Index
Overview
Agenda
Speakers
Venue
Visa Information
Accommodation
Overview
GCC Media Education Congress 2014
GCC Media Education Congress 2014
Realizing Youth Potential in the Arab Media Sector
Under the patronage of His
Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, Member of the Supreme
Council, Ruler of Sharjah and President of American University of Sharjah, the GCC Media Education Congress 2014 will be held February 19, 2014 at American University of Sharjah. GCC media industry and thought leaders will converge at the university and share insights and ideas for media education curriculum development.
An ideal platform to create yearly thought leadership content and help build and deepen region-wide media sector relationships, the conference will include traditional, digital and social media personalities from the GCC, as well as journalists covering the media and education sectors.
Agenda
Opening Session
|
8:30-9:30 a.m. |
Delegate and Media Registration |
|
10:00 a.m. |
Inauguration by Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qassimi, |
|
10:05-10:10 a.m. |
Introduction by AUS Acting Chancellor, Dr. Thomas Hochstettler |
|
10:15-11:00 a.m. |
Keynote by Philip Seib, Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California |
11:00-11:15
a.m. Coffee Break
Panel Discussions
|
Panel I |
Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry Moderator: Caroline Faraj, CNN Arabic Digital Panelists:
|
|
Panel II |
The Media Personality of Tomorrow in the GCC/MENA Region Moderator: Dr. Ralph Berenger, Associate Professor of Panelists:
|
Lunch 1:15-2:15 p.m.
|
Panel III A: 2:30-3:30 p.m. Digital Media Opportunities and Challenges Moderator: Dr. Ilhem Allagui, Associate Professor of Panelists:
|
Panel III B: 2:30-3:00 p.m. Arabic as a Language of Media Production and Education in the GCC Region Moderator: Nasr Arif, Executive Director Institute Panelists:
|
Coffee Break 3:30-3:45 p.m.
|
Panel
|
Talk Moderator: Panelists:
|
4:45-5:00 p.m. Conclusion of Congress
Speakers
Dr. Thomas J. Hochstettler
Dr. Thomas John Hochstettler joined AUS in Fall 2009 as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and was named Provost shortly thereafter. He was appointed Acting Chancellor in Spring Semester 2013.
A native Ohioan, Dr. Hochstettler has been engaged in international education throughout most of his career. A historian by training, he has held both teaching and administrative positions at Bowdoin College, Rice University and Stanford University. He was the founding chief academic officer of International University Bremen, now Jacobs University, the first private, non-profit research university established in post-war Germany. Since its official opening in 2001, Jacobs has risen into the top rank of German universities in several fields, including the life sciences and social and political studies. Subsequently, Dr. Hochstettler was named president of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he was instrumental in putting the institution on a firm financial basis and championed the expansion of international study opportunities for students. During his tenure, the college completed a major new LEED Gold-certified building to house the social sciences, and his efforts were key in upgrading spaces available for the performing arts on campus. Under his leadership, Lewis & Clark rose in reputation and quality both nationally and internationally, particularly as a center for innovative undergraduate research and teaching in the natural and social sciences.
As Provost at AUS, Dr. Hochstettler oversaw all teaching and research programs at the university, as well as ancillary services such as student advising, academic computing and the library. During his tenure as Provost, AUS dramatically increased its funding for faculty research, and he was responsible for creating opportunities for student and faculty exchange with universities abroad. An accomplished pianist himself, Dr. Hochstettler expanded the program in performing arts at AUS. He broadened the scope of liberal education for all undergraduates, even as he led the movement to create new interdisciplinary centers and institutes at the university.
Dr. Hochstettler earned his bachelor of arts degree from Earlham College in Indiana and his master's and doctoral degrees in history at the University of Michigan. He has been the recipient of a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and of research support from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Dr. Hochstettler specializes in early modern German political and economic history and European military history. Through his engagement in higher education administration, he has also extended his research interests to include enrollment management and international educational reform. He currently chairs the board of directors of the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), the world's foremost non-profit organization engaged in expanding opportunities for international education, based in Washington, DC.
Philip Seib - Keynote Speaker
Philip Seib is Professor of Journalism and
Public Diplomacy and Professor of International Relations at the University of
Southern California. He served as director of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy
from 2009 to 2013. He is author and editor of numerous books, including Headline
Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy; Beyond the Front
Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War; New Media and the New Middle East; The Al
Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics; Toward A
New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy; and Global Terrorism and New Media. His
most recent books are Al Jazeera English:
Global News in a Changing World and Real-Time
Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era. His commentaries on
foreign policy appear frequently in Huffington
Post and other publications.
Ibrahim Al Abed
Ibrahim Al Abed is the Director General of the UAE National Media Council (NMC). He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1965 and started working at the Ministry of Information and Culture in 1975, becoming director general of the NMC when that was established in 2005. He launched the Emirates News Agency, WAM, now part of the NMC, in 1977. He is author and editor of several books, including the NMC-published annual UAE Yearbook.
Mohammed Fahad Alharthi
Mohammed Fahad Alharthi has over 20 years' experience in the media. He began his career at Asharq Al Awsat international Arabic daily newspaper published from London before joining Arab News in 1992 as a correspondent. He moved to work with the team to establish the economic newspaper in Saudi Arabia, and served as journalist to senior sub-editor of the front page and later became the managing editor. In 1997, he became the editor-in-chief of Arrajol magazine in London and received the Gulf Excellence Award in 2002 on Arrajol's huge success. He also worked as a visiting journalist at the Financial Times in London.
In 2004, he became the editor-in-chief of Sayidaty and Al Jamila magazine and oversaw its transfer from London to Dubai Media City. He has played a leading role in the efforts to bring out a number of specialized issues of Sayidaty, such as Sayidaty Décor, Sayidaty Mother & Baby and Sayidaty Fashion. He also supervised the establishment of Sayidaty magazine in English.
He was a founding member of the Arab Youth Leaders Forum at the Davos Middle East conference, a member of Gulf 2000 project at Columbia University in New York and holds also membership in the Journalists Union in the UK.
Currently, he is the editor in chief of Sayidaty, Al Jamila and Arab News.
Alharthi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Master of Arts in International Journalism from City University in London.
Saud Al Kaabi
Saud Al Kaabi is anchor at Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI). His career began at the early age of nine when he became the first child television presenter on Dubai TV and he has remained there ever since. He presented the acclaimed Al Maidan. Al Kaabi has presented top shows on Dubai TV, such as Najm AlKhaleej and Taratata. A graduate of American University in Sharjah, he was the recipient of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Award for the most distinguished student in 1999. He was the first student to be an official member of a ministerial council. He played one of the lead roles in the first Emirati feature movie, City of Life.
Mohannad Al Khatib
Mohannad Al Khatib, News Presenter with Sky News Arabia, started his career as an international radio broadcaster at the Voice of America radio station in Washington, DC. He then moved to UNICEF to work as a communications officer for the MENA region.
In 2001, Al Khatib joined MBC as a talk show host based in Beirut. He later joined Al Arabiya as Senior News Anchor and the host of a weekly current affairs program. Al Khatib subsequently took up the position of News Presenter at Future TV in 2007, hosting a weekly round-up of major international news called Radar 360.
Of Jordanian nationality, Al Khatib holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Towson University in Maryland, along with a Master of Arts in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC. He is fluent in Arabic and English.
Nabeel AlKhatib
Dr. Nabeel AlKhatib is the executive editor in Al-Arabiya news channel. He has an academic background as well as experience in mass communication studies and documentary production.
He joined the MBC group in 1993 as a reporter in the channel's office in Jerusalem. He became head of the Jerusalem office in 1996, and was promoted in September 2002 to be head of Al-Arabiya offices in the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem.
In June 2004, Dr. Al Khatib moved to Dubai as the executive editor for Al-Arabiya news channel.
Dr. Al Khatib founded the Birzeit Media Institute, and was head of the media department in the College of Arts in Birzeit University, which is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the Palestinian territories.
Since his transition to Dubai, Dr. Al Khatib has taught master's-level courses about media and society and television media at universities such as the Jordanian Media Institute in Amman, and American University in Dubai.
Dr. Al Khatib received his PhD in language usage in media. He has also written research about Palestinian journalism in the Occupied Territories and the diaspora. Dr. Al Khatib has additionally written numerous research papers and worked as a media consultant for several global media agencies.
Dr. Ilhem Allagui
Ilhem Allagui earned a PhD and in Communication Studies from the University of Montreal, Canada. Before joining AUS she taught at the University of Montreal, where she also gained experience working for an advertising agency and for the new media industry. Dr. Allagui's current research interests focus on, among other things, the social integration of new media in the Arab region; she is a lead research partner in the World Internet project network. She has written articles and book chapters and has given numerous conference presentations; she's currently co-authoring a book on Internet usage in the UAE. Dr. Allagui teaches advertising courses.
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a UAE-based commentator on Arab affairs writing for numerous local and international publications including The National, Gulf News, New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Independent and the Guardian. He tweets prolifically @SultanAlQassemi and has over 250,000 followers. He was listed in the "140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2011" by Time magazine.
He is a non-resident Fellow at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai and a former lecturer at the Dubai Men's College. He received a Master's Degree in Global Banking and Finance from the European Business School, where he graduated with distinction in 2004, and a Bachelor of Science in International Business Administration from the American University of Paris.
Dr. Ammar A. Bakkar
Dr. Ammar Bakkar is the CEO of Yes 2 Digital, a Dubai-based digital media group. Y2D is the managing partner of several digital media companies in the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, USA, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Morocco.
Dr. Bakkar has been in the new media industry since 2000, when he launched some of the earliest Arab portals. He has also been a columnist on the issues of digital media since 1996. In addition, he has been associated with the Digital Emmy Awards in New York since 2009.
Until the end of 2011, Dr. Bakkar was the Group Director of New Media at MBC Group, one of the largest media organizations in the Middle East. During the nine years he worked for MBC, Dr. Bakkar launched and managed several major portals including Alarabiya.net (2004), MBC.net (2006), and Shahid.net (2010).
Dr. Bakkar holds a doctoral degree from the University of Oklahoma (USA). He has more than 15 years of experience working for the traditional media as a journalist, a correspondent and a chief editor with several Arab and international publications.
In 2008, he published a book in Germany entitled Creativity Enhancement in Media Organizations. In 2004-2005, Dr. Bakkar was an adjunct mass communication professor at American University of Sharjah.
Rania Barghout
Rania Barghout has been a TV presenter since 1998. She moved to the UK when recruited by the Middle East Broadcasting Channel (MBC). Barghout went on to present and produce several shows but found fame with her acclaimed entertainment show Ma Yatlubuhu Al Mushahidoun (The Viewers' Requests) which won her best presenter and best entertainment show awards for more than seven consecutive years. She later hosted, produced and presented several live and recorded programs for Qatar TV and Abu Dhabi TV.
Barghout subsequently co-presented Kalam Nawaem, the number 1 talk show targeting Arab women, for 12 years and was voted the most influential TV personality of the year in 2009.
In 2011, she became the first Arab spokesperson for L'Oreal Paris for the MENA countries. That same year, she produced and presented Hatha Ana, a highly acclaimed celebrity entertainment show, but returned to Kalam Nawaem, where she is still going strong.
Barghout founded r*stars talent management, a company that helps bridge the gap between media hopefuls and the job market by training prospective TV presenters. She conducts workshops in Lebanon, Dubai, Kuwait and the KSA.
Dr. Ralph Donald Berenger
Ralph D. Berenger earned a Doctor of Arts in Political Science from Idaho State University, Pocatello, USA, with minors in economics and sociology. A former newspaper editor and publisher, he has taught political science, journalism and mass communication for over 15 years at US universities, the American University in Cairo, Cairo University, and Modern Science and Arts University in Cairo, and graduate courses in international mass communication for Macquarie University in Australia. His areas of interest are conflict studies, international communication, media ethics, public opinion and mass media theory. He has published four books on ethics, and media behavior in war and politics.
David Butorac
David Butorac was named Chief Executive Officer of OSN in October 2010. An international television industry veteran, Butorac brings a wealth of experience to OSN gained over a 30-year career in some of the world's most successful broadcasting and multi-channel television companies.
His career to date has included the positions of Head of Operations and Station Manager at BSkyB, Group Chief Operating Officer at Astro-Malaysia's largest broadcasting and cross-media company-as well as President at the News Corporation's Star TV in Hong Kong. Prior to joining OSN, Butorac was Managing Director of WIN Corporation, Australia's largest regional cross-media company.
Butorac was included in the inaugural Advance Australia list of the 100 most influential Australians living outside Australia and was named Media and Marketing Business Leader of the Year at the 2012 Gulf Business Industry Awards. Butorac also received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Broadcast at the 2013 Broadcast Pro Middle East Summit.
Kamal Dimachkie
As Executive Regional Managing Director for Leo Burnett, Kamal Dimachkie supervises 225 employees and more than 30 accounts across a broad range of industries. His main responsibilities include setting and delivering against growth targets for the offices. His role includes new business development, oversight of the recruitment and development of the agency's human capital, maintenance of creative excellence and agency reputation, and management of client-agency relationships.
Dimachkie began his tenure with Leo Burnett in 1985 as an account executive for Procter & Gamble. His experience in the Middle East has enabled him to work and live in Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He has held a number of senior positions with Leo Burnett, including manager of the Kuwait and Saudi Arabia offices and head of new business development for the Arabian Peninsula. He also has led and developed two prominent multinational assignments, Procter & Gamble and Kellogg's, for Leo Burnett in the Middle East
His work with Leo Burnett in the United States included new product development for Kellogg's and new business development. He extended his North American experience with a few years in Canada.
After earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry, Dimachkie graduated in 1985 from the American University of Beirut with an MBA.
In addition to managing Leo Burnett Dubai and Kuwait, Kamal has served as an adjunct instructor at the American University in Dubai, lecturing on integrated marketing communications and advertising. He is a board member of the IAA and serves on a number of committees.
Caroline J. Faraj
Caroline Faraj is the CNN Arabic Digital Services Director, and CNN Dubai Chief Operations Director. Named to this position in November 2001, she moved from Jordan, where she served as senior political reporter for Al Rai, the leading Arabic daily newspaper in Jordan since 1984. She also served as managing editor for the Jordan Times (Jordan's only English-language newspaper) and regional correspondent for the US Defense News.
In her position as CNN Arabic Digital Services Director, Faraj is responsible for the content and the management of the CNN Arabic site, including supervision of a number of writers, as well as reporting for CNN TV when a story breaks.
Previously, Faraj held positions in London for Dubai TV and in Jordan for Bahrain TV. She also conceived and hosted the first morning TV talk show (Youm Jadid) live on Jordanian television. Faraj has contributed numerous articles for the main regional and international media and done extensive research on specialized subjects related to the Arab world.
Between 1991-1993, Faraj was the only Jordanian journalist to cover the entire Arab-Israeli bilateral peace talks in Washington, DC, and elsewhere.
Faraj was born in Amman, Jordan. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications-Radio and Television from Yarmouk University in Jordan and a Master of Arts in International Journalism from City University in London. Faraj is fluent in both Arabic and English.
Iman Fawaz
Iman Fawaz is Digital Business Development Manager at Mediaquest Corp, one of the leading media publishing companies in the Middle East and North Africa. She presents the Dotmena Premium Network, Mediaquest Corp's online media arm, to media agencies and establishes strong relations with media partners and direct clients.
Fawaz is a June 2011 graduate of American University Sharjah, with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a concentration in advertising.
Dr. Mahboub Edmond Hashem
Mahboub Hashem earned a PhD in Communication from Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA. He has taught in communication and mass communication departments for more than 25 years at US institutions such as Fort Hays State University, the University of Toledo, and Florida State University. His areas of research and teaching interest are new information technology and social media effects, intercultural/interpersonal communication, organizational communication and leadership, theories of mass media and research methods. In addition to teaching, he has served as a consultant and invited speaker for several international organizations and institutions.
Ali Jaber
Ali Jaber is a well-known media professional whose long career has had a deep impact on the media landscape in the region, especially Lebanon and the UAE.
He is the Group TV Director of the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation's (MBC) 12 channels. After completing his master's degree in communications at Syracuse University in the US, Jaber joined the Fine Arts Faculty of Beirut University College (now the Lebanese American University) helping to set up their broadcasting department and teaching a range of courses in TV production. In 1992, then-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri approached Jaber to set up what later became Future TV, a privately owned pan-Arab television station based in Beirut. Jaber worked as a journalist covering the wars in Lebanon and Iraq between 1987 and 1999, and was the chief correspondent for the German Press Agency DPA in Lebanon and Syria. He also worked as a correspondent for the New York Times and the Times of London between 1989 and 1994. In 2004, he worked as a consultant on the revamp of Dubai Media Incorporated's four pan-Arab satellite channels, which included restructuring the channels' on-air branding and content. In 2006, Jaber was appointed as DMI's Managing Editor.
In 2008, Jaber set up the Communications School at the American University in Dubai. He was subsequently named Dean of the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Communication.
Jaber also serves on the Board of Directors of the Young Arab Leaders and on the Advisory Board of the American University of Beirut School of Architecture and Design in Lebanon.
Ihsan Jawad
Ihsan Jawad is an Internet entrepreneur based in Dubai. After founding Zawya.com and then moving to Thomson Reuters in 2012, he went on to co-found HoneyBee Tech Ventures, an incubator and venture capital firm set up to seed consumer-based Internet start-ups. Before entering the Internet realm, Jawad worked in investment banking, first at Merrill Lynch and later with Schroeders (now Citigroup) in the City of London. Jawad received a bachelor of science and master's degree in physics from Imperial College, London.
Bedoor Khalil
Bedoor Khalil is Social Media Coordinator at Sky News Arabia where she manages the social media platforms. These include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Youtube. She is responsible for analyzing social media fan numbers, designing metrics of success, monitoring and responding to inquiries as well as tailoring social media content to increase fan engagement, among other tasks.
Bedoor is a June 2012 graduate of American University of Sharjah, with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations.
Ahmed Moustafa
Ahmed Moustafa has been working in media for almost three decades. His media career began with print journalism in Egypt. He then moved to radio with the BBC in London. After years in radio, he moved to television, first with Dubai TV then Al Jazeera in Qatar. He returned to London with Al Hayat newspaper, then back to the BBC, working mainly in online and digital media. Last year, he moved to Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia as Chief Editor-Digital.
Moustafa has regularly contributed articles and analyses to many publications in Arabic and English. He also has written a few books, with his latest, Arab Change: Preliminaries and Expectations, published in 2012 in Arabic.
Moustafa is a graduate of Cairo University with a Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery.
Dr. Hania Nashef
Hania A.M. Nashef earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. She has 16 years of experience in TV broadcast in the Arab region. She has previously taught at Ohio State University in the USA and at the University of Jordan in Amman. Her research interests include media culture, representations in media, identity, gender politics, and postcolonial and postmodern theories.
Youssef Rakha
Youssef Rakha, a Cairo-based writer and photographer, is the author of the novels Book of the Sultan's Seal and The Crocodiles. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy from Hull University, England. From 1998 to the present, he has worked as reporter, copy editor and cultural editor at Al-Ahram Weekly, the Cairo-based English-language newspaper. He was on sabbatical for a year (2008-2009) to work as a features writer at the Abu Dhabi-based daily, The National.
Ahmed Salem
Ahmed Salem joined Sharjah Radio as a broadcaster and editor in 1973. He subsequently served as General Manager of Emirates Radio in Abu Dhabi. In 1986, he was mandated to establish Sharjah TV. He became a member of the Consultative Council of Sharjah and Chairman of the Committee of Information and Education in 2007. He also serves as a Member of the Board of Sharjah Media Corporation and is known for his contribution to both print and electronic media. Salem holds a master's in electronic media.
Nadia Saleem
Nadia Saleem is a financial journalist for Thomson Reuters. Her journalism career began on the business desk at the Dubai-based daily Gulf News, during the heydays of Dubai property boom. Although she had little background knowledge in the field of business, she was able to quickly grasp the basics of several industries, ranging from aviation to telecommunications to equity markets.
She was subsequently hired by Thomson Reuters to cover the GCC equity markets. She also began covering the Egyptian equity market in late 2012.
Saleem graduated from AUS in December 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication. She is currently pursuing an LLB at the University of London while continuing to work at Thomson Reuters.
Osama Samra
Osama Samra filled numerous positions in the media and communication field before becoming Director of Sharjah Media Centre. His career spans over broadcast and print media, where he began his professional journey as a journalist covering political, economic and cultural topics. He worked for many years in media institutions renowned across the Arab world, including the Saudi Al-Riyadh newspaper in its main headquarters in Dubai.
Samra also filled the position of Editor in Chief for the Tanmiyat, magazine which specializes in the real estate industry, where he published numerous prominent economic reports about the Islamic banking system of a number of financial institutions in the Arab region, in addition to covering the economic performance of Sharjah in the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
Samra also contributed to the Al-Osra Al-Asrieh and Al-Mara'a Al-Yawm magazines, and before becoming Director of Sharjah Media Centre, he was the head of the media and marketing department at the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority.
Moreover, Samra was hosted at a number of TV programs-most eminent of which was his interview, along with other Arab media professionals, in a CNN program presented by Jim Mckinsey about the Iraqi war-in addition to other programs covering cultural, educational and economic topics, on various Arabic TV and radio channels.
Slimane Zeghidour
Slimane Zeghidour is a journalist and essayist, editor and columnist for TV5 Monde, the French international channel. Reporting for La Vie, Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, El Pais and other notable publications, he has covered Latin America, Middle East, Russia and Central Asia. He has been a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism (ESJ) attached of the Sorbonne-Paris and associate researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Studies (IRIS). He has also presented the seminar Geopolitics of Religions at Sciences-Po and Menton Poitiers.
Zeghidour was the recipient of the Clio Prize for History in 1990. His publications include Daily Life in Mecca, Muhammad to the Present Day (Hachette, 1989), The Veil and the Banner (Hachette-Pluriel, 1990), 50 Words of Islam (Desclée de Brouwer, 1990), and Algeria in Colours, French Soldiers Photography about the Algerian War For Independence, from 1954-1962 (Les Arenes, Paris, 2011).
Venue
The GCC Media Education Congress will be held on February 19-20, 2014 at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Founded in 1997 by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Sharjah, American University of Sharjah (AUS) was envisaged by His Highness as a leading educational institution in the Gulf region. Consciously based upon American institutions of higher education, AUS is thoroughly grounded in Arab culture and is part of a larger process of the revitalization of intellectual life in the Middle East. AUS is an independent, not-for-profit coeducational institution that is proud of its role as a leading comprehensive coeducational university, serving students from the region and around the world.
Sharjah is a city of learning and the arts, as confirmed by its 1998 UNESCO designation as the Cultural Capital of the Arab World. This context facilitates the university's intention to be an academic center at the intersection of ancient cultural traditions and contemporary intellectual currents. The city of Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums with splendid collections of artifacts and art as well as exhibits on science and natural history. Sharjah also hosts many cultural festivals, educational conferences, fairs and economic expositions. These resources permit the university to broaden students' formal education in a way not possible elsewhere in the region.
For the AUS map and directions, please click here.
Visa Information
Citizens of the following countries can obtain a visa upon entry: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland (Netherlands), Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America and Vatican City.
Citizens of other countries will require a visa to enter the United Arab Emirates. If you are flying to the UAE using Emirates Airlines or Air Arabia, the airline can get you the necessary visa if you make the request in advance. If you elect to apply for a visa at the UAE embassy in your country, we will be glad to provide you with any supporting documents that you may need, such as an invitation letter indicating the acceptance of your paper.
Accommodation
Payment Error
Thank You for Registering
