The world of football has changed dramatically in recent years. At present the game has developed into something more than just a ball and a pitch, and the political aspects of football can not be underestimated. In terms of audience football is the biggest sport in the world, and the attention that the huge tournaments bring has become of major interest for authoritarian forces. During 2022 the world cup of football will be hosted by Qatar, and the controversies surrounding the tournament are many and have certainly caught the eye of the media. The aim of this study is to examine how Qatar as organizer of the world cup is portrayed in Swedish, American and Qatari news media based on the reporting on working conditions prior to the tournament. By implementing a discourse analysis inspired by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory we have analyzed how the arrangement is portrayed by examining choice of words, subjects, meaning and context in the chosen material. The content to be analyzed consists of articles from Aftonbladet, Washington Times and Gulf Times that have been selected by using a given time period and specific keywords. The results show that there are big differences in how Qatar is portrayed in news media from various parts of the world. Western media tends to portray Qatar as an authoritarian state with poor human rights and transparency in the process that surrounds working conditions leading up to the world cup. On the other hand, Qatari media attempts to produce an image of a groundbreaking tournament that has led to major improvements in developing labour legislation in Qatar and will be a historical event for the Middle East. The conclusions show that Swedish and American news media bases its reporting on Western values of a democracy  and how an organizer of a global event like the world cup should live up to these. The representation in the material from Aftonbladet and Washington Times indicates that Qatar does not live up to these values and ideals and is therefore an inappropriate organizer of the tournament. Qatari media respond to this criticism by defending their position as organizer of the world cup by highlighting the improvements that have been made due to the tournament and by trying to clarify that the information about horrible working conditions in the country is incorrect.

This study was conducted to explore gender differences in language acquisition of adult male and female learners in Qatar. With globalization, English is no longer exclusively being used by the traditional English-speaking world only. It has become the international communicative language, used for commerce and trade, as well as the social media. For these reasons, many learners in Qatar attend an English language centre to acquire the necessary skills to become more fluent in the language. Both male and female learners enter the classroom with a wealth of life experiences, but just unable to communicate effectively in the target language. Therefore, teaching English to adult males and females from different nationalities, including the local Qatari population, should never been considered in isolation. The gender differences in language acquisition of these learners have to be acknowledged, taking their cognitive styles, motivation towards learning, strategies employed, anxieties experienced and the teaching practices into account. English language lecturers have a responsibility to be knowledgeable on the subject they teach, as well as possess the necessary skills to best educate these learners. In this situation, adult language learners do however, also have to accept responsibility for their own actions and seek out every opportunity to acquire English. / Educational Studies / D. Phil. (Adult Educatiion)

This study examines the political life of Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmad al-Fatih Al Khalifa, the fifth ruler of the Al Khalifa dynasty and the third of that family to rule Bahrain. It is a political biography, examining the tactics used by Shaikh Abdullah and his family to fend off threats from various foes. Those tactics ranged from direct military combat, to entry into temporary protector-protégé relationships, to playing off one foe against another. His ability to employ such tactics effectively enabled him and his family to neutralize or defeat their foes. This study examines local statecraft tactics through the case study of one of the Gulf’s greatest nineteenth century statesmen. It also looks at the reasons that resulted in Shaikh Abdullah’s political downfall. Those reasons were domestic and external factors that the Shaikh seems to have either ignored or been unable to fully address. That inability and/or shortcoming in addressing those factors would have cost any Gulf ruler his rulership, not just Shaikh Abdullah, as similar aspects prevailed in the other Gulf shaikhdoms. The study examines the life of a political leader whose achievements have been played down, even neglected, by most modern historians in Bahrain and the Gulf. The reason for this neglect lies perhaps in the natural desire of the current ruling branch of the Al Khalifa family to discourage any potential future claim to the throne by the descendants of Shaikh Abdullah, who have lived in exile from Bahrain ever since Shaikh Abdullah’s overthrow in 1843.

The need to incorporate interprofessional education (IPE) as part of any healthcare profession curricula is growing in an approach to prepare a collaborative practice-ready workforce. Pharmacy students should be equipped with the necessary competencies and skills needed for them to practise interprofessionally, commensurate with the expanding and evolving role of the pharmacist. Thus, the Qatar University College of Pharmacy has decided to incorporate IPE initiatives formally into the pharmacy curriculum in collaboration with other healthcare institutions in Qatar to meet the accreditation standards set by the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) and fulfil the recommendations set in the World Health Organization (WHO) framework. To implement effective IPE strategies, it is important to consider the prior attitudes and expectations of various stakeholders in the process -- particularly students, faculty, and practising pharmacists. The overall aim of this PhD research is to explore the pharmacy perspectives of IPE and collaborative practice from a Middle Eastern context. The research started with a comprehensive systematic review of the literature focusing on the perspectives of pharmacy students, pharmacy faculty, and practising pharmacists on IPE and collaborative practice. Five themes have been identified from the systematic review: inconsistency in reporting IPE research, professional image of the pharmacist, lack of longitudinal follow-up, lack of IPE research on faculty, and lack of mixed method studies. This was followed by three sequential explanatory mixed method designs, to explore the perception of faculty, students, and practising pharmacists, individually. This was undertaken to gain an in depth understanding of the strengths and challenges of each group that can affect the implementation and perspectives toward IPE and collaborative practice. Two data collection methods were used: quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups. Quantitative data were imported into SPSS® version 22 and analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data from the focus groups were analysed using thematic analysis. For the quantitative surveys, the overall response rate was 117 out of 334 (35%) for pharmacy faculty in the Middle East, 102/132 (77%) for pharmacy students in Qatar and 178/285 (63%) for practising pharmacists in Qatar. This was followed by seven focus groups with a total of 51 participants. Findings, from both the survey and focus groups, support that students, faculty and practising pharmacists are ready to engage in IPE and collaborative practice. The findings further identified positive attitudes that reinforce the need to incorporate IPE into healthcare curricula. They perceive anticipated benefits to them as professionals and to the patients. However, a large number of challenges have been highlighted, including the existence of a hierarchical culture, pharmacists’ role and image, a weak sense of professional identity among pharmacists, their marginalised contribution, resistance from the healthcare teams to the evolving role of the pharmacists, and the heterogeneous background of healthcare professionals. Promisingly, the education and healthcare system in Qatar is undergoing significant changes with some positive influences noted within education and practice settings. This is the first study investigating pharmacy perspectives of IPE in Qatar, the Middle East, and worldwide. The findings from this research generated a body of knowledge regarding the pharmacy perspectives of IPE and provided a better understanding of what shapes this perspective from a Middle Eastern context. The research presents a new model based on collective input, efforts, and readiness in five key stages: academic institution, faculty, student, practice, and environment. The model moves beyond focusing on the individual stages separately and expands to consider the complexity of linking and aligning the stages together. Coordinated efforts, between the stages, focused on a more comprehensive and holistic implementation, is essential for successful implementation of IPE and collaborative practice.

Migration is a phenomenon wherein individuals relocate from one country to another, albeit temporarily or permanently, for numerous reasons. The State of Qatar is a highly diverse nation with a large population of foreign residents. According to Priya D’Souza, as of 2017, 60 percent of the resident population in Qatar are from South Asia. Growing up in this environment, third culture kids develop a unique, hybrid culture through experiencing multiple cultures. This research investigates a dichotomy of belonging from the perspective of South Asians in Qatar. A series of hybridized spinning tops were produced in collaboration with a South Asian artisan. These hybridized artifacts are infused with sensory materials in order to elicit an emotive response, engage memory, and celebrate the merging of diverse cultures.

Condensate blockage negatively impacts large natural gas condensate reservoirs all over the world; examples include Arun Field in Indonesia, Karachaganak Field in Kazakhstan, Cupiagua Field in Colombia,Shtokmanovskoye Field in Russian Barents Sea, and North Field in Qatar. The main focus of this thesis is to evaluate condensate blockage problems in the North Field, Qatar, and then propose solutions to increase well productivity in these gas condensate wells. The first step of the study involved gathering North Field reservoir data from previously published papers. A commercial simulator was then used to carry out numerical reservoir simulation of fluid flow in the North Field. Once an accurate model was obtained, the following three solutions to increasing productivity in the North Field are presented; namely wettability alteration, horizontal wells, and reduced Non Darcy flow. Results of this study show that wettability alteration can increase well productivity in the North Field by adding significant value to a single well. Horizontal wells can successfully increase well productivity in the North Field because they have a smaller pressure drawdown (compared to vertical wells). Horizontal wells delay condensate formation, and increase the well productivity index by reducing condensate blockage in the near wellbore region. Non Darcy flow effects were found to be negligible in multilateral wells due to a decrease in fluid velocity. Therefore, drilling multilateral wells decreases gas velocity around the wellbore, decreases Non Darcy flow effects to a negligible level, and increases well productivity in the North Field.

This PhD thesis examines the Gulf monarchies of Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as they strive to transform their political economies away from dependency on hydrocarbon revenues into more diverse sectors of economic activity. In particular, the research attempts to forecast the monarchies’ chances of achieving the transformation into principally private sector-led economies, while maintaining absolute rule and excluding those outside the circle of the ruling élites from political power or influence. The central research question guiding the study is ‘Human and National Security in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – Should Climate Change Matter?’ The effects of climate change provide a useful lens through which to examine each of the states’ policies and actions as they attempt to cope with the physical degradation of an already water and heat-stressed environment, coupled with declining oil and gas revenues from the West as a result of international climate change agreements. The thesis applies a ten question research framework to each of the entities to produce individual case studies for comparison. The research finds that climate change is acknowledged as an issue by each of the states, but is not at the top of their list of priorities. Rather, measures to improve human security are aimed at maximising the economic productiveness of each country to make up the deficit caused by decreasing hydrocarbon revenues and enable the monarchies to maintain the high level of free and subsidised state services they currently provide to their populations. They believe the effective maintenance of services directly contributes to political stability which assures the continuance of their current system of governance where political power lies solely with the rulers and their close advisors. Essentially, the priority for each of the ruling families is not climate change, but regime survival, preferably in its current form.

Due to the universal use of technology and its pervasive connection to the world, organisations have become more exposed to frequent and various threats. Therefore, organisations today are giving more attention to information security as it has become a vital and challenging issue. Many researchers have noted that the significance of information security, particularly information security policies and awareness, is growing due to increasing use of IT and computerization. In the last 15 years, the State of Qatar has witnessed remarkable growth and development of its civilization, having embraced information technology as a base for innovation and success. The country has undergone tremendous improvements in the health care, education and transport sectors. Information technology plays a strategic role in building the country's knowledge-based economy. Due to Qatar s increasing use of the internet and connection to the global environment, it needs to adequately address the global threats arising online. As a result, the scope of this research is to investigate information security in Qatar and in particular the National Information Assurance (NIA) policy. There are many solutions for information security some technical and some non-technical such as policies and making users aware of the dangers. This research focusses on enhancing information security through non-technical solutions. The aim of this research is to improve Qatari organisations information security processes by developing a comprehensive Information Security Management framework that is applicable for implementation of the NIA policy, taking into account Qatar's culture and environment. To achieve the aim of this research, different research methodologies, strategies and data collection methods will be used, such as a literature review, surveys, interviews and case studies. The main findings of this research are that there is insufficient information security awareness in organisations in Qatar and a lack of a security culture, and that the current NIA policy has many barriers that need to be addressed. The barriers include a lack of information security awareness, a lack of dedicated information security staff, and a lack of a security culture. These barriers are addressed by the proposed information security management framework, which is based on four strategic goals: empowering Qataris in the field of information security, enhancing information security awareness and culture, activating the Qatar National Information Assurance policy in real life, and enabling Qatar to become a regional leader in information security. The research also provides an information security awareness programme for employees and university students. At the time of writing this thesis, there are already indications that the research will have a positive impact on information security in Qatar. A significant example is that the information security awareness programme for employees has been approved for implementation at the Ministry of Administrative Development Labour and Social Affairs (ADLSA) in Qatar. In addition, the recommendations proposed have been communicated to the responsible organisations in Qatar, and the author has been informed that each organisation has decided to act upon the recommendations made.

This study was conducted to explore gender differences in language acquisition of adult male and female learners in Qatar. With globalization, English is no longer exclusively being used by the traditional English-speaking world only. It has become the international communicative language, used for commerce and trade, as well as the social media. For these reasons, many learners in Qatar attend an English language centre to acquire the necessary skills to become more fluent in the language. Both male and female learners enter the classroom with a wealth of life experiences, but just unable to communicate effectively in the target language. Therefore, teaching English to adult males and females from different nationalities, including the local Qatari population, should never been considered in isolation. The gender differences in language acquisition of these learners have to be acknowledged, taking their cognitive styles, motivation towards learning, strategies employed, anxieties experienced and the teaching practices into account. English language lecturers have a responsibility to be knowledgeable on the subject they teach, as well as possess the necessary skills to best educate these learners. In this situation, adult language learners do however, also have to accept responsibility for their own actions and seek out every opportunity to acquire English. / Educational Studies / D. Phil. (Adult Educatiion)

Qatar’s education system has recently been subjected to a process of deep structural reform. One of the beliefs which underpins this reform is the assumption that learner-centred pedagogy is more effective than traditional teacher-centred pedagogy. However, there is limited empirical evidence from a Qatari classroom context regarding the effectiveness of using learner-centred pedagogies. This lack of empirical evidence extends to the teaching of English as a foreign language. This study employed Vygotskian sociocultural theory as a lens to investigate the effects of working collaboratively on learners’ longer-term performance of two grammatical structures, the simple past passive and the present continuous passive, as well as the cognitive processes involved. Interventionist dynamic assessment was used to quantify the linguistic performance of male Arabic undergraduate EFL learners (N = 52) three times (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest) over a 12-week period. In-between the pretest and the posttest, six form-focused treatment tasks were administered. The experimental group (n = 20) completed the treatment tasks collaboratively; the comparison group (n = 16) completed the treatment tasks individually; and the control group (n = 16) did not complete the treatment tasks. In addition, the genetic method was employed to trace the linguistic development of four participants in the experimental group. These four participants were audio-recorded as they collaboratively completed each treatment session. Mood’s median test (Mood, 1954) found a pretest to posttest statistically significant difference (M = 7.70, df = 1, p = 0.01) between the performances of the experimental and control groups for the structure of the simple past passive which is moderate to large in size (Cramér’s V = 0.46). However for both target structures, no statistically significant difference was found between the experimental group and the comparison group, suggesting that the treatment condition of working collaboratively was not more effective in promoting learners’ linguistic development than the treatment condition of working individually. Additionally, the descriptive statistics revealed high levels of individual variation. Of the four participants who were audio-recorded, the journey of one learner is presented. This data was analysed using a microgenetic approach with LREs (Swain and Lapkin, 1995, 1998, 2002) as the unit of analysis. The microgenetic analysis shows how working collaboratively provides learners with access to a shared cognitive space. Within this space, they can employ language as a cognitive tool to access other-regulation from their peers and deploy their own self-regulatory strategies. The experience of an individual was explored within the context of the linguistic gains made by the collective to whom he belongs. Thus, even though the statistical analysis of the results suggests that working collaboratively is not more effective in facilitating learners’ linguistic development than working individually, the process of language learning has been connected to the outcome of language learning through the results of the descriptive statistics and the microgenetic analysis. This study contributes to a better understanding of: the types of pedagogies that may be effective in a Qatari undergraduate context, why collaborative learning can be effective, how knowledge which is initially social can take on a psychological function, and how the Vygotskian sociocultural methodologies of the genetic method and dynamic assessment can be integrated into an SLA design.