Innovation and reform will help UAE University shape future
Academics say that institution must be equal to change
AL AIN // The country’s oldest university, UAE University in Al Ain, aims to keep reinventing itself to keep up with the economy, its academic chiefs say.
UAEU climbed from the 101-to110 bracket in the Times Higher Education Asia rankings last year to 83 this year, but its vice chancellor, Prof Mohammed Albaili, said this was “not sufficient for the UAE, so we have to work together to advance the university”.
Prof Nagi Wakim, dean of the college of graduate studies, agreed. “I’ve advocated the need for reform for a long time,” he said.
Moving away from traditional specialisations, such as maths and physics, towards modern applied fields with career tracks, such as nuclear physics, is vital for today’s students. “We need to take programmes and reform then,” Prof Wakim said. Some courses are even becoming obsolete now, such as e- business, which is being replaced by the likes of cyber security.
He said change within an institution as established as UAEU had its challenges.
“The older you are and the bigger you are, the less able to diversify you are.
“It’s easier for these younger, smaller institutions to adapt, but all institutions should constantly be reforming. Higher education here is a little behind – it should push and enable new thinking at government level but, just now, it’s the other way around.”
The university must put more focus on its graduate programmes, said its provost, Prof Ghaleb Alhadrami.
“To become research- intensive, we need to focus on the graduate programmes and the more people we have in these programmes, the more research-focused we can become.”
Funding challenges remain a barrier to research activity – one of the key factors that helps determine the ranking of a university. UAEU, set up in 1976, has an array of disciplines, from medicine and health sciences to education. It also hosts several research centres. But it is still not producing enough research to elevate it further in global rankings.
Dr Shawqi Kharbash, chief executive of the university’s science park, graduated from the institution in 2001. Having seen the university grow since then, he agreed it was time to shake things up.
“We need to reform the way we teach students, the skills we teach them, not teaching them to learn the things we learnt but teaching them to be adaptable and we must be adaptable, with the curriculum constantly revised,” he said. Forty per cent of current jobs would disappear with other jobs emerging in the coming years, said Prof Albaili.
That is why “we have to reform our programmes and equip our students with skills for the next era”, he said.
“The world is talking about the ‘ fourth industrial revolution’, which will affect everything in our life,” he said, adding that it was vital the institution did not get left behind. “One of our weaknesses is industry involvement. We need to generate more money through our partnerships with industry,” Prof Albaili said.
Reforms will also extend to student experiences, he said. While they do three months of internships, he wants students to be employed in their target industry for six months while at university.