The Emirates Aviation College (EAC) saw its first cohort of students enrolled in the MBA in Aviation Management programme graduate last week, at the college's two-day ceremony. Due to a substantial shortage of qualified professionals in the UAE's aviation industry, EAC introduced MBA programmes in 2007, said Dr Ahmad Al Ali, Senior Vice President of EAC.
"As a part of the Emirates Group, we are aware of the shortage of professionals in aviation," he said. "We've previously had general MBA programmes but discontinued them and decided to introduce a specialised one instead," added Al Ali.
Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates airlines and Group, conferred the degrees on nearly 30 MBA in Aviation Management students, four of whom are UAE nationals.
"UAE nationals make up 10 per cent of the MBA student body," said Al Ali. "Although we would like to have a lot more, this is a reflection of the population of the UAE, making it a reasonable ratio," he added.
Al Ali said the programme deems graduates eligible for careers in the airline industry, at airports and as cargo operators, amongst others. "We know from recent reports that the aviation industry is one of the fastest growing," added Al Ali.
The 16-month course costs Dh85,000 for the general public and Dh60,000 for Emirates staff.
Top of the class
Reeta Tarek, 25, graduated top of the MBA in Aviation Management class and has begun a PhD programme in electronics at EAC. Tarek works part-time as an aerospace device and circuit electronics lecturer at EAC and said she pursued the MBA programme because it was the only one available in the UAE.
"I've always wanted to study something in the field of aviation because I find it interesting and this course was the only one in the UAE," she said.
"I originally wanted to do my bachelors degree in aviation electronics but couldn't find a course so I studied electronic engineering instead," she added.
Thirst for knowledge
Already a month into her PhD programme, Tarek will begin research into micro generators and the conversion of vibrations into energy. "There are specific areas where we need small generators," she said.
Tarek added that her research will cover the use of micro generators in areas such as medicine, to use in pacemaker devices. "Instead of investigating ways to increase battery life we could use micro generators which don't need replacement," she added.
Studying the conversion of movement into energy is a topic Tarek picked in order to improve herself as a teacher. "Since I already teach electronics I wanted to develop myself further as a teacher," she said.
UPDATE
At the Emirates Aviation College's 19th graduation ceremony nearly 400 students graduated from programmes including: an MBA in Aviation Management; Bachelors degrees in Aerospace Technology, Avionics Technology, Aeronautical Engineering, Aviation Management and Applied Business; Diplomas and Higher Diplomas in Aerospace Engineering, Electronics Engineering and Computing, Computing Software Development, Business Management and Tourism Management.
Additionally, 34 Emirati, Emirates airlines employees graduated from a Computing Software Development programme.
