DSG begins new academic year

Dubai: Thirty-five graduate students yesterday started their academic year at the Dubai School of Government's new Master of Public Administration (MPA), a one-year professional programme that trains students for positions in government, quasi-governmental service or the non-profit sectors.

Dr Tarek Yousuf, Dean of the Dubai School of Government (DSG), introduced the students to the faculty and staff of the school during an orientation session marking the start of their academic year.

Dr Mohammad Lahouel, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, told Gulf News that the programme gives public servants in the Arab world the opportunity to learn and train at a highly qualified school in the UAE. The students have worked in prime ministerial offices and other governmental or educational institutions in Mauritania, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine and other Arab countries.

"The diversity of backgrounds of the students in terms of academic training and work experience in different countries will enhance the quality of the programme," he said.

The programme is both theoretical and practical and involves working with the industry on a specific problem and providing a policy reform recommendation.

"Much of the training is applied and not abstract... Teaching helps students use modern analysis instruments to deal with issues they are faced with in the real world," he added.

The school consulted with Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government for recommendations on how to proceed but the programme was designed in-house and the faculty are DSG-based.

Khalid Al Yahya, a faculty member who taught at US-based Arizona State University and was a fellow at Harvard University, will be teaching a course in public administration and ethics in the public sector.

Ethical challenges

"Ethics and business practice is a very important problem in the region, so we need to focus on the ethical challenges that face the public sector in everyday life," he told Gulf News.

Tarek Coury, an economist and associate professor who taught at Cambridge University and Oxford University, said that the students and faculty will focus on strategic issues, including institutional features in the Middle Eat, economic diversification, including other topics pertinent to the region.

"Our mission is to focus on reality and not perception and to try to influence the direction of economics, public and industrial policy to make it more systematic and rational," he said.

Al Yahya said that the professor will aim to create knowledge, not only focus on teaching. "Social policy issues usually tackle the US, Europe and Asia, not the Middle East. We (the faculty members) are all Arabs who studied and taught in the US, we're seeing the region changing and we want to be part of this transformation," he added.