A “Catholic mission” for students from the Gulf states and North Africa – who is DePaul kidding

Published: May 18, 2015 at 6:29pm
Zonqor Point: the site which the government is intent on giving to Hani Hasan Naji Al Salah

Zonqor Point: the site which the government is intent on giving to Hani Hasan Naji Al Salah

DePaul University’s site quotes GianMartino Besano, its ‘associate provost for global engagement’, as saying: “Sadeen Education Investment Ltd is seeking approval to establish the American University of Malta. The university is expected to attract students from North Africa, the Gulf, expats and other students who would like to experience American-style curricula…Malta is a predominantly Catholic country, and DePaul’s Catholic mission and values resonate with many in the area.”

DePaul University has made it quite clear that it will not be involved with this university in any way beyond developing curricula. So how exactly does its “Catholic mission” come into it?

Surely we are not expected to believe that its Catholic mission has been put to work for a Muslim client who aims to provide an EU-Schengen-visa college for Muslim students from the Gulf States and North Africa.

How much more steaming BS can we take?

This fabulous university is going to have just five BA programmes, three of which will be Business, Finance and Computer Game Development. We don’t yet know what the other two are, but they are likely to be off-shoots of the other three (“the finance of computer game development”).

You can tell by the very degree programmes what kind of market they’re going for: the Schengen Zone visa market for rich Gulf State kids who want to play at reading for a degree in the only subjects they understand.