The courses, of 3-5 days’ duration, have been tailored to the needs of the UAE market.

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

Mena College of Management (MCM), Dubai, aims to serve the UAE government’s strategy to fulfil the demand for professionals in the fields of hospitality and tourism with local talent, by introducing a package of five short training courses soon in Dubai.

Another major achievement of the College is to begin a student exchange programme with EM Normandie in France, beginning with 15 students from the Spring semester 2019-2020.

This was stated by Professor Nabil El Kadhi, President of MCM, during an interview with Gulf Today.

The short courses will be offered in collaboration with the Future Cities Council, Canada at the MCM Dubai campus, to allow local students and professionals to hone their skills based on market demand.

The courses, of 3-5 days’ duration, have been tailored to the needs of the UAE market by internationally recognised institutions. The course titles are: Digital Leadership – Leading the Digital Transformation; Digital Transformation – Digitise or Die; Future Foresight For Bright Future – Shaping a Bright Future of Your Organisation; Future Smart Cities – Smart, Sustainable and Innovative Cities; and Industrial Revolution 4.0 – Opportunities, Challenges and Road to the Future.

“MENA College is all set to start an exchange programme in the Spring Semester of the 2019-2020 academic year with EM Normandie, in France, to allow 15 students to complete a semester in France without paying additional fees. We are working to bring corporate partners in the health and tourism sectors to extend our exchange programme,” Dr Nabil said.

MCM is licensed by the Ministry of Education and by KHDA in Dubai. MCM has accreditation from the Commission for Academic Accreditation for four programmes, including Bachelor of Human Resource Management, Bachelor of Hospitality Management, Bachelor of Hospital Administration (Healthcare Management), and Bachelor of Health Informatics.

“We started our journey to align with the UAE’s resource needs, and its strategic development and orientation. The UAE’s Rulers believe firmly in the importance of human capability building, and in keeping with this we have included Human Resource Management as one of our programmes. Secondly, the UAE, and especially Dubai, has managed to reach the position of an outstanding tourism destination, as well as an outstanding healthcare service provider, and our programmes support these initiatives,” he said.

“MENA College is not just an education provider that repeats programmes provided by others. We are looking to serve the society and we are always sensitive to market needs. In this regard, another recent development is to inaugurate our professional training unit,” he said.

Shedding light on the recently signed MoU and agreement with EM Normandie France to begin a student exchange programme, he said, “The agreement with EM Normandie was formally approved by the Ministry of Education. We are developing 2-3 joint degree programmes in Dubai, and we are working to get further approvals for cooperation with international universities as it will be a major step for MCM to have international students.”

He further mentioned that MCM has the aim of becoming an international destination for global students by provide international degree programmes locally. “We intend to achieve international accreditation for ourselves, and for this we have to enrol a good number of international students who graduate from Mena College,” he said.

“We intend to serve the needs of the market, and we benefit from a Board of Trustees who always offer their in-depth suggestions to develop more appropriate training courses and programmes, based on the requirements of the market.” Addressing a question on the faculty members, he said that internationally, faculty-student ratios at leading universities were commonly 1:25-30 students.

“I’m delighted to share that our faculty-student ratio is 1:24-25 students, and we are very selective in choosing our faculty members. 80 per cent of them are PhD holders, and the remaining faculty have master’s degrees with strong academic background. Our faculty have graduated from international universities and the equivalence of their degrees is assured in the UAE,” he added.

The college currently enrols about 400 full-time students, along with visiting students who opt for summer courses, from all parts of the country and from different expatriate communities residing in the UAE.