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Attracting top scholars to the Gulf state's flagship campus is a priority, writes David Matthews in Doha.
For several years US institutions have been a part of Qatar's Hamad bin Khalifa University, the gas-rich Gulf state's attempt to create a world-class institution in Doha.
But now, in the surreal complex of buildings - some resembling giant white eggs, another an octagonal Aztec temple - the first British boxes of books are being unpacked.
From August 2012, students will be able to enrol on master's courses at University College London Qatar.
By focusing on archaeology and museum studies in a region where much of the study of antiquity is conducted, UCL thinks it can attract the calibre of academic needed to establish a credible centre of research.
Six US universities - Northwestern, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth - and one French business school, HEC Paris, have already set up shop at Hamad bin Khalifa University, which used to be known as Education City until it was renamed in May to honour Qatar's Emir.
How to convince the best academics to come to Doha "was one of the main questions when we talked to the US universities three to four years ago", says Thilo Rehren, the director of UCL-Q, now in his new office on the second floor of Georgetown University's state-of-the-art building.
"They still have some problems recruiting good staff. They still have people at the end of their careers and others probably looking for a bit of sunshine," he says.
Wanted: hungry young academics
For many subjects, for example the visual arts, Qatar is "not the centre of the earth", Rehren acknowledges. But for museum studies, "it pretty much is," he argues. "You don't have to fly seven hours to get to Syria or Egypt."
So far, four faculty members are in situ. Later this year two PhD students will fly in to join them, and they will be followed...