Dubai February 17, 2008 - The University of Wollongong in Dubai emerged as the overall winner at the 2nd annual Wollongong Cup Public Speaking Competition, held today at the UOWD campus at Dubai Knowledge Village. The second and third places were bagged by American University of Sharjah and MAHE Manipal University. The competition attracted participants from 11 universities from across the UAE.

UOWD bagged the first spot in Impromptu, Extemporaneous and Storytelling Original categories, represented by Rohini Kamath, Bushra Yakoob and Tyson Fernandes.

In the Public Address category the top winner was Shirin Sheikh from American University of Sharjah. Iba Masood of American University of Sharjah emerged the top winner in the Radio Newsreading category and Aakanksha Singh of MAHE-Manipal University got top honours in Storytelling Traditional category.

Prof. Nick van der Walt, CEO of UOWD, addressed the participants at the award presentation ceremony on the importance of public speaking. Elma Zaher and Melissa Bos, faculty member and organiser of the event, presented trophies to the winners.

This year's participating universities included American University in Dubai, American University of Sharjah, BITS Pilani, Emirates Centre for Management & Information Technology, Gulf Medical College, International Institute for Technology & Management, Mahatma Gandhi University, MAHE Manipal University, Preston University, Skyline College and UOWD.

Corporate sponsors are provided attractive prizes to the winners. The sponsors were CashU, Khaleej Times, Shapes, Channel 104.8 and Magrudy's.

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About University of Wollongong Dubai
Established in 1993, UOWD was the first Australian university in Dubai to be licensed by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research. Located at Knowledge Village, it boasts 2500 students from 80 different nationalities. It is part of one of Australia's best performing research institutions, University of Wollongong Australia (UOW) which is recognised as one of the top Australian universities for excellence in teaching performance.

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© Press Release 2007