BUiD research collaboration with Russell Group University
The British University in Dubai sent a group of their Project Management students to one of its UK associates, the University of Manchester in June.
Eight M Sc Project management students comprising of six UAE nationals and two expats, were on a one week visit to adapt best research practices, access latest research content and explore common research interests and collaborative projects between the universities.
Prof Abdullah Alshamsi, Vice-Chancellor at BUiD says “Universities in UAE offer a wide range of taught programmes, which give students the skills and knowledge to contribute to current business set up but in order to innovate and provide new and better solutions to businesses Universities must encourage students to build on their research skills, and prepare them to apply these skills in real work scenario.”
BUiD offers research-intensive post graduate programmes in association with five leading UK universities Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and King’s College London. All are recognized world-wide for their research and rated 4 and 4 * by UK’s RAE rating (Research Assessment Exercise) as well as body members of the prestigious Russell Group. Staff and students at BUiD work very closely with staff of the UK associated universities on current academic topics and share the latest research developments in their field.
To take this knowledge sharing exercise to a greater level BUiD encourages staff and students to visit these universities with their established record of research, to improve their academic understanding and endeavor. Martin Prince, Registrar at BUiD said “BUiD is associated with some of the leading universities in UK which are recognised for pioneering research. Our students’ interaction with faculty and staff during these visits gives them an opportunity to bring them abreast of current research at these long established, strongly academic universities and also to find out the latest trends and thinking relevant to their field.”
Dr. Paul Gardiner, Head of Programme for BUiD’s M Sc in Project management and eight of his students visited Manchester University in UK with support from both public and private organisations such as ADCO, Abu Dhabi’s leading company for onshore oil operations and Secure Project Management UAE based project Management Company.
Mr Mohammed Zafar team leader of this PM group said: “the visit gave us an opportunity to interact with academics, professional communities and students at Manchester and we gained an international perspective, we like to thank ADCO and Secure Project Management for funding our trip, it was a very kind and generous gesture on their behalf and a great CSR initiative too”.
The students attended lectures on key topics in Project Management at Manchester such as Risk and Risk Management, People and Human Factors by Dr. Paul Gilbert and Transportation Projects by Mr David J Ling. BUiD’s project management students gained fuller insight as to how PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects work and also learnt to analyse the risk involved with such projects from Dr Richard Kirkham.
And another interesting opportunity was to listen to a presentation by Professor Stephen Wearne on “Urgent and Unexpected projects” in which Prof Wearne gave examples of situations which call for urgent and unforeseen project works, like ensuring safety after the tsunami struck Nuclear Plants in Japan.
One of the research students Ms.Helen Hindmarch who is currently conducting research at Manchester on “improvement of design phase by using IT support” shared with BUiD students the various stages of her research project and the expected software benefits when it is ready for use. The students also got an opportunity to discuss their research interests with students and staff of Manchester.
Commenting on the students visit to Manchester Dr. Paul Gardiner, Head of Programme for M Sc in Project management at BUiD said “The students’ trip to University of Manchester has helped in the cultural and academic development of the Masters students and they have benefitted from an increased global network of academic peers in their discipline.”
