|
||||||||||||
Prime Minister Of Saxony Meets With ADEC To Discuss Scholarship Opportunities |
||||||||||||
|
The Prime Minister of Saxony Stanislaw Tillich visited Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) Tuesday to meet with Director General H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al-Khaili and senior leadership to discuss partnership opportunities for scholarships in the technology sector. The meeting was called specifically to explore opportunities for ADEC to expand its current range of scholarships to include scholarships in areas such as aerospace engineering, nuclear energy, micro-electronics, and micro-computing. Also present in the meeting were the German Ambassador to the UAE Klaus-Peter Brandes and representatives from the German Chamber of Commerce. H.E. Dr. Al Khaili welcomed honoraries and delegates and spoke of the importance of economic diversification in Abu Dhabi. “Education is the key to building a nation,” he said. “In order to support the Abu Dhabi social and economic vision, we must prepare our students to compete in a fast-changing and highly technical global marketplace.” “The State of Saxony is renowned for its advanced technology sector, and has one of the world’s highest output of engineers. It is an important priority for ADEC to build relationships with other countries to develop knowledge sharing opportunities and to open up a world of experiences for our students,” H.E. Dr. Al Khaili added. Prime Minister Tillich acknowledged Abu Dhabi’s efforts to move away from its dependency on oil and commended its efforts to transform into a knowledge-based economy by becoming a global leader in technology and innovation. "The base of everything is education and we need to prepare students by providing them with a clear picture of what is happening in the economy," he said. H.E. Dr. Al Khaili discussed the success of the Al Nokhba “Elite” Scholarship for Advanced Technology, which is sponsored in partnership between ADEC, the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. The program sponsors UAE Nationals to attain higher education degrees in engineering both locally and abroad, in addition to providing them with opportunities to gain hands-on experience in a GLOBALFOUNDRIES semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Dr. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Professor at the Technical University of Dresden said that out of 36,000 students in the university, 16,000 are engineers. The university has programs in micro-computing and micro-electronics specifically that are taught in English that are suitable students coming from the Gulf countries. He also expressed a willingness to have tailor made programs for Abu Dhabi students to attract students from Abu Dhabi. Dr. Eckehard Schulz, a professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Leipzig, the second oldest university in Germany, emphasized the cross-cultural connection between Germany and the Arab world. He noted that the University of Leipzig is the top university for teaching Arabic as a second language, and has 250 years of experience in teaching the language. There are also programs at the university focusing on Islamic studies and Shari’a law. Dr. Rafic Makki, Director of the Office of Strategic Affairs at ADEC, said it is a priority for ADEC to develop more engineers from the UAE as the current graduate numbers fall below workforce requirements. Abu Dhabi’s Higher Education Strategy places an emphasis on developing students with the skills required to support Abu Dhabi’s economic growth and development plans. |
||||||||||||
