Welcome to the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, a new higher education institution whose aim is to foster the highest standards in graduate teaching and research in the humanities, social sciences, public administration, and development economics. The DI is wholly dedicated to graduate studies, making it unique among institutes of higher education in the Arab world.
Bringing together first-class scholars from Australian, European and North American universities, most of whom are of Arab descent, together with leading scholars from Arab universities, we aim to build an academic environment in which these scholars will work with selected students from Qatar and the rest of the Arab world to achieve excellence in every area of the DI's work. Our small staff-student ratios will facilitate intense interaction of students with faculty, promote peer learning, nurture intellectual curiosity and underpin critical awareness to form a community of practice rooted in its native soil while interacting confidently with global knowledge.
To express this vision, Arabic will serve as the primary instrument of teaching and research at DI without neglecting other languages as essential partners. Through our compulsory core courses, we also seek to provide students with cross-disciplinary perspectives by engaging some of the most significant debates in the humanities and social sciences throughout history. Knowledge of these debates forms part of the infrastructure of human knowledge and the attendant intellectual literacy that emerging Arab scholars must have to become competent academic citizens of the world.
At the DI, we firmly believe in the necessity of combining theory with practice and service to the community. As a socially responsible institution, we consider local capacity building to be an essential part of our society's contribution. Our faculty, therefore, seek to engage both the government and voluntary sectors with programs that serve their needs. At the same time, our students will be able to augment their theoretical knowledge with practice-oriented experience by taking advantage of the unrivaled opportunities offered in two of our sister institutions: the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic.
Studies are offered at the master's degree level in two schools: the School of Social Sciences and Humanities and the School of Public Administration and Development Economics. The Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the DI offers a master's in Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action.
The DI welcomed its first cohort of students in the academic year 2015-2016. It is planned that student enrollment will eventually reach between 350 and 400, with study at the doctoral level gradually opening at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year.
Designated as a not-for-profit, private institution, the DI is operated exclusively for educational, research, and public service purposes. It was founded in 2014, as an autonomous legal entity, by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. The DI is licensed as a national institution of higher education by the Supreme Education Council of Qatar.
