Universities cannot afford to be ivory towers any longer. Take a look at some of the more proactive universities' websites and you will notice items that would not have been there five years ago.
From Twitter links, YouTube channels and Facebook profiles on their websites, local universities are realising that if they want to better engage with their current students and prospective students, they need to improve their accessibility.
And it's not just the marketing department, admissions officers or faculty members who are engaging with students; senior officials, too, are daring to step out of their comfort zones to become more available to the university community.
One of these officials is University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) president Prof Rob Whelan who recently set up a Twitter account in his capacity as head of the varsity.
Whelan's "UOWDpres" profile is open to anyone who wishes to follow his tweets where he comments on his daily activities, upcoming events and views on higher education issues.
"I guess for me it was a fairly small step from Facebook to Twitter... I just recently, in the past six months, have seen the many examples of the power of Twitter and thought it was worth exploring," said Whelan.
"I have a 22-year-old daughter and learnt that the best way to keep in touch was to use her methods of communication." This meant signing up to Facebook and he used the same approach with the university community at his university.
When he addressed new students at an orientation last week, Whelan told students about his Twitter usage and "the feedback I got was that ‘our president is cool'". He remarked, however, that UAE students use Facebook a lot more than Twitter while graduate business school students were using Twitter to network and seek jobs.
Scepticism about benefits
Not all senior officials are wildly enthusiastic about being that accessible to the public.
While Middlesex University Dubai engages with students through Face-book, and its faculty, students use blogs for teaching purposes or share project work through sites like Flickr, its director Prof Raed Awamleh is still gauging its importance.
"It has to be linked to the wider purpose and function for the user. We will not use it for the sake of using it."
Awamleh said he doesn't use social networking much but with the university it's something he could consider.
The university, however, will be giving all new students iPads this semester. With the wireless environment on campus and the iPad's e-book feature, the university plans to upload teaching material so students can access it on the device in addition to digital databases and e-libraries.
Graduate business schools have always been a lot more accessible to their more mature students due to the nature of their programmes.
Manchester Business School academic affairs director Dr Alistair Benson also has his reservations. "My take on all these things is the utility of it. Too many things are adopted because it looks pretty and shiny."
Benson said effective information mechanisms should not be introduced just to follow fashions and that they should be there just to support the learning process. "Relaying information to students is vital but I want a warm body in front of a class. You need human contact to solve problems that would take weeks to do electronically."
Whelan agrees senior university members are nervous and sceptical about the benefits of social media. "They're nervous because it's not tried and tested yet as a tool in higher education." They may have private Facebook accounts but are nervous about they way Twitter is used. "With Twitter you put it out into the world and there is no controlling the flow of information. My view is that if you are a strong university and listen to students then you have nothing to fear. It's courageous to listen to students and have nothing to fear."
He added they have something to gain as people are able to make quick comments or state ideas immediately but if it were a formal setting the opportunity would pass.
Complete overhaul
The American University of Sharjah (AUS) and Zayed University are among those universities that have completely revamped their old websites to include elements that would keep prospective students and the public on their sites for longer.
"We've basically taken a look at the existing website, which has a lot of information but is a bit dated, to update it and make it more contemporary, focusing on information that would be of interest to prospective students," said Lorin Ritchie, Director of Strategic Planning and Accreditation at AUS.
Ritchie said social media is incorporated to get more in tune with students and how they communicate. The site, which is set to go live next month, is also more functional with links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as a live chat feature so prospective students can engage in chat sessions with admissions staff.
President tweets
Prof Rob Whelan, University of Wollongong in Dubai president, has set up a public Twitter account where he shares his thoughts on higher education matters.
On the pulse of trends
The American University of Sharjah already has a YouTube channel that has received hundreds of hits and will launch its new, more contemporary, website at the start of the spring semester.
Online revamp
Zayed University has a new website, which features YouTube, Twitter and Facebook links.
Ipads for freshmen
Middlesex University Dubai has researched students technology preferences and will be giving new students iPads at the start of the semester so they can upload course material and access e-libraries.
