UCL Qatar’s 2015 class of Museum Studies, Conservation and Archaeology students are currently embarking on four week work placements at leading local, regional and international museums, art galleries and archaeological sites.
UCL Qatar is a multi-disciplinary university and the placements are a compulsory component of the Master’s degree programmes to enable students to gain outstanding experience in a work environment. Supported by UCL Qatar, students are encouraged to pursue a placement that fits with their academic interests.
UCL Qatar, in partnership with Qatar Museums, arranged for students to take their placements at local museums including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum and the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).
International destinations accepting the UCL Qatar Master’s degree students include London’s Natural History Museum and The British Museum, Barker Langham - a leading global cultural consultancy of cultural heritage projects, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASA), Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington DC, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum ür Islamische Kunst in Berlin and the Iziko Museum in South Africa.
For those seeking first-hand experience of archaeological excavations and heritage conservation, UCL Qatar students in collaboration with Heritage Without Borders are undertaking archaeological excavations in Otrar, Kazakhstan.
Wafa Suwaileh, a Qatari student from the MSc Conservation Studies degree programme is taking her internship at the British Museum in London.
Victoria Alexander, a MA Museum and Gallery Practice student opted to conduct her placement in South Africa. “I’m spending four weeks for my placement working in the Education and Public Programs department of the Iziko Museums in Cape Town. As many schools cannot afford the cost of travel to the museum, the outreach work by the Iziko ‘Mobile Museum’ bus is particularly important and I have been able to help at several outreach sessions at schools and a hospital already.”
John Fisher, a MA Archaeology of the Arab and Islamic World student is currently in Otrar, Southern Kazakhstan working in collaboration with Heritage Without Borders, a unique charity working in developing countries to support heritage projects in situations of poverty, conflict and disaster.
UCL Qatar is currently accepting applications to all of its Master’s degrees and Diploma programmes for entryon August 30. The degree programmes vary between one and two years in length and can be taken on a full-time basis, or on a part-time basis, which is suitable for candidates who are currently in employment. The application deadline is June 1 and applications can be submitted online via the UCL Qatar website.
The Peninsula
