• Home

AUS reputation wins over foreign students

SHARJAH — There are signs that the UAE can emerge as an international education hub if the reputation of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) is a pointer.

The AUS reputation has transcended the country's borders with between 30 to forty per cent of the new students hailing from outside the country, the University's Chancellor Dr Winfred Thompson told the Khaleej Times.

He said that this significant number of students from outside the country who were admitted for this academic year 2005-2006 emphasised its success in grabbing attention of students and parents from different countries.

"Such influx gave the opportunity for the AUS to grab students with high grades," he noted adding, "We have accepted only students who scored 80 per cent and above in their high school this academic year."

About 850 new students have enrolled with the UAE. Twenty per cent of them were UAE nationals and between 40 to 50 were expatriates living in the UAE and the rest were from outside the country. The local students were coming from the different emirates from Abu Dhabi Fujariah, he noted adding, " The university was found a secure by many parents not only on academic level but the social as well as it provides housing to students from outside and inside the country."

The AUS held a welcome session, which was attended by about 1000 to 1500 students and their parents on Friday. The welcomes session is aimed to introduce to the new students and parents the university's requirements and the schedule of the first week.

New students will have to sit for placement exams and based on the results students will be referred to the relevant section, he explained.

Wishing all students to continue excelling in their university life, Dr Thompson called on students to attended classes regularly and to study hard especially during the first two weeks because if the failed to do that they will lag behind subsequently and it will be very difficult for them to catch up.

Dr John Alvin Mosbo, Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs expressed satisfaction over the new independent US accreditation, which the university received last summer from the Middle State Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia. "We are very proud to be the first to receive such recognition in the UAE and even the region."

In addition to pursuing US accreditation, AUS has also been seeking accreditation in each of its programmes through the UAE Ministry of Education which "has set up a commission on academic accreditation and charged that group with doing a thorough evaluation of educational programmed offered in the UAE," he explained.

The AUS offers 20 undergraduate programmes and six masters programmes offered by its 243 faculty members who are recruited for their expertise in the various subject areas and teaching experience, he added.

• UAE