DUBAI // Zayed University has postponed until next year the opening of a Dubai campus for male students, saying that Knowledge Village is too small to accommodate the facility it envisioned. The planned facility, originally scheduled to open in the autumn to complement the small campus for men in Abu Dhabi, is part of an effort by the federal university to attract more male students into higher education amid concern that too few Emirati men are taking degrees.
"We're looking for a whole programme of male student recruitment and admissions in Dubai starting next fall," said Dr Daniel Johnson, the provost. "It's in the works, but we are definitely not going to Knowledge Village. There's not enough space there, and it's space that's needed for our research and engagement." The university admitted its first overseas students this term, Dr Johnson noted, making it difficult to also prepare for a new campus in 2009.
"There were just too many things that we had to do," he said. "We're trying to pace this so we can give them proper attention." Several locations for the Dubai men's campus are being considered, Dr Johnson said, and proposals will be presented for final approval to Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the university president. The university was founded in 1998 in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for women only; last year it opened a small campus in the capital for men, primarily military cadets.
In Dubai the university's female campus is based in Dubai Academic City, while in Abu Dhabi a new campus is being built in Khalifa City to replace the downtown-area facilities. Less than five per cent of the university's 5,000 students are men. Overall, just 40 per cent of federal university students are male, a proportion the Government has said it would like to increase to allay concerns there could be too few qualified men to take on leadership positions in the future.
dbardsley@thenational.ae