Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) celebrated the graduation of its largest class to date at a ceremony held at the HBKU Student Center in Education City.

HBKU, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science, and Community Development, conferred degrees on 148 graduates in the presence Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairperson of QF, and Chairperson of HBKU's Board of Trustees.

HBKU Class of 2017 is significantly larger than last year's 111, and is almost double the number of students of its first graduating class in 2014 – numbers that bear witness not only to the university's rapid growth, but to the increasing demand for pioneering higher education.

Also present during the ceremony were government ministers, ambassadors, representatives of QF leadership and members of HBKU's Board of Trustees, as well as faculty, family and friends of the graduating students.

In another milestone for the university, this year's class marks the graduation of the first 17 students from HBKU's College of Science and Engineering master's programmes in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS), Sustainable Energy, and Sustainable Environment.

Also graduating were 87 students from the College of Islamic Studies, 18 from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and 26 with an Executive Master in Energy and Resources.

Thirty seven countries are represented in this year's class, including over 40 percent Qataris. Graduating students this year are fairly evenly split across gender lines, with women accounting for 49 percent of the total.

The high percentage of Qatari graduates is reflected in several of HBKU's programmes, such as the Executive Master in Energy and Resources programme, which includes 92 percent graduating Qataris, and the Master of Arts in Public Policy in Islam programme with 48 percent of Qatari graduates.

Looking to the future, the first batch of students to complete the juris doctor (JD) graduate law degree programme and the first students to receive doctoral degrees from HBKU’s College of Science and Engineering will graduate in 2018. 

In the meantime, the university continues to grow its academic offering with the recent launch of three new programs: a Master of Science and PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine (GPM), a Master of Arts in Women, Society, and Development, and a Master of Arts in Digital Humanities and Societies.

To find out more about HBKU, please visit www.hbku.edu.qa.