Dubai: Under a new remote learning project that the Ministry of Education will put into place students enrolled in UAE universities will be allowed to take online courses with foreign universities.
The UAE Ministry of Education Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi revealed on Thursday while talking to the press, he said, that the second day of the “Remote” forum aimed at activating the nation’s pragmatic agenda for remote work remote education and remote healthcare.
“We are introducing micro-credentials, where you can be enrolled in a university in the UAE and as part of the program, take an online program that you get credit to,” he told Storyline World on the sidelines of the forum.
Micro-credentials allow students to learn subjects and skills not taught in university courses.
Further, the Ministry of Education explained, “You can enroll at the university here, and you can take one of the online courses with one of the accredited institutions…and you get credit for that course at your own university. It isn’t necessary for you to attend every course at that university in person. We plan to integrate remote education by allowing you to choose a few you can do from another university and still receive credit at your own university. That’s how we will do it.”
How Will It Help?
Michael Allen, provost and Chief Academic Officer of Zayed University a public university based in the United Arab Emirates was a second speaker that day and told the press that universities will promote micro-credentials to enable students to graduate with additional qualifications.
“Universities, including ours, will increasingly do this.”
Students receive micro-credentials when they graduate with a regular bachelor’s degree he said.
It could be project management or something else entirely there are plenty of things that don’t require a full major. If someone is looking to get a micro-credential in project management or machine learning they don’t have to be a tech major. This could be any student in the arts, social sciences, or even another field that are able to give employers proof of their mastery with an industry-recognized micro-credential.
Another speaker, Basil Ayass, Regional Sales Lead at Google Cloud for the Education and Healthcare sector in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, highlighted a similar initiative from Google that enables individuals to acquire professional certification equivalent to a degree.
Because the conventional four-year degree does not keep up with the technical requirements in cutting-edge fields, Google launched Career Certificates.
He said that when Google announced that these certificates would be treated as four-year bachelor degrees, 153 companies across the US joined its consortium and signed the pledge that they would do the same.
It is not the employers’ requirements that need to change. It is the university’s offering that needs to change.
Challenge For Partners
Noura Bint Mohammed Al Kaabi participated in a panel discussion titled “Beyond the Campus: Examining Possibilities and Challenges for Remote Higher Education.”
According to the Minister of State and President of Zayed University, a public university based in the United Arab Emirates universities should abandon boundaries and explore partnerships that will prepare students for the future.
Zayed University a public university based in the United Arab Emirates has launched an initiative titled “Partner Challenge.”
Through this initiative, each student is paired with a private company and is given a real-life challenge based on the lessons they are learning.
Al Kaabi said the initiative will prepare students for the future before they graduate. In many western universities, it’s also called a “co-op program.”
She said that when our first cohort (enrolled in this initiative) graduates in 2025, each student will have a position with a private or public entity.
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