Language education policy in Qatar in recent years has imposed changes on Qatari higher education institutions, which moved to English as a medium of instruction in 2003 and then back to Arabic in 2012. This latter movement, as we will expand upon below, was motivated by a desire to preserve the national language, namely Arabic, as well as national identity and culture (Mustafawi et al., 2019 & Wyatt et al., 2023). It can also be seen as a rejection of colonialism and foreign interference (Almuhaish, 2016 & Amin et al., 2023). This article reveals the effects of returning to Arabic as a medium of instruction on Mass Communication students enrolled in sociolinguistics course at Qatar University. This discipline was chosen mainly because of the intrinsic connection between it and language education policies and given that Mass Communication is a field that is yet to be extensively studied. It also explores whether Arabic and cultural preservation policies are compatible with an education system that calls for a greater need for English and openness and an economic system that aims to become knowledge-based.