History
The academic year 2008-09 has been a busy and exciting time for the Al-Maktoum Institute. It has been for me, on a personal level, my first year as Principal and Vice-Chancellor, and has been an opportunity to steer the Al-Maktoum Institute on a course for growth and continued success in the future. We have now been in operation for eight years, but we are still new and learning, and we need to develop new ways of facing the challenges of an institution such as ours. At the end of this year we are now in the position of being able to state clearly our strategy for what we seek to achieve in the next five years and beyond, together with our long term ambition to become the Al-Maktoum University College.This year we have seen a dramatic increase in our student numbers, with a record 16 students taking our 4 MLitt programmes. This was clearly a step in the right direction, and a strong indication of the growth that we are aiming for. However, our aim is to build on this and increase much further our total student numbers in future. Our intake in autumn 2009 has seen us maintain this level, with a further dramatic increase in our expected research student recruitment. It is hoped that by January 2010 we will see the current academic year giving us again the highest ever total student intake. A significant part of this growth is because of our new masters programmes that we introduced in 2008, in Muslims, Globalisation and the West and Multiculturalism. Together with our long standing programme in Islamic Studies, we expect to continue to see healthy recruitment in the future. Sadly, our numbers in Islamicjerusalem Studies have continued to decline, and the Institute is currently looking at new ways to develop this important subject area to increase both student recruitment and also its dissemination within the wider academic field.
Increasing our staffing basis and widening our areas of academic expertise has been an important priority this year. In September 2009 we made a number of new academic appointments, including two new lecturers and two teaching fellows. These new appointments greatly add to our existing strengths, including areas of globalisation, multiculturalism, political Islam, human rights, Islamic law, Islamic finance, and history. In November 2009, the Institute now has an
academic staff base of seven (six full time equivalent). In addition to this, with the continual development of the English language teaching (started in 2008), we now have John Hughes working with us full time as English language support tutor. During the year, we also saw the appointment of a number of new honorary staff at the Institute, visiting scholars who will add to the research culture and development of our work.
The summer of 2009 saw the completion of the fifth year of our Validation Agreement with the University of Aberdeen. This is an important milestone for the Al-Maktoum Institute, and we are very pleased to report that following a very detailed revalidation visit and review by the University they have agreed to the continuation of the validation agreement for a further three years. Both the Institute and our students greatly appreciate this recognition. The University of Aberdeen is a leading international university, with ambitions to become one of the top 100 universities in the world. We greatly value our partnership with the University, and look forward to this continuing.
Our students have continued to succeed in achieving the results of the hard work and commitment that we expect of them. The graduation ceremony this year, which was held for the first time in the Marryat Hall, City Square, Dundee, saw the graduation of a further 13 MLitt students, 1 Postgraduate Diploma, and 4 PhD students. Two of the MLitt graduates have achieved distinctions, and the Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prizes for academic distinction have this year been awarded to Arshiya Kapadia (for best overall performance) and Dilara Yilmaz (for best dissertation). Our congratulations go to all of our graduating students for their achievements this year. These graduations will take our total graduation roll to 91.
In addition, the year saw two very successful study visit programmes for UAE students at the Al-Maktoum Institute, following the schedule we introduced in 2008. In January to February 2009 we hosted the accredited Academic Training Programme in Multiculturalism and Leadership, which involved 23 students from five universities. In addition to this, we also organised the 2009 Scotland Summer School for UAE students, which involved a group of 36 students in July. As the high numbers for this summer school suggest, the demand from the UAE for our visiting programmes is continuing to grow (with possible inclusion of several other universities in future programmes). Indeed we are already looking to develop further new programmes to meet this growing interest. At the end of the Scotland Summer School, we also held the first Emirates Festival Day in Dundee, on 21 July. This event aimed to spotlight and showcase the culture of the UAE, and to highlight the already strong links between Scotland and the UAE, along with the potential for further growth in this relationship. Most notable in this Emirates Festival Day was the contribution of the UAE students, who made an excellent presentation on Emirati national traditions and culture.
Our international academic partnerships have continued to grow, most obviously with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Chancellor College, University of Malawi in September 2009. The basis of this partnership is one of mutual engagement and exchange, and we are delighted to see the first two Malawian students coming to the Institute in Dundee to join our MLitt programmes, under sponsorship from the Al-Maktoum Foundation. Further to this, discussions have been developing with the British University in Dubai, with the aim to develop a new Al-Maktoum Institute MSc programme in Multiculturalism and Globalisation at BUiD from 2010. More locally, working with the Dundee City Council Education Department, we organised in June 2009 a Senior Pupil Conference, for students from all of the city's nine secondary schools, on the theme of Islam and Multiculturalism in Today's World.
Following the establishment by the Board of Directors of a Community Service Fund at the Institute in 2008, we have been keen to ensure that this fund is made use of as well as possible. The annual fund is looked after by a Community Services Committee, with the remit to provide small grants to local charities and organisations. This year we have been working with the Scottish Community Foundation, who receive and evaluate all funding applications for us, and I am very pleased to say that we have funded a number of local Dundee and Scottish organisations. We look to see the further development of this important community-focused work in the coming year.
The year has also been one of looking ahead to the future, in particular the development of a five-year strategic plan, to map out our activities and goals. At the heart of this plan is our ambition to achieve University College status as a distinctive, independent and internationally recognised centre for higher education – while continuing to work in partnership with the University of Aberdeen. The strategy aims to transform the Al-Maktoum Institute over the next five years, with the following eight main aims for us to achieve by 2014:
· Increase our student numbers
· Increase our visibility
· Expand our research culture
· Improve and develop our infrastructure
· Develop new products and services
· Raise further our teaching quality
· Develop our external partnerships
· Develop our human resources and organisational culture
This strategic plan will be published and widely circulated, and will become the central focus for our activities in the coming years. It will set some ambitious targets for us to achieve, but will also make a clear public statement of what we want to do, and where we plan to be going. I look forward to seeing our aims realised, and to work from there towards further growth and expansion, and so to be in a position for active planning to achieve University College status by 2020.
At the heart of all of this, of course, is the vision for education and multiculturalism of HH Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, our Founder and Patron. We continue to be profoundly grateful not only for his full support for our work, but also for his encouragement and vision for the Al-Maktoum Institute.
Professor Malory Nye
Principal, 5 November 2009
