UAE University vice-chancellor Dr Hadef bin Jouan Al Dhahiri said the memorandum of understanding would enable the university to achieve its goal of strengthening its focus on IT education by providing on-the-job training to the students. He said the deal will also help us bridge the gap between academic studies and the job market, he said.
The MOU spells out mutual co-operation in areas such as research and benchmarking, content for e-learning and hands-on training of Dubai eGovernment systems.
Hadef bin Jouan Al Dhahiri and Salem Al Shair, director eServices, Dubai eGovernment, signed the MOU at Dubai eGovernment offices.
Al Shair said: 'This MOU paves the way for enhanced co-operation in research, internship and training at government departments, for UAE University students.
'It will also open doors for Government employees with bachelor's degrees to pursue masters degrees at the UAE University.
'Additionally, the recent opening of the UAE University's Dubai offices at Knowledge Village will give a further impetus to this partnership,' said Salem Al Shair.
'We are extremely pleased to sign this MOU with an institution that symbolises the UAE's highest attainments in the field of higher education, especially in IT.'
Al Shair added: 'Dubai eGovernment is keen to offer the students of the UAE University access to our cutting edge systems that have pioneered a user-friendly infrastructure to facilitate online delivery of public services.
'We are also delighted to collaborate with the UAE University in developing e-learning solutions, leveraging the expertise of both sides.
'This signifies a major development, with strong long-term benefits for the learning community, because we foresee e-learning will become an important educational channel in the near future.'
'The UAE University has one of the region's finest infrastructure for delivering IT education to students, including cutting edge wireless technology.
'We offer a variety of IT courses and focus on in-house training at private and public sector companies,' said Dr Al Dhahiri.
'We share a common vision with Dubai eGovernment to leverage technology to ease people's lives.'
'Dubai eGovernment encourages the use of advanced eServices, such as eJob which simplifies the task of job placements at various government departments in Dubai.
'Being a pioneer in the implementation of practical technology for the benefit of citizens, Dubai eGovernment will provide our students with an ideal platform to gain first-hand insights into e-governance and inspire them to leverage that knowledge to develop customised solutions for other applications.'
Under the new partnership, Dubai eGovernment will create well-defined opportunities for UAE University students and faculties to work on real results-oriented research and benchmarking projects under joint supervision.
UAE University will dedicate students to work on Dubai eGovernment projects through the Capstone Course.
Dubai eGovernment will offer internship programs to the university's students as well as arrange workshops and seminars for them. Both will formulate and conduct applied research and related activities, as part of the MOU.
In the field of e-learning, Dubai eGovernment will provide topics, objectives and guidelines for developing a suite of e-learning courses. UAE University in turn will create, edit and provide the content for the courses.
'This MOU marks the start of a mutually beneficial partnership that will allow both organisations to boost research and benchmarking standards, through shared expertise,' said Dr Al Dhahiri.
'We are positive that the exchange of ideas between the two sides will help create innovative solutions in the selected areas of cooperation, to enhance the standards of both organisations.'
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate.
It also has a vision to integrate individually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government.
Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying e-government applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens.
The eGovernment portal (www.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way.
In addition, the eGovernment initiative seeks to improve and enhance procedures by maximising the benefit from technology, so that users from all walks of life will be able to utilize the portal for their specific needs with considerable ease.
Quelle: Trade Arabia, 26.01.2004
