Al-Maktoum College is a unique, independent, research-led centre of higher education for the Study of Islam and Muslims.
Al-Maktoum College is a unique institution in many ways:
- It is based on the vision of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum for multiculturalism, cultural engagement, and mutual understanding and respect.
- Al-Maktoum College offers a unique new agenda for the Study of Islam and Muslims, aiming to develop the subject area to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
- Research and studies at Al-Maktoum College are designed as post-orientalist, post-traditionalist, and multicultural, the approaches are interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.
- Our programmes are unique and innovative, quite distinct as stand-alone taught masters programmes, or as preparation for further research.
- The College is relatively small, which allows for intense academic training and a friendly atmosphere; students form a lively community in and outside the classroom.
- Excellent facilities at the College foster successful studies.
- Al-Maktoum College is not a religious organisation. We are an academic higher education institution examining the fields in the Study of Islam and Muslims.
- The College is located in multicultural Dundee and maintains vibrant ties with the local and national communities.
- Teaching and research at Al-Maktoum College is designed to be of the highest standard, we have close links with the University of Aberdeen which according to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise is among the UK’s top research universities, with 89% of Aberdeen’s research activity recognised as being of international quality, and 55% is world leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*). In particular, Theology, Divinity, and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen was ranked as 1st in the UK.
The Al-Maktoum College works to build bridges between communities at all levels, in particular between people across the world at this crucial time by providing a unique and innovative academic environment and community for learning, teaching and research in the Study of Islam and Muslims.
This vision helps the College to establish its strategic agenda in the Study of Islam and Muslims as post-orientalist, post-traditionalist and multicultural.
One of the College’s aims is to provide a meeting point between the Western and Muslim worlds of learning and to encourage and forge international links, scholarship and academic co-operation. In our effort to achieve this, Al-Maktoum College aspires not only to provide postgraduate teaching and research of the highest quality, but also to act as a national resource in the Scottish and UK context for consultation by government bodies, public organisations, industry, business and the media.
A very important element of the College’s teaching is a commitment to pursuing a better understanding of multiculturalism and the issues that cultural and religious diversity provide in the twenty-first century globalised context.
Career Prospects
A postgraduate degree from the Al-Maktoum College is the gateway to a wide variety of professional careers. Depending on previous education, professional experience and interests, our students are qualified to work in government services at local and national levels, diplomacy, as consultants and project workers in development cooperation, in non-governmental and international organisations, the voluntary sector, social and charitable organisations, and in numerous other multicultural contexts.
Another wide field open to graduates from the College is the field of education – be that at school, college, or university level – and social research in private, commercial, or governmental organisations.
The courses at Al-Maktoum College are designed to equip the students with the skills and the knowledge to be able to face and constructively deal with the challenges of our contemporary world. During the course of your studies you will acquire key transferable skills of critical analysis, communication, presentation, team-cooperation, independent work, research, management, and other areas, which will be useful in a variety of professional contexts.
