Top Australian university opens campus in Dubai

An Australian university that is ranked in the top one per cent of universities worldwide has opened its campus in Dubai.
Curtin University is offering undergraduate programmes in arts and creative industries, engineering, business and management and IT and computing, as well as postgraduate courses and foundation programmes.
The university is ranked among the top 180 universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2017. It is placed even higher than the London School of Economics and Political Science, which has alumnus such as Ed Miliband, Mick Jagger and George Soros.
“We’re very experienced in the international space and we’ll be offering quite a suite of programmes, ramping around to 25 different undergraduate and postgraduate programmes – right through media, digital, design, communications, business, finance, through to engineering, IT, computing and some health science as well,” Professor Deborah Terry, vice-chancellor of Curtin University, told Khaleej Times at the opening of the university on Sunday. 
Curtin students in Dubai will be able to study at the university’s other campuses across the world as well, including Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
The university staff will be hired from different parts of the world to ensure a cosmopolitan environment on campus.
“I think Curtin University is a global university,” said Terry. “Students will have the opportunity to study at one of our other campuses as well as here in Dubai. We will have students at other campuses studying here, so there will be a lot of interchange and opportunities for exchange for students. 
“We’ll be recruiting staff from all over the world, so we envisage that the university will be attractive to staff not only from the UAE, but also from Australia, the UK and all over the world. We have a very cosmopolitan staff in our main campus in Western Australia. We will also be encouraging staff movement across all of our campuses.”
Australia’s Ambassador to the UAE Arthur Spyrou was one of the keynote speakers at the opening ceremony and said that “Curtin University’s Dubai campus demonstrates the strength and the international value of Australian universities in this part of the world”.
He highlighted that Dubai is an important market for international universities due to its geographic location.
“This is a university that did a great deal of market research. It understood very well what the Dubai hub means and its potential in terms of reaching the majority of the population of the world with a short flight away. Therefore, placing themselves in the centre of the world with the reach into South Asia, Africa and of course, the Middle East region,” Spyrou said. 
“The innovation that this university brings to this market was set out by the vice-chancellor, but the thing that really caught my eye was the incredible research that is being done by Curtin University in terms of its lupin seed-based food supplement to assist in the fighting of diabetes. Anyone who knows this region well, knows that if that is a success, Curtin University will very quickly be at the heart of innovation here in the UAE and a very loved institution in this region. 
“All that remains for me at this juncture, is to offer my warm congratulations and to celebrate the fact that Australia can offer this market with a top one per cent in the world university, with such a broad range of expertise and such an ambition to expand its courses.”
The university is currently recruiting students and is located in the Dubai International Academic City.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com