UAE-based Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University celebrated the winning of its ‘Smart Campus’ initiative at the 2015 Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards, a prestigious international award that recognizes the world’s best higher education innovations and promotes learning and employment.

The ‘Smart Campus’ bagged first place under the ‘Regional Award Middle East’ category during an honorary ceremony that recently took place on the sidelines of the 2015 Reimagine Education Conference in Philadelphia, US, said a statement from the university.

The Smart Campus seamlessly integrates various applications and advanced systems to meet the needs of learners, faculty, and administrative personnel. It is a virtual campus and electronic one-stop-shop that offers a wide range of smart services

The event saw the participation of 520 universities and educational institutions from 50 countries from around the world - competing across 22 different categories.

The award was developed in the framework of the partnership between the QS Organization for the classification of universities and the Wharton Center at the University of Pennsylvania to promote innovative projects in higher education, it added.

HBMSU said its 'Smart campus' which was among the 520 participant projects in the competition, was met with wide positive response from leading decision-makers and representatives of educational, academic and technical institutions and universities at the 2015 Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards ceremony.

It was praised for its innovative approach to optimally leverage modern technology to improve the level of smart learning in the Arab World.

The award represents the culmination of HBMSU’s firm commitment in supporting the educational process in the UAE and the Arab world.

The university always seeks to adopt the best international practices and take advantage of the latest technological innovations in the field of smart learning and distance learning.

Chancellor Dr Mansoor Al Awar, said: "Winning one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of higher education is the fruit of the many years of commitment to support the learning process in the UAE and the Arab World, following an approach that is based on international best practices and the use of the latest technological innovations to provide smart and distance learning services in accordance with the highest standards of efficiency, excellence and comprehensiveness."

"This new achievement places another great responsibility upon us, which is to continue the hard work towards developing a high-level educational system that is able to build a knowledge-based economy and society, in line with the objectives of the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda," he stated.

"We are confident that the 2015 Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards will be a springboard to raise international awareness on the quality of the educational system in the Arab World in general and the UAE in particular," he added.