Dubai, UAE: University College London (UCL) has three important partnerships planned in the UAE — two on research in specific areas of health and one in urban planning — and its provost, Professor Michael Arthur will look to expand these links on his first visit to the UAE from April 6 to 10.
On the eve of his arrival, Arthur talked to Gulf News about why the Middle East is increasingly significant for UCL, which has an active alumni network of more than 260 former students in the UAE. The 70 students enrolled in UCL from the UAE is a 30 per cent increase over last year.
UCL is one of the world’s leading universities, regularly coming very high in international rankings. The Thomson Scientific Index places UCL as the second most cited European university and 15th in the world. It was founded in 1826, making it the first English university to be founded after Oxford and Cambridge. UCL has two campuses outside Britain, in Qatar and Australia.
UCL’s current projects connected to the UAE include a partnership with Moorfields Hospital and its Dubai branch through the London-based UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, which will conduct research into eye care. This will include diabetic retinopathy, which is a major and growing concern in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation is being established at the Royal Free Hospital to bring leading scientists investigating immunity, and the research will include diseases such as diabetes and haemophilia, which are of significance in the Gulf region.
Expertise in sustainability
The third project of significance to the UAE is through the UCL spin-off company, Space Syntax, which is based at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and is already working in Dubai to model urban development and improve future urban planning, with an eye on how to improve long-term environmental conditions.
"UCL has a lot of expertise in sustainability," Arthur told Gulf News.
Space Syntax analyses spatial configuration as it affects human affairs, such as in a city, and is a tool to simulate the likely effects of architecture, urban design, planning, transportation and interior design.
UCL is seeking to build relationships with existing organisations so as to support their work and build capacity.
"We do not want to launch lots of overseas undergraduate campuses," said Arthur, describing the UCL strategy of looking at partnerships and research projects. "We want to work with the healthcare, education, and government bodies, to build capacity. We want to work with the grain of the country."
Arthur was appointed UCL’s Provost in 2013, and he is the first medic to win this post. He is an award-winning hepatologist, who later ran the schools of medicine in Southampton University, before moving to be Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University for nine years.
He told Gulf News he was looking forward to using his first visit to the UAE to identify the requirements that UCL can help with, and his own background will help him review how the extensive healthcare research taking place at UCL might be of use in the UAE.
© Gulf News
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