Laurent Veillard

Designing a Competency Framework for Graduate Levels in Computing Sciences: The Middle-East Context

This paper focuses on the current research work done within the Pro-Skima project (2015–2018) which aims at providing a suitable method to evolve classical Information Technology Master graduate levels towards some teaching contents and a pedagogical organisation more adapted to the competency needs of local employers and Qatar Society in the field of new technologies. A first important step of the project is to define a method for building a competency framework for the Master curriculum. The aim of this paper is related to the first step of the project, i.e. to examine critically different possible methods that can be used for designing such competency framework and analyse what can be a realistic approach considering local specificities of Qatar University, characteristics of the technical field (IT) and possible partnerships with some surrounding companies.

How to Bring a Graduate Program Closer to Employers’ Needs?

Since the mid of the 1990s, Qatar is engaged in an economic diversification strategy to move away from an economy strongly based on gas and oil. The national authorities consider that high-quality education, especially at the tertiary level, is absolutely essential to succeed in this strategy. Despite of repeated reforms since the middle of the nineties, there are still some important difficulties in the Qatari higher education system, and especially in Qatar University (QU), the main national university. One of them is related to academic programs not really preparing students for professional integration. The Pro-Skima project aims at finding possible pedagogical modifications of the curriculum of the Master of Science in Computing of QU, to better meet the needs of highly skilled workers in the IT professional sector in Qatar. Part of this project is a sociological study of the main characteristics of the existing curriculum of this master program. Results highlight a curriculum based on an Anglo-Saxon model. In this model, several internal and external accreditation institutions have a strong influence on any evolution of the curriculum. They put different constraints that give little space to discuss more flexibly with local employers in order to change the curriculum. Further developments of the project consist in finding what could be some concrete solutions to overcome these difficulties and bring the curriculum closer to employers’ needs. On possibility is to experiment a curriculum that includes more workplace learning periods.