Expanding on its role as a modern learning hub and leveraging its rapidly evolving user base to disseminate information about the importance of digital transformation as well as educational courses on offer from UAE universities, the Sharjah Public Library (SPL) held an online session yesterday (Sunday, May 30) targeting students as well as the employed.

Titled ‘Innovation and Future Transformation’, the session presented by Dr Wissam Al Mustafa, offered the audience an opportunity to learn about the inter-related emergent disciplines that are pivotal for organisations to learn, practice, and master.

She pointed out that digital transformation represented an opportunity to use technology to catalyse innovation and reimagine the present and the future. In fact, over the past decade, the combination of digital transformation and innovation had revolutionised the global business ecosystem, giving birth to a new generation of business models and corporate giants, while diminishing and disrupting others.

Because the innovation tools and digital technology are readily accessible to everyone, technology itself affords no distinct advantage; she added. Business success depended upon the human element behind that technology and innovation management that devised ideas, strategies, and ways of working.

Dr Al Mustafa also spoke about the digital transformation efforts in the UAE and the nation’s major digital achievements including ‘UAE Makes’, the first global digital platform that disseminates information about the UAE’s industrial sector and an interactive map of 8,000 factories in the country, among many others.

Smart learning opportunities at HBMSU

The second part of the session saw major universities and colleges in the UAE showcase the advantages of the courses they offer, including scholarships.

The Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), established in 2002 as the first institution in the UAE with an e-learning platform, specialises in Quality Management and offers undergraduate courses in Business and Quality Management, Human Resources Management, and Accounting, apart from a degree as well as diploma course in Health Administration.

It also offers post graduate studies in several disciplines including Organisational Excellence, Innovation and Change Management, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Public Health, Project Management, Islamic Banking and Finance, Environmental Management, Hospital Management and Interactive Educational Technologies, among others. Doctorates are offered in Total Quality Management, Educational Leadership and Healthcare Maanagement.

Th university offers the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Scholarship to high school students who score 90% and above in the same year of application for full exemption of fees.

Skyline University College

Established in 1990, the Skyline University College’s School of Business offers BBA courses in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management & Psychology, International Business, Public Administration, Accounting and Finance, Tourism and Hospitality Management, and Marketing & Retail Management, as well as Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

Skyline’s Masters’ programmes include Sustainable Development, Project Management, Strategic Management & Leadership, Strategic Human Resource Management, Finance, International Business and Marketing, and E-Governance. It also offers several short professional courses in Accounting and Finance, Travel and Tourism and Information Technology.

Scholarship programmes are available.

Al Wasl University

The first private non-profit university in the UAE, Al Wasl University offers undergraduate and post graduate programmes in several disciplines including Library and Information Sciences, Islamic Studies, Arabic Language and Literature, Islamic Law. Doctrates are offered in Arabic Language and Literature and Islamic Law.