Over the past 10 to 15 years, the Middle East generally and the Arab Gulf specifically have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of higher education institutions (HEI) that have been established in the region, many with assistance from or with connections to HEIs in other parts of the world. According to a recent report, there were over 260 HEIs in the Arab Middle East in 2007—up from on 10 in 1940 and just 140 in 2000. In the Gulf alone, there are now over 100 public, semi-public, and private colleges and universities, while in 1990 there were fewer than 10 public universities. Another report estimates that over 50 per cent of the universities founded in the Arab Middle East since 1993 are branches of Western universities, mainly from the United States. Overall, the form and composition of these newly established institutions range from new national universities to for-profit schools to branch campuses of institutions in other countries, particularly North America and Western Europe. The latter are often smaller-scale replicas of the home institution outside of the Gulf. While the circumstances surrounding the establishment of such branch campuses vary, the decision to build such an institution has generally involved a calculation that addresses a range of existential or “foundational” questions. These questions include: the overall rationale for embarking upon such a significant undertaking; the identity and philosophy that would define the new campus; and the relationship between the new campus and its host country, as well as the branch campus and its home institution. In addition, the home institutions must address a host of logistical and administrative issues when deciding to establish a branch campus. These include, but are not limited to: how faculty will be recruited and retained; how the student body will be recruited and retained; and what support services will be provided to students as well as faculty and staff.

This chapter examines the creation of one such branch campus—Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar (SFS-Q), which was launched in 2005. It outlines a number of the questions or issues university leaders addressed before agreeing to accept the invitation from the Qatari government to launch the school. It also examines the subsequent administrative, governance, and financial structures put into place by University leaders in order to support the delivery of the Bachelor of Science of Foreign Service (BSFS)—the degree program brought from Washington DC to Doha's Education City, the location of SFS-Q. The questions with which Georgetown's faculty and administrative leaders grappled before launching the campus, as well as the subsequent challenges confronting those leaders in ensuring that the campus would thrive, often confront leaders at other institutions contemplating a similar decision.