UAE University to get state-of-the-art IT college

Al Ain: The country's biggest educational institution, UAE University, is to get a state-of-the-art building for its College of Information Technology.

The Dh140 million building has been under construction since July 2004 and is expected to be handed over to the university in the middle of this year, said Dr Abdullah Al Khanbashi, Provost of the university.

A financial grant for the college was made by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2003 (then Crown Prince), helping the university to fulfil its long-standing ambition.

It is the second faculty building to be built with the support of Shaikh Khalifa. Earlier, he ordered premises to be built for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at a cost of Dh250 million.

The College of Information Technology (CIT) is the brainchild of Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the Minister of Education and Chancellor of UAE University.

He sees the project as an endeavour to educate young UAE nationals in various fields of information technology.

The project is being implemented in phases. Some 200 students have been studying in eight different programmes since September 2000 in a temporary facility at the university.

Dr Al Khanbashi and Mohammad Abdullah Al Owain, Director of the UAE University's Campus Development Department, yesterday visited the site for the building and inspected construction work.

The four-storey building will cover an area of 31,000 square metres and is designed to accommodate some 3,000 students and staff. Facilities include a cafeteria, student and faculty lounges, laboratories, classrooms, an auditorium, conference halls and workshops.

Focus on design

The new CIT building will be located inside the planned University Town coming up in Al Maqam.

The University Town will draw together various university facilities which are currently scattered around the city.

The CIT project has a special focus on the design of the college's building to match future requirements.