A total of 228 students graduated at the University of Dubai’s 10th graduation ceremony held recently at Dubai World Trade Center.

This was the university’s largest graduation since it was founded in 1997 by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The ceremony was held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of Dubai Executive Council and in the presence of Mohammad Ahmad Mohammad Al Murr, speaker of the Federal National Council, Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum, director general of Dubai Department of Information and Humaid Mohammad Al Qatami, Minister of Education.

Majid Al Shamsi, chairman, UD Board of Trustees, said: “In recognition of the University’s growing role, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has granted a plot of land of three million sq ft at the Academic City to establish a campus that befits the status that UD has reached.”

“The design of the new campus is nearly finalised and I am equally pleased to inform you that the new campus shall be fully ready in 2014!”

Construction for the first phase of the new facility will begin in December this year. Once completed, it will have buildings for the College of Business Administration, College of Information Technology, College of Law, General Education Department, Health & Fitness Resources, Admission & Registration, Students Services, Career Development & Training, Internship and UD Alumni Affairs in addition to a state-of-the-art library and Conference Hall.

“The number of graduates of the University of Dubai has reached 1,168 over the last nine years and all are employed in some 280 entities in both the public and the private sectors. Many of them are now holding key positions in those entities,” Shamsi added.

“It is a great source of gratification for us that among the graduates we are honoring today is the first batch of MBA students, the only program in the United Arab Emirates that offers dual specializations,” he said.

Of the 38 graduate students that in September 2010 began their Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, 11 earned double-concentration degrees in Leadership & Human Resource Management, 12 in International Business & Marketing and 15 in Accounting & Finance.

Of the 190 undergraduate students, 10 earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computing and Information Systems and 180 earned a Bachelor in Business Administration Degree – 26 in Accounting, 39 in Marketing, 39 in Finance & Banking and 76 in Management.

In addition to its MBA program, the University of Dubai begins a new Master of Science degree with a concentration in Information Systems Management in September 2012.

UD also has a proposal under review to offer a Master in Law (LLM) Degree in September 2013 and will launch a PhD program in Business Administration in September 2014. – TradeArabia News Service