Qatar University joins a handful of global universities in the metaverse

 

Qatar University has signed an MOU with Metavisionaries, a community of change makers, thought leaders and industry experts who are committed to providing access to the space economy and frontier technologies to build socially inclusive competency and human capacity required to meet immediate and future sustainability challenges.

Metavisionaries is offering MetaEduVersity and space campus the Metaship which utilizes web3 and the metaverse combined with our physical SPACE INNOVATION LABS with our partners ICE Cubes.

Qatar University while espousing to be the first university in the metaverse, will actually be joining 10 other US based universities who will be offering metaverse experience in the fall of 2022. Prior to Qatar University announcement, ten universities are getting set to launch their own metaversities this fall to provide students and professors with a “digital twin” replica campus in which to attend courses, using a Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset provided through a partnership with VictoryXR and Meta.

The announcement said students at Morehouse College in Georgia, the University of Kansas School of Nursing, New Mexico State University, South Dakota State University, Florida A&M University, West Virginia University, Southwestern Oregon Community College, California State University, Alabama A&M University and University of Maryland Global Campus will be able to use the technology to attend courses synchronously from anywhere.

In addition the University of Tokyo also announced it will be launching a wide range of educational programs in the metaverse in 2022. The international Space University, also entered the metaverse with Metavisionaries in the Metaship for an onsite lecture. 

As for Qatar University, Dr. Omar Al Ansari Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Qatar University, was sent to the International Space Station through Metavisonaries’ partners, ICE Cubes and Malleth II Program in which he stated, “I am proud to be inspiring our next generation with Metavisionaries by bringing space curricula to the masses and providing them with immersive learning experiences to prepare them to create sustainable future and a better world for all.”

During her keynote speech that took place in the metaverse spaceship, Dean Sobh said: “As the National leading university in Qatar and top ranked in the region, we should take the lead in pushing boundaries and keep reinventing our purpose, curricula and pedagogies to remain relevant and prepare our graduate for success in an increasingly turbulent, uncertain and challenging environment. Web 3.0 will play an ever-increasing role in education in the next few decades. When the history of the educational metaverse is written, we would like to be cited as one of the ground-breaking universities.”

She added that the College of Business and Economics is partnering with Metavisionaries, Ice cubes, Space applications and other global partners to launch a Global Space Sustainability challenge that would bring together students from different disciplines and universities around the globe in the aim to come up with innovative solutions that tackle pressing issues related to one or more areas of Sustainable Development Goals.

 

“We need to reimagine business and should no longer make trade-offs between profit and advancing sustainability. We can achieve synergies between the two and leverage space to help achieve that,” said Dean Sobh.

Wasim Ahmed, CEO for Metavisionaries, said: “The pandemic accelerated the rate of technology adoption in the education sector. Web 3.0 and the Metaverse are paving the way for education to be reimagined. In that sense, the partnership with Qatar University showcases the university’s determination to play a leading role in shaping and enabling the transformation to prepare future generations for the future of work.”