KARACHI, Nov 17: The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUQ), will launch the Fifth Annual Design Competition in Pakistan. This competition is launched every year in the Middle East and is now being introduced for the first time in Pakistan. Open to all students in their senior year of high school, the Fifth Annual Design Competition will be held simultaneously in Qatar, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.

The theme of this year’s Design Competition is “If it was up to me”. It gives students the opportunity to share their vision of what an ideal future would be like while considering ways to improve the living environment. Two entrants will win a full four-year Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missnet Scholarships for Creativity at VCUQ and the top three high school students from each of the twelve countries will receive cash prizes of $1400 for first place, $800 for second place and $600 for third place.

VCUQ is branch campus of the fully accredited VCU School of the Arts in the United States. It is the highest ranked publicly funded design university in the United States according to the 2005 US News and World Report specially rankings. The graduate programmes in Graphic Design is rated fourth overall and it is ranked first among public university programmes.

All competition entries must be posted by January 15, 20007. For more information students can visit prospective students’ scholarship section at www.qatar.vcu.edu or call +9744927213, or email MQAZAFI2QATAR.VCU.EDU.