Community Engagement
As part of its philosophy, Al Ain University has asserted that it is “a symbol of the society’s renaissance and a significant pivot around which cultural life revolves on the intellectual, scientific, academic, and technological levels.” The University has worked to accomplish these principles as part of its commitment to catering for the UAE’s need for highly-qualified leaders who possess a profound and comprehensive understanding of the requirements and challenges of the twenty-first century in all fields and in all walks of life.
In order to verify its course and to assess the needs of the community at large, the University has engaged in a range of services, studies, and activities so as to communicate with the stakeholders to help serve the educational process and the local community as well as the Arab society. This is congruent with the University’s vision to maintain contact with alumni and stakeholders through actively taking part in efforts directed towards achieving compatibility between the learning outcomes of higher education and the needs of the job market.
Consequently, through community service, the University aims at:
- Following up alumni and evaluating their level of knowledge in the job market;
- Building a database related to the alumni and the needs of the job market;
- Building bridges of cooperation with different stakeholders in the local community;
- Identifying the needs of the local community as well as the challenges facing it especially in relation to ‘globalization’; and
- Establishing joint accords with various organizations to look into the problems facing the local community and finding effective remedies.
It is worth noting, that the Deanship of Scientific Research and Graduate studies emphasizes the impact of community enagagement activities on three components:
- Impact on faculty members in terms of their shifting paradigm from teaching to learning. Most courses involve study cases relevant to particular community engagement activities.
- Impact on students in terms of raising their awareness about real life problems’ solving and practices and how to apply theoretical concepts to real situation cases.
- Impact of community engagement in terms of advancing suggestions and recommendations to enrich program learning outcomes or/and offering courses to fit specific job market qualifications.