Education

The UAE has become known as a center of excellence for academia in the Middle East. It has already generated valuable link-ups with institutions in the United States, and is keen to pursue more.

Center of learning excellence in the Middle East

Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education

Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, a.k.a. “The Father of the Higher Colleges of Technology,” has dedicated his life to bringing academic excellence to the UAE.

As Chancellor or the Higher Colleges of Technology as well as Minister of Higher Education, Sheikh Nahyan is making the UAE a prestigious international hub for global knowledge sharing and exchange. Most recently, this has been accomplished through cooperation between HCT, the Higher Colleges of Technology, one of the largest and most progressive places of learning in the UAE, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan school of Management and Entrepreneurship Center. March 31st 2004 saw the first HCT-MIT Global Entrepreneurship Conference, where participants from around the world, primarily students and top business executives, met for three days in Dubai to discuss entrepreneurship and how it is crucial to economic growth and global competitiveness. Speakers included Dr. Steven Covey, Chairman of The Boeing Company, Mr. Lewis Platt, and Professor Lester C. Thurow.

The relationship established between HCT and MIT, Nahyan believes, is the first of many joint collaborative projects between HCT and top academic institutions. The UAE, however, is no stranger to Ivy League Universities; The Harvard Graduate School of Education, for example, has established a higher education institute in Abu Dhabi and HCT’s bi-annual Education Without Borders conference brings bright young minds from every corner of the globe into a forum setting where the creation of ideas and the sharing of knowledge can begin. Participating students listen to advice from successful professionals and then present to their peers and have presentations and papers critiqued by experts, such as Dr. Edward de Bono and Ms. Liz Mohn, two of the participants in 2003.

Since HCT’s inception in 1988, Nahyan has insisted that the colleges’ level of academic excellence meet the highest global standards, so that cooperation between HCT, which now comprises 11 colleges and over 15,000 students, and other top universities would be an obvious next step. To this end, HCT teamed with industry leader Hewlett-Packard to ensure the highest level of technology was available in all campuses. HP also assisted in the creation of CERT (Center of Excellence for Applied Research and Training) College, which promotes rigorous, practical higher education studies. CERT brings together business and technology and compliments HCT by giving students tailor-made programs and courses according to regional and global business and technology needs. In addition, CERT, with the assistance of HP, operates two technology parks and a mobile training lab for government and private employees. The technology parks, in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, foster and develop the latest technology in the UAE and promote the development of necessary technological infrastructure, encouraging innovative alliances with multinational organizations and providing a “fertile incubator to grow new business and technology projects for the country and the region.”