Qatar features stunning desert landscapes and sweeping beaches. The capital, Doha, is a cosmopolitan city, with skyscrapers and glitzy malls sitting alongside architectural landmarks.

One of the world’s wealthiest countries, with rich oil and gas reserves, Qatar has an extremely high GDP per capita, which supports social stability and has a reputation for being a clean, desirable place to live and work.

Public schools receive government funding, with huge amounts of investment ploughed into higher education to attract academic talent and create a ‘knowledge-based’ research think-tank economy. One of the biggest initiatives is Education City, a 5 sq-mile campus hosting hubs and satellite branches of some of the world’s most esteemed universities. This allows students to study and graduate with internationally recognised elite degrees from all around the world, without having to leave Qatar.

Campus facilities are second to none. Education City has palatial buildings, fountains and palm trees, as well as excellent research facilities, such as the Qatar National Library, which offers access to over one million books, valuable archive documents and periodicals. Qatar University also has top-class facilities, including research laboratories, libraries with access to rare manuscripts and even a seafaring vessel.

Students benefit from a lower lecturer-student ratio, with around five students to one lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, for example. Most university lecturers have PhDs and hail from the parent university. There’s also a huge pool of academic talent at Education City and Qatar University, where students can register to study with professors from different universities.

Graduates enjoy plenty of employment opportunities — not only in the energy sector, but in IT, construction, teaching, business and tourism, etc., with good salaries and tax-free incentives for expats. Vast resources are also being invested into the field of research, as well as preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and beyond.

Qatar may be small, but it has a diverse melting pot of cultures, with Qatari nationals accounting for only 15% of the total 2.8 million population (2019). Around 25% are Indian and 14% are European, among them British, Portuguese, French, Armenians, Russians, Turks, Scandinavians and Italians. The student population comprises individuals from more than 30 nations and English is widely spoken.

The GCC States Scholarship offers free tuition and housing to outstanding students from the Gulf states, with partial and full tuition exemption available for some high-achieving international students at Qatar University. Georgetown University in Qatar offers a zero-interest loan through the Qatar Foundation Financial Aid Programme, while the Qatar Foundation Student Fund Scholarship also helps fund full-time students with a minimum 3.6 GPA.

International students who do not hold a valid State of Qatar residence permit (excluding GCC citizens) and who have successfully received an admission letter from their respective university or college can apply for a student visa online at qatarevisaonline.com. Turnaround typically takes just 72 hours.

Qatar has excellent international flight connections. Getting around Qatar is easy, with well-maintained roads and an extensive taxi and chauffeured limo service. The Doha Metro launched in 2019, and is used by thousands to commute within Doha. Where the Doha Metro does not go, there are Metrolink buses and metroexpress vans to drive people to various destinations to and from the metro stations.