Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation to support online education initiatives in the UAE

The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education is stepping up efforts to support select UAE universities in developing online university programmes.

Through the University Consortium for Quality Online Learning (UCQOL), a joint initiative with the UAE Ministry of Education, the foundation intends to make accredited online programmes accessible to a wider pool of students in the UAE and beyond, increasing collaboration among universities in the UAE and building their capacities in the field of online learning.

More specifically, the foundation will provide member universities with various forms of support including structured needs assessments, faculty and instructional designer training, and grants to support the design and delivery of their online programmes.

Also, UCQOL will serve as a UAE-based professional learning community to exchange, collaborate, and advocate jointly on the issue of online learning.

“I am confident that this project will have far-reaching outcomes not just in the UAE, but across the region,” said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, chairman of the foundation.

The foundation, through its Al Ghurair Open Learning Scholars Programme, has provided over 250 scholarships to Arab youth to complete postgraduate degrees and credentials at Arizona State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology online.

It has also supported online and blended learning capacity-building efforts at the American University in Cairo in Egypt and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.