The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SAP at Dubai Women’s College (DWC) campus to provide faculty in Information Technology and Business with a raft of new educational tools to help its graduates.

The MOU was signed by Dr. Mark Drummond, HCT Provost and Selim J. Eddé, Vice President Government Relations, SAP MENA.

SAP will provide HCT campus with advanced curricula, technologies, academic research, and custom-tailored courses and projects which develop highly qualified graduates with critical skills for the 21st century workforce.

The program also enables faculty to offer hands-on classroom and lab experiences with SAP software to their students. Further, the program provides access to software licenses, instructional workshops and conferences for professors, course materials, and other instructional aides to colleges.

HCT has also joined SAP’s globally acclaimed University Alliance Program (UAP) in order to ramp up its output of graduates capable of succeeding in the UAE thriving technology sector.

The initiative is set to provide HCT with the tools and resources needed to teach students how IT technology can empower individuals, enable integrated business processes and inspire strategic thinking-vital skills that will figure prominently in the realization of the UAE’s world-class development blueprints.

Nick Nunnington, Academic Dean of Business and Computer and Information Science at HCT said, “As we continue to develop our new Bachelor of Science programs we seek opportunities such as this to embed authentic learning in the curriculum; develop projects which align with employers expectations; and give our students the contemporary employability skills required in the UAE.  Ultimately I would like to see our Business and CIS students working as consultants to each other to use the resources provided by this Alliance to develop SAP enabled solutions to business problems.”

Dr. Nasser Nassiri, Chairperson of Computer and Information Science Department at DWC said, “As technology is increasingly driving business, the need for DWC Business Information System (BIS) graduates has increased dramatically over the last few years.”

He added that the SAP UAP program enables the BIS students to experience first-hand on how organizations operate, and how integrated systems can make them more efficient, productive, and profitable.

“IT students will also gain a real-life perspective on how business is done in the “real world” and are better prepared for their careers. They also become potential candidates that can be hired immediately by SAP partners in Dubai,” he pointed out.

“This agreement will qualify many HCT students with practical ERP skills that are highly needed by medium to large enterprises worldwide. This will increase our graduates employability, and will empower the businesses to reach their competitive advantage,” said Dr. Shadi Al-khamayseh, IT faculty at DWC.

The University Alliances Program (UAP) now counts five UAE universities as members  - the others being Zayed University, UAE University, American University of Sharjah and the American University of Dubai. A total of 26 institutions across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have signed up to date, and SAP hopes to double that figure within the next four years.

Supporting existing business, engineering and IT programs, the UAP provides hands-on experience of key SAP technologies, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), and puts theory into practice through demonstrations, case studies and research.

"HCT is a UAE institution of regional repute that produces graduates eagerly sought for their skill, ability to adapt to constant change and alignment with the job market”,” said Selim J. Eddé, Vice President Government Relations, SAP MENA.

“SAP is honored to add another dimension to their learning, and we are confident that this high-profile collaboration will yield powerful contributions to UAE society in the coming years.”