An increasing number of foreign universities are setting up campus here.
For many years people from all over the world have flocked to the UAE for the work oppurtunities. The global expatriate community has used the country as a location to gain valuable career experience and to increase bank balances, before returning to their own country and settling into a better quality of life there. But as the UAE develops its amenities, more than ever before foreigners are seriously contemplating relocation here on a permanent basis.
Education in focus
Abu Dhabi is embracing this change of thought and is determined to diversify its attributes so that it will gain recognition as one of the most desirable living environments in the world.
Rather than focusing solely on the world of work, Abu Dhabi has begun to focus on the role that education has to play in this master plan and has set the wheels in motion to offer students prestigious qualifications.
The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) was set up in September 2005 by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to develop education and educational institutions in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The council seeks to support relations between educational institutions and the private sector. It also aims to raise the standard of education and vocational training for graduates, which will provide greater employment opportunities.
Abu Dhabi University which was chartered as a private institution of higher learning in the year 2000 and currently serves 3,000 students at its two campuses in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, has welcomed this philosophy. The College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University plans to launch a Cisco Networking Academy in cooperation with Cisco Systems, Inc., in 2008.
Prestigious universities
The Cisco Networking Academy Programme teaches students to design, build and maintain computer networks. It is regarded that this programme will prepare students for industry standard certifications. These certifications are viewed as valid criteria for assessing skills and assuring an employer that the certified individual has practical qualifications.
Under the auspices of the ADEC, Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (PSUAD) is among the first globally-recognised universities to set-up in the UAE capital. The Abu Dhabi campus is a sibling to one of the world's most prestigious and oldest universities, the 750-year-old Université Paris – Sorbonne, the epitome of excellence in the field of Humanities.
It recently launched four new courses alongside celebrations which marked the end of its first academic year. The first outpost of the Sorbonne now offers two masters' programmes in 'Urbanism and Urban Planning' and 'Marketing, Management and Communication' and Bachelor of Arts degrees in the domains of music and law.
The university which will occupy a campus designed to accommodate up to 2,000 students is hoped to play a significant contribution to Abu Dhabi's objectives, both in the cultural and educational forays. This is just the first arts-based facility that Abu Dhabi hopes to open.
Ivy league in Abu Dhabi
At the moment, Abu Dhabi's government is also in talks with Yale University regarding the possibility of opening an arts institute on Saadiyat Island.
However, Yale is not the first American university to consider a satellite institution in Abu Dhabi. New York University (NYU) has already confirmed an alliance with the Abu Dhabi government for a facility in the emirate.
NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) will be primarily a residential research campus but it will be furnished with academic quality and practices harmonious with the existing standards at NYU's Washington Square campus. This will be the first comprehensive liberal arts campus established abroad by a principal US university and it is estimated that the first class of students will enrol in 2010.
To market the forthcoming establishment in Abu Dhabi, NYU will establish the "NYU Abu Dhabi Institute" to host conferences and seminars involving scholars from NYU and the Middle East. These programs will promote academic and intellectual connections between NYU in Washington Square and NYUAD while the campus is being developed.
Eventually, NYUAD is projected to have at least 2,000 undergraduate students and about 800 graduate students. The ideal is that NYUAD campus will not be denied to well-qualified students because of inadequate resources and so financial aid will be available. Students enrolled in NYUAD will also be offered the chance to spend time at the Washington Square campus and a semester in one of NYU's other global sites. The development of NYUAD is a key step in the evolution of NYU as a "global network university" — a university with a global presence through facilities linked to the main campus in New York and to one another, attracting brilliant scholars worldwide.
In general, these accords are of a mutually advantageous nature. They offer the universities overseas expansion without loss of control over these extensions abroad, while the foreign government covers all of the expense in exchange for the prestige.
By Maria dowdall stapleton, Gulf News Report