Dr Ayoub Kazim introduces 'Dubai Knowledge Village and Academic City: set to better serve the regional education demand'. Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV) is home to more than 17 academic institutions from ten countries and over 300 international training centres, education agencies and HR companies. They serve the regional educational needs from advanced graduate and postgraduate programmes, in fields such as computing, engineering and technology, business management, life sciences, fashion, media and more. This presentation will discuss the significant transformation DKV has gone through since its establishment in October 2003 by launching a permanent international educational zone in the Academic City, catering to all higher educational needs in the region and positioning DKV to serve professional training and human capital development and continuing education needs in the region.
Professor Roy Leitch presents 'The best of both worlds - forming sustainable international partnerships'. There is no doubt that the future of international education lies in transnational education or in-country. Delivering international educational programmes, however, has numerous pitfalls. Interactive University (IU) was formed in 2002 to develop international partnerships on behalf of Scottish universities and colleges. It now has 15 partners across the world and more recently established strategic partnerships with major universities in China, Indonesia, Dubai and Egypt. Using the IU's Distributed Education model as a case study, this presentation will argue that the development of strong, sustainable international partnerships requires each party to share risks, costs and benefits. Such partnerships should be based on identifying the core strengths of the partners and having confidence in others to deliver their part effectively.
Maxine Clarke speaks on 'The UK and Singapore: experiences, challenges and pitfalls of academic collaboration between a UK university and private partners in Singapore'. This presentation considers all aspects of overseas collaboration with a private organisation. These range from resource implications (financial and non-financial), administrative issues (staffing and systems), marketing (responsibilities and costs), quality assurance (matching UK and Singapore requirements) and classroom experience (cultural differences, parity with university teaching and learning requirements, student expectations). The presentation will also draw a number of conclusions about best-practice and will discuss guidelines for successful collaboration with private partners.