RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS AS AL-MAKTOUM INSTITUTE PURSUES EXPANSION PLANS
The Al-Maktoum Institute in Dundee – with a record number of students enrolled – can confidently consider major expansion plans despite the Higher Education sector in Scotland and the UK being gripped by uncertainty and anxiety.
Institute Principal, Professor Malory Nye said the potential funding difficulties facing the HE sector were serious and a source of obvious general concern for both universities and students.
But he said that the Institute, as the only privately-funded establishment of its kind in Scotland, was in a fortunate position to push for growth by increasing student numbers and introducing additional courses in its stated aims to achieve University College status by the year 2020.
“As we are outwith the publicly-funded university and HE sector, it means we can continue to discuss with confidence our planned growth and expansion on our proposed route to becoming a University College,” said Professor Nye, now in his third year as the Al-Maktoum Institute’s Principal.
Speaking at the Institute’s Graduation Day ceremony in Dundee’s Marryat Hall (Tuesday, November 2) the Professor said the Institute was doing well and making good progress.
“We feel we are starting to deliver when it comes to boosting student numbers and growing generally,” he said.
“We have a great deal of hard work ahead of us but I believe we are taking steps to strengthen and enhance our position and to bring further academic distinction to Dundee, which is already on the map internationally because of its two existing universities.”
This year’s graduation ceremony – the sixth since its courses started being validated by the University of Aberdeen – is a landmark occasion for the Institute with the number of graduates breaking through the one hundred mark.
“Fourteen students graduated today so we now have a total of 105 graduates who have come from more than 25 different countries including Malaysia, Malawi, Indonesia, Italy, Egypt and Scotland,” said Professor Nye.
“For a university sector college, we are still very young and we are learning all the time. But it is quite a remarkable achievement to have 106 graduates from the Institute which, after all, only moved on to its site on Blackness Road ten years ago. It is extremely encouraging that we now have 40 students on Master and Post Graduate courses, our highest number since we were established, and a 25 per cent rise on our last academic year.”
At the ceremony, Professor Nye paid tribute to the foresight of the Institute’s founder, HH Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum to create a privately funded, not-for-profit college of higher education at the right time and in the right place.
“Established on the cusp of the millennium, very presciently brought into being just months before the century was ripped apart by the 9/11 events in New York in 2001, the Institute is working to shape the debates about our contemporary world,” said Professor Nye.
“Working locally and wider afield, we are determined to contribute to our society, our nation and international relations through our commitment to knowledge and education.
“The Institute is a centre of excellence in the study of Islam and Muslims and we will continue to do our utmost to promote intelligent debate and understanding of Islam and the role of Muslims in the contemporary world.”
View STV news coverage from the graduation (forward to 10:52 am for our news)
