In a sudden turn of events, Texas A&M announced the decision to close its campus in Doha, Qatar, “to best advance its core mission by concentrating its focus in Texas”, according to a statement from the university’s board of regents published on February 9. 

Students on campus have not wrapped their heads around it yet. “It was a shock,” said Ali, a Qatari chemical engineering student in his third year. “As teenagers we wanted to try the American lifestyle, we were lucky enough to have an American campus here, we felt Aggies [as Texas A&M students and graduates are known] to be one big family. Now we feel betrayed.”

Campuses like those of Texas A&M in Doha date back to a time when US foreign policy was predicated on efforts to export democracy and liberal values. Its universities were a natural conduit for that. 

That platform started crumbling with the spectacular failure of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dozens of international branch campuses by US universities like Tamuq stand tall among the last bastions of that bygone time, but their prospects, as well as legacy, are in jeopardy as they fall under mounting scrutiny. 

Tamuq is a case in point. The Miami-based Institute for the Studies of Global Anti-Semitism & Policy (Isgap) published two charged reports — one in late 2023, another one in February 2024 — in which it described Texas A&M’s relationship with Qatar as “disturbing”, particularly with regards to “sensitive nuclear research”. 

The Qatar Foundation, which owns and operates Education City, has dismissed the allegations concerning Tamuq as a “disinformation campaign”.

Texas A&M did not mention anything related to the Isgap report in its official communication. However, the timing of its decision, combined with its seemingly dismissive explanations, have fuelled much speculation on campus. 

“We don’t understand. It doesn’t make sense, ultimately it comes down to Palestine,” said Ammar, another chemical engineering student, hinting at Qatar’s role as mediator for Hamas in the Israel-Gaza conflict. “Since when does politics mix with education?” he wondered. 

Qatar has received a lot of criticism from conservatives in the US and elsewhere since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict for its relationship with Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organisation in the US, the UK and the EU. The country has hosted Hamas leaders for years. That has not stopped the US from considering Qatar an ally. In fact, the US’s largest military base in the Middle East is on the outskirts of Doha, and its concession has just been renewed for another 10 years. 

The perils of withdrawal

Education is a functional service, and even more so in a place like Doha’s Education City where the transaction costs associated with coming or going are limited. After all, it is the Qatar Foundation that developed the whole campus and continues to maintain it. For the likes of Texas A&M, closing down its local campus may be as simple as recalling its professors and other personnel. The university would lose that stream of revenue (estimated at $76m per year) and its local students, but will not have to deal with recovering much sunk capital. 

Transaction costs would be equally low for other educational institutions willing to step in, a feeling that many locals share. “If Texas A&M doesn’t want to be in Qatar any longer, we can have universities from Europe or China; we have the whole world willing to do business with us. They lost an opportunity, not us,” says Hussam Abu Issa, the vice-chairman of Qatari conglomerate Salam International. 

The same Tamuq professors themselves are working on a proposal to allow engineering courses to stay in Qatar, confirms faculty senator Brittany Bounds.  

If Tamuq’s void can be filled, its legacy is on the line. After 20 years of Aggies’ pride, the regents’ decision unsettled local students, who suddenly saw a geopolitical fault line crack open under their feet. 

“In Qatar we live a dream life in the sense it all flows smoothly and university students don’t typically get drawn into politics,” said a female computer science student who preferred to remain anonymous. “What happened made me feel unstable for the first time in my life.” 

Tamuq was meant to promote dialogue and, ultimately, foster stability; it may end up producing the opposite effect. As such, it would become just another stage of years of miscalculated western intervention in the Middle East. 

Do you want more FDI stories delivered directly to your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletters.