Lead by example, Gordon Brown tells NYU Abu Dhabi students

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, watches as Gordon Brown, former British premier, greets Graca Machel, widow of Nelson Mandela, at New York University AShow more

ABU DHABI // Former British prime minister Gordon Brown was a guest of honour at New York University Abu Dhabi’s graduation ceremony on Sunday.

The event was held to hand out degrees to 141 students from 53 countries.

Mr Brown urged the students to live a selfless life and to lead by example.

“The students I see here today, you are notably the leaders of tomorrow – the scientists, the engineers, the doctors, the nurses, the politicians, the philosophers, the academics of the future,” he said.

One of the graduates was Hamel Al Qubaisi, 21, an Emirati, who has a degree in political science and was one of two students to win a Rhodes scholarship to study at the University of Oxford.

He said choosing to study at the university was “not a difficult decision for me because I believed in the vision. I saw merit in the idea of bringing in people from all over the world.”

The new graduates have been accepted into more than 70 master’s and doctoral programmes.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were Sheikh Saud bin Saqr, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development.