The new UAE University campus in Al Ain will make "an enormous difference" when it opens next year, an official said. Students will move into the new residences in January, and the full campus should be open by this time next year, said Dr Rory Hume, the university's provost. The Dh1.7 billion (US$462.8m) facility merges five campuses and seven residences scattered across the oasis city.
"It's a superb facility and it will make an enormous difference," Dr Hume said. "There will be much less need to move students around during the day. At the moment we bus students around." Features include cafeterias, a shopping centre, sport centre with a swimming pool, basketball courts, study areas and grandstands. By offering better facilities, the university hopes students will be encouraged to spend more time on campus, benefiting their studies.
Dr Hume said building on the women's campus was complete and fitting out was now being done. Meanwhile, construction is continuing on a central building that will contain a library, offices and hall for ceremonial occasions, with completion expected next summer. "It's good the classrooms and the student residences were completed first, but the rest is on track and proceeding very well," Dr Hume said. Work on the new campus, which includes one male and two female academic villages and a residential village for women, began in 2007. Existing male residences have been incorporated into the new facility.
The new campus includes Islamic-style archways, and covered walkways so students can comfortably move between buildings. An Australian company, Woods Bagot, created the master plan for the new campus and the buildings were designed by another Australian company, Cox. UAE, the oldest university in the country, was founded in 1976. This academic year the school is launching PhD programmes, making it the first federal government institution to offer the highest form of degree.
dbardsley@thenational.ae
