In summer 2010 the Al-Maktoum Institute created a new internal division of the Institute named the Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Graduate School.
The Graduate School incorporates a significant part of the teaching and work of the Institute, and will play a significant role in the Al-Maktoum Institute’s Strategic Plan for growth and expansion.This notwithstanding, our focus on graduate studies exists alongside a number of courses and programmes and courses that we have been delivering for a number of years which are not specifically postgraduate. For example, the Arabic language evening classes as continuing and lifelong learning have been taught by the Institute since 2002, and there are also the visiting programmes that we offer on anaccredited basis to students from universities in the UAE and Qatar (i.e. the winter Academic Training Programme and the Summer School).
In 2008 we introduced English language teaching, with the aim of building up this area of provision to create an English language centre some time in the future. All of these areas are marked for further development, and also we are also looking to develop undergraduate programmes in the next few years. Therefore, although a central part of our focus is postgraduate studies, it is not the only aspect of the work of the Al-Maktoum Institute.
Therefore, the Graduate School has been created with the following aims:
- To provide a mechanism to maintain the Institute’s distinct focus on the research and postgraduate areas of our development – particularly as we enter a period when we are aiming for significant growth in both graduate studies and other areas of our activities.
- The Graduate School is an internal administrative unit within the Institute which brings together the responsibility of coordinating and overseeing all postgraduate student and programme-related matters (for both Masters and PhD/research programmes)
- To develop and expand our profile at the postgraduate level
- All staff and students involved in teaching, research and study in the postgraduate programmes (MLitt and PhD) are part of this Graduate School
- Activities related to postgraduate studies, such as research seminars and visiting speakers, are coordinated by the Graduate School
- The Graduate School highlights our identity and branding and is therefore an important means of student recruitment
- A new management post of Director of the Graduate School has been created, which effectively replaces the previous role of Head of Department
- The main role of the Director of the Graduate School is to provide academic leadership and management for all postgraduate-related activities of the Al- Maktoum Institute.
