Aviation programme for Gulf nationals

Dubai: The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has partnered with City University London to offer master's programmes in aviation management to ensure quality training for Emiratis in the aviation industry.

The MSc management degrees in the fields of air transport, air safety and aircraft maintenance were launched out of Cass Business School in DIFC, which is part of City University London.

"What we are doing is providing education that will improve the commercial operation of air transport in the region," said Professor Roger Wootton, Course Director for air transport and aircraft maintenance management at City University London. "Aviation is a lead industry in the GCC and we already have over 70 graduates who live and work here, many of whom are Gulf nationals."

For the cost of Dh60,000 students can enrol on one of the flexible part-time master's programmes, which typically take up to three years to complete.

"We intake continuously throughout the year but the courses are for students who are in mid-career," he said. "They have to be licensed pilots or air traffic controllers for example with a minimum of two years of use of their professional licences."

The MSc programmes in aviation have over 400 students worldwide, nearly 100 of whom are from the GCC region.

Cass success

The master's programmes come as part of City University's expansion in the region off the back of Cass Business School's success. Cass was established in the DIFC Centre of Excellence in 2007 and has seen a year-on-year growth in its Executive MBA intake, now in its fourth cohort of 100 students.

City University plans to expand in the region through short course offerings in the fields of law and journalism, facilitated by Cass, said Professor Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor of City University on a recent visit to Dubai.

"There has always been a strong interest in this part of the world," said Curran.

"With City University's firm foothold through the work of Cass, expansion is a natural development to look at our other areas of strength."

Due to the recent uprisings in the Middle East, Richard Gillingwater, Dean of Cass Business School was at first apprehensive about the school's regional operations.

"We were fearful of the general impact when troubles developed in Tunisia and we saw this domino effect spread throughout the region," he said. "[But] in fact it has been positive in terms of the continued development of our activities as we are in fact seeing our best-ever recruitment here so far."

He added that Cass is hoping to expand its operations in the region to offer not only one of the world's leading Executive MBA courses but also grow its executive development programmes.