This came during His Highness presiding over the fifty-first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Sharjah, which was held in the office of His Highness in the main building of the university.
His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah pointed out that the great excellence and real growth of the University of Sharjah has reached the stage of presenting honorary doctorate degrees to those with great achievements in serving societies and sciences.
His Highness directed to expedite the transformation of the university’s branches into universities in succession, starting with the Khorfakkan branch on September 1, 2022, then the Kalba branch, moving to Al Dhaid branch in the coming years.
His Highness extended his thanks and appreciation to the members of the Board of Trustees for their role in evaluating and developing the strategic plans and projects proposed by the university, and to all members of the administrative and teaching staff for their efforts in developing the administrative and academic work.
His Highness stressed that this comes with the fruitful and desired results of many scientific and academic achievements that have been achieved, which is being worked on in the coming years, enhancing the university’s march towards progress and development.
The board approved the university’s budget for the academic year: 2021/2022, amounting to one billion and twenty-nine million dirhams. The new budget was set to support plans for development, progress, and the continuation of the university’s distinguished academic process with the work of all faculties and departments, and to strengthen cooperation and partnerships with leading institutions.
The board also approved the establishment of the Family and Child Studies Centre, which is the first of its kind in the country. It will deal with family and child issues in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah. It aims to study the strengthening of family cohesion, the quality of marital relations, and the socialisation of children, while enabling family members to deal with better with family problems and trying to reduce divorce rates as well as improving the mental health and social well-being of families.
The board approved the fall plan for the academic year 2021/2022 based on returning to the university campus with the continuation of flexible hybrid learning within the conditions of the improvement of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, and hybrid learning will continue through the appropriate integration of technology, curricula and scientific research activities, and the board approved the establishment of the risk management unit at the university.
It also approved the list of promotions presented by the Academic Committee, in addition to introducing new academic programmes for accreditation, including the Doctor of Philosophy in Science and Technology of Heritage Conservation and Management, the Master of Arts in Documents, Manuscripts and Archiving, and the Bachelor of Science in Electronic Mechanics and Robotics.
The university’s Board of Trustees also approved the graduation of students who completed their graduation requirements for doctoral, master’s and postgraduate diploma programmes in the spring semester (2020/2021), whose total number is (195) male and female students. It also approved the graduation of students who completed the graduation requirements for a bachelor’s degree in the spring semester (2020/2021), whose total number is (1221) male and female students, so that the total of the general graduates is (1416) male and female students of different degrees.
The board reviewed the report of His Excellency Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of UoS, which included a set of achievements made by the university at the local, regional and global levels, including the improvement of the university's level in international classifications, including the Times World Classification, in which the university was ranked third at the level of the United Arab Emirates. The university ranked 171 among the young international universities. The university is first at the state level in terms of the United Nations goals in sustainable development, and it continues to be the first at the state level for the fourth year in a row within the Green Matric programme in sustainability programmes.
The report included the latest developments in scientific and academic work during the year 2020/2021, which witnessed flexibility and adaptation to the conditions of the pandemic by all administrative and teaching bodies, male and female students, and the use of the latest technological means, which contributed to the continuation of the educational process with high quality.
The university will witness the graduation of the largest batch of doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s students. In addition to the first batch of PhD students in molecular medicine and scientific research applications in medicine in cooperation with the German Medical University Lübeck, a doctorate in engineering management and a doctorate in applied sociology, along with a doctorate in some other programmes.
Academic accreditation activities continued to be implemented by default, as all programmes, which amounted to (111) programmes for various degrees, obtained accreditation by the National Academic Accreditation Authority in the Ministry of Education, with the continued accreditation of more than 50% of these programmes by accredited international bodies. In addition to 35 programmes in progress (6 Ph.D., 17 Master’s, 11 Bachelor’s, 1 Postgraduate Diploma) and it is expected that these programmes will be launched during the years 2021-2023.
The board reviewed the results of the workshop of the University’s Board of Trustees to discuss the strategy of Sharjah Oasis for Technology and Innovation 2021-2030, which aims to implement applied scientific research, develop knowledge-based economic projects, propose educational and training programmes, encourage investment by companies and bodies, and support and encourage innovation and creative environmental systems.
The board reviewed the university’s plans to localise academic and administrative jobs, as the percentage of job localisation increased to 60%. The university also worked to implement a comprehensive plan to prepare and improve the skills of Emirati faculty members as teachers, researchers, innovators and leaders. The Emiratisation plans will include appropriate employment, guidance, and continuous development, along with the attendance of conferences and other activities.
The board learned about the latest research infrastructure facilities that support research work and conduct scientific tests and experiments, as many centres and laboratories have been established such as the advanced medical research centre, four pharmaceutical laboratories, and three laboratories to support mechanical, nuclear and sustainable energy programmes. The laboratories to serve emerging master’s programmes in dentistry and diabetes, with a new laboratory for information technology, in addition to the presence of 106 former research laboratories that contain equipment and human resources that ensure full productivity, and an updated guide for central laboratories, and software applications to detect laboratory safety via the internet.
The meeting witnessed the attendance of top of officials, via visual communication technology, virtually.
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