granting departments from Northwestern， Texas AM， Carnegie Mellon， Virginia Commonwealth， Cornell Medical School and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Mehran Kamrava： We’re in the Georgetown building which was 4）inaugurated in 2010， one of the biggest buildings in all of Education City.

Reporter： Professor Mehran Kamrava， an American， teaches political science at Georgetown-Doha. It is a splendidly equipped， 5）coeducational institution. Seven of Professor Kamrava’s Georgetown students sat down to talk with me. I asked them about foreign migrant workers who are building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup and the criticism Qatar has received about them.

6）Allegations of unsafe working conditions， misleading contracts and a system of 7）sponsorship by which migrants are bound to their employers， they typically hand over their passports to the boss and can’t leave the job or the country without permission. In the face of this criticism， the government and the World Cup committee said they’re shocked and they’ll fix things. Well， the Georgetown students were 8）skeptical. We’ll hear first from Noor， a freshman who is Qatari.

Noor： There should be a great feeling of responsibility， and I think often the government is investigating the problem， right？ But the government knows exactly why the problem—I mean the government is...

Reporter： When they read the story in The Guardian a few weeks ago and said we’re shocked， we’re going to do something about this， you don’t believe them？ You don’t think they...

Noor： No， I don’t. I don’t think it’s possible to not have known about the problem. I really don’t think it’s possible. And I think that a lot of the problems arise from government policy and giving all the power to， you know， one person who is， I don’t know， your brother or your brother’s friend or whatever and letting him have all the power and then him doing whatever he can to maximize his profit and...

Reporter： The two Qatari students were 9）outspoken about the conditions migrants face in their country and the government’s response. You heard Noor. Here’s her fellow Qatari， 19-year-old Mohammed.

Mohammed： When we’re talking about the migration issue， there was some basis—I’m， I do not agree with the sponsorship program. I must make this clear. I do believe that it is restricting them with， from basic rights； they should have the right—any right that I have that he is deprived from is some kind of class 10）differentiation， which should not exist.

Reporter： A right， for example， to return home and then come back？

Mohammed： To return home， for example. This is， this is the main concern. This is， if the worker does not feel that he is content with the place that he is working， then he should have the right to leave.

記者：卡塔爾是一個君主專制的國家，由阿勒薩尼家族統(tǒng)治，并未設(shè)有國會。卡塔爾也是全世界最大的液化天然氣輸出國。從人均角度來說，卡塔爾人非常富有，因為他們的人數(shù)實在太少了——全國只有26萬本地人，在僅僅超過兩百萬的總?cè)丝谥兄徽剂艘恍〔糠帧Ｔ搰谙颥F(xiàn)代化邁進(jìn)的過程中產(chǎn)生了一個矛盾：他們對政治改革毫無興趣，卻對年輕人的教育非常重視。就目前而言，卡塔爾用錢解決了這個鮮明的矛盾。

作為王室成員之一，謝哈·艾莎·本·法萊·本·納賽爾·阿勒薩尼博士是高等教育委員會的一員，其名下?lián)碛泻脦姿搅W(xué)校。她希望自己的孩子能接受第一流的高等教育。

謝哈·艾莎：我有兩個女兒，她倆是最小的孩子。我的幾個兒子當(dāng)年是在英國接受教育的，不過輪到女兒的時候，我特別擔(dān)心。我該將她們送去哪里好呢？不能送去英國，美國也不好。而姐妹倆其中的一個——她很想去美國念書。

記者：結(jié)果，謝哈·艾莎的女兒進(jìn)了（美國）西北大學(xué)，但不是在伊利諾伊州的埃文斯頓，而是在教育城（簡稱EC）里的西北大學(xué)分校，該教育城就設(shè)在多哈。是讓孩子出去接受美式教育，還是將他們留在國內(nèi)上大學(xué)——卡塔爾人并無需二者擇一，他們要的是兩全其美。教育城內(nèi)設(shè)有西北大學(xué)、德克薩斯AM大學(xué)、卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)、弗吉尼亞聯(lián)邦大學(xué)、康奈爾大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院，以及喬治城大學(xué)外交學(xué)院等分機(jī)構(gòu)，它們都是可授予學(xué)位的院系。

邁赫蘭·卡姆拉瓦：我們所在的喬治城大樓在2010年正式落成，這是教育城里最宏偉的建筑物之一。……