Education Section
Third level education in Abu Dhabi
Interview with Mr. Bob Lipsett,
MBA Manager, UAE University
Interview with Dr. Michael M. Ohadi,
Provost and Acting President, The Petroleum Institute
Victoria Kelly
The United Arab Emirates
University
The United Arab Emirates University is one of three
federal universities in the UAE. The main campus is
located in Al Ain, but the MBA programme is housed
in the city of Abu Dhabi. With thirty-five thousand
graduates spread across eight faculties this university
is well established, having been in operation for the
past thirty-one years.
CEO Financial spoke to Bob Lipsett, a Canadian
expatriate in charge of the MBA programme, which
has been in existence since 2001.
“A good education system is imperative to the needs
of any country in order to sustain the economy.
The youth of society today are tomorrow’s leaders
and there has to be due provision made to ensure
that universities turn out individuals fully equipped
with the skills needed to undertake high profile
demanding job roles and also be the job creators”,
Lipsett asserts.
A key theme in Vision 2030 is to have a knowledge
based society. This can only be achieved through the
work of schools, universities and higher colleges of
technology. In order to have a true knowledge based
society there must be sufficient numbers of graduates
undertaking masters and PhD level programmes,
something which the UAE has lacked in the past.
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This is all changing, as Bob Lipsett informs us,
“The MBA programme has been a major success.
Our programme is built on reputation and
accreditation. We are only one of two universities in
the UAE and one of five in the entire GCC that has
worldwide accreditation. Our MBA is recognised
around the world”.
Worldwide accreditation is judged by how much
research a university conducts and also the calibre
of professors teaching. At UAE University there are
about sixty-five instructors from a total of thirtyeight different countries, so the teaching mix is
truly diverse. The MBA programme has two patron
institutions which act as business partners - the Abu
Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and ADNOC. With
regard to the student body on the MBA programme
approximately ninety percent are from the UAE and
ten percent are expats from many different countries.
The ratio of male to female is equal. The average age
of an MBA student is late twenties to early thirties
and many of these people are undertaking the MBA
at the behest of the company for whom they are
working. Many companies sponsor their employees
to ensure they have the most highly educated
and skilled people working for them. The entire
MBA programme takes about twenty months to
complete and there is also an opportunity to study at
Georgetown University in the United States, as this
is the institution’s partner university.