UAE university students back on campus for new year

Dubai: Hundereds of thousands of university students across the UAE are back on campus to start the 2015-16 academic year.

Universities across the country had different starting dates for the new academic year, however many started around the beginning of September.

Gulf News spoke to universities to learn about their new programme offerings and to new students who shared their excitement and concerns regarding this new chapter in their life.

The American University of Sharjah (AUS) has over 6,000 students enrolled during the Fall 2015 semester.

Out of the 6,000 students, around 1,250 are new undergraduate students.

Kevin Mitchell, Interim Provost of AUS, said the most popular majors this year (with the highest number of students enrolled) are mechanical engineering, civil engineering, finance and management. Mitchell said AUS continually adds new courses to provide students with opportunities to benefit from highly qualified faculty members with a broad range of expertise.

“This fall students will have the opportunity to take a range of new courses. For example, new courses include those focused on the principles of neuroscience, luxury brand management, fundamentals of nanophysics, green building design, music ensemble, and literary translation into Arabic,” he said.

SP Jain School of Global Management enrolled a total of 453 students this year, out of which 237 were new students.

This year, SP Jain is offering new Bachelor in Economics, Bachelor of Business Communication and new Entrepreneurship specialisation in the BBA programme.

SP Jain has also introduced the Business Education 2.0 — a new-age education platform across programmes.

This year, Forbes ranked SP Jain School of Global Management’s Global MBA programme in 10th place in its Best International 1-year MBA programmes (2015 -16).

At Zayed University, the total number of students registered is 9,143, out of which, 1,928 are new students who joined for the 2015-2016 academic year.

The most popular majors at Zayed University this year are Business Sciences — Finance, Sustainability Sciences and Humanities and Communication and Media Sciences.

At Skyline University College in Sharjah, a total of 1,100 students have been enrolled and the university is currently still enrolling students.

Dr Amitabh Upadhya, Professor, Dean, Skyline University College, Sharjah, said at the MBA Level: Strategic Management and leadership and E- Governance are the most popular majors. At the BBA Level Public Administration, Finance, International Business and Travel and Tourism are the most popular.

Students who are starting their university journey this year shared some of their concerns.

“I can’t wait to start university; I am going to the American University of Sharjah to study electrical engineering and many of my friends are joining the same university too,” said Emirati Mohammad Al Saadi.

Al Saadi, however, is concerned about not being able to cope with learning all the subjects in English after having studied in Arabic all his life.

Jordanian student Ala’a Shams, on the other hand, is worried she won’t be able to fit in. “I came here from Jordan to study at Middlesex University. I get anxious thinking that I will not be able to make friends and get homesick,” she said.