A new medical school in Abu Dhabi hopes to encourage more Emiratis to consider a career in health care.
A collaboration between multinational providers VPS Healthcare and the Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary in Canada will offer the only accelerated graduate three-year programme outside of North America through which to become a doctor.
Graduates will be enrolled into a residency at one of 24 VPS Healthcare hospitals across the region, to address the significant demand for physicians in the UAE and elsewhere.
It truly has the potential to become a prestigious medical ecosystem – with innovative teaching and programmes that will impact our whole community and far beyond
Dr Taleb Almansoori
Medical degrees at the new school aim to create new opportunities for the UAE’s Nafis project, a federal programme to make Emiratis more competitive in the private sector job market.
Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, founder and chairman of VPS Healthcare, said the new school of medicine will also generate significant positive economic and social benefits.
“VPS Healthcare's education programmes will help build a new generation of qualified healthcare professionals,” he said.
“And for the employment of Emirati nationals in the private sector, this is a key pillar of the UAE’s economic diversification agenda.
“After graduation, these highly educated Emirati professionals will become part of a world-class academic medical health system, which will improve the quality of health care in our communities.”
The programme called Nafis, meaning 'complete' in English, was announced in September alongside the launch of the second tranche of projects under the "Projects of the 50”.
The programme commemorates the UAE’s jubilee year and carves out an economic mandate for the next 50 years to inspire youth and deliver national prosperity.
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Within five years, all private sector companies in the UAE should have a workforce that is at least 10 per cent Emirati.
Majid Al Futtaim has already committed to recruit 3,000 Emiratis in the private sector before 2026 in the retail and leisure sector.
More options for career in health care
The new school will include extensive roles in research and development in medical and healthcare fields, high-paying jobs and better access to top-class specialists.
“Given the highly talented physician faculty attracted to academic medical centres, consumers looking to make healthcare decisions often remain in UAE, rather than travelling to different parts of the world,” said Dr Shamsheer.
“VPS Healthcare will continue its mission to attract and now train primary care and clinical specialists who are so crucial to the future of health care and patient well-being in the UAE.”
The new partnership will swell the options available for students hoping for a medical career in the country.
A roster of medical universities offering some of the best regional facilities include the Mohammed bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dubai, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi and UAE University in Al Ain.
Other options for medical students are the Gulf Medical University in Ajman, and Ajman University, where three of its nine colleges are dedicated to medical sciences.
Since 1970, the University of Calgary’s doctor of medicine programme has been one of only two fully accredited medical schools in Canada to offer a three-year course.
The VPS Group’s Burjeel Medical City in Abu Dhabi will serve as the principal teaching hospital for the medical school.
A teaching hospital on the same site as the medical school will accelerate exchange of information, mentorship and the “spirit of learning”, officials said.
A search is now on to recruit the school of medicine’s founding president, dean and faculty.
Enrolment will begin as soon as all approvals and licensing are complete, most likely in 2022.
“The medical school will reshape and redefine the health services in the private sector by merging clinical practice with academic medicine,” said Dr Taleb Almansoori, academic adviser for VPS Healthcare.
“We constantly strive for excellence, aiming for knowledgeable and innovative Emiratis ready to serve our community and lead the healthcare sector.
“Interested students in joining this school will get a world-class medical education accompanied by hands-on clinical education at VPS facilities.
“It truly has the potential to become a prestigious medical ecosystem – with innovative teaching and programmes that will impact our whole community and far beyond.”
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Men from Barca's class of 99
Crystal Palace - Frank de Boer
Everton - Ronald Koeman
Manchester City - Pep Guardiola
Manchester United - Jose Mourinho
Southampton - Mauricio Pellegrino
The biog
Name: James Mullan
Nationality: Irish
Family: Wife, Pom; and daughters Kate, 18, and Ciara, 13, who attend Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS)
Favourite book or author: “That’s a really difficult question. I’m a big fan of Donna Tartt, The Secret History. I’d recommend that, go and have a read of that.”
Dream: “It would be to continue to have fun and to work with really interesting people, which I have been very fortunate to do for a lot of my life. I just enjoy working with very smart, fun people.”
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
