Admission of High School Students to the Academic Education

Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates:

As a contribution to encouraging outstanding and distinguished high school students, Rabdan Academy, an academy specializing in security, safety, defense, emergency management and crisis management (SSDEC), announced that it had accepted a group of third-stage students from various schools in the UAE to study university courses in conjunction with their high school education.

Rabdan Academy is proud of its strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education in implementing the Dual Credit Program, which represents an unprecedented opportunity for students wishing to invest their time optimally to build a prosperous academic future. 

Ministry of Education’s Initiative

Pertaining the importance of the new program that the Ministry launched this year with some higher education institutions in the UAE, HE Dr. Hamad Al Yahyai, Assistant Undersecretary of Curriculum and Assessment Sector stated: “The Ministry of Education launched the Dual Credit Program, an innovative program through which the Ministry is keen to introduce and adopt international best practices in academic education, to support the education sector in the country.”

He further stated that: “This innovative program realizes the new holistic vision of the education ecosystem in the country, which adopts the two factors of innovation and creativity as basic elements among the most important features of digital transformation in the Emirati school that seeks leadership, and for the next few years to be a global model in achieving the Excellent Education, one of the UAE Centennial 2071’s Pillars”

His Excellency also added: “The Ministry of Education aims, through the Dual Credit Program, to enable students to learn about the nature of courses, university education, and higher education needs and requirements, through studying some university courses while they are still third-stage students, as the Dual Credit Program highlights a set of goals of interest to students; the most important of which is, to familiarize students with the atmosphere of the academy, in addition to enhancing their capabilities as well as refining their skills required to succeed in university education.”

Benefits of Dual Credit Program

Regarding the benefits of the Dual Credit Program, Dr. Faisal Al Kaabi, Dean of Faculty of Resilience at Rabdan Academy, stated that: “The program works to raise students’ readiness for an upcoming educational phase, and build on their motivations and educational perspectives to achieve a qualitative addition to their educational journey. The registration of academic courses related to students ’orientation contributes to keeping pace with the economic requirements of the National Agenda for the UAE Vision 2021, so as to achieve the competitive knowledge economy in the country”

 Dr. Al-Kaabi also emphasized that: “The program contributes to proactively preparing outstanding National Students for the university stage, and allows them to integrate and interact with an advanced educational stage that enables them to integrate their skills and knowledge with new knowledge and experiences, benefiting from the support and supervision of the faculty at the Academy, which helps them to developing their interests and academic preferences as well as focusing on the Academic Disciplines that are compatible with their aspirations and future ambitions."

Dr. Al-Kaabi also added: "This program allows students to save time during the study stages and accumulate university credits, which ultimately contributes to their faster access to the market, and thus enables them to build their future and achieve their ambitions in record time."

On the efforts of the Academy, the students applying to the program were subjected to placement tests that included meetings with the faculty to learn about the student’s personality and aspirations for studying at the Academy, in addition to their future aspirations. Students were also assigned to some projects to assess the quality of the content and the style of presentation. In fact, students have began in a course associated within Business Continuity Management (BCM), which is one of the degree programs at Rabdan Academy. AS a specialty, BCM, addresses the continuation of the work cycle under normal and exceptional circumstances such as what the world is experiencing today.

Impressions from Lecturers, Students and Parents

Pertaining this new initiative, Dr. Carlos Samuel, Assistant Professor at Rabdan Academy said: “It is really a new experience that made me feel the students’ enthusiasm in the knowledge acquisition, overcoming the challenges of a university education approach which is different from the school’s one, time management and optimization of it, and their passion to obtain information and adopting a different thinking approach than what they are accustomed to during the past 10 years, in addition to the ability of the currently program registered student to obtain up to 6 university credits in one academic semester”.

Fatma Al Bastaki, Student Mariam Essay’s, said: “We thank the Ministry of Education for its continuous efforts to upgrade the educational system and to provide what is new and beneficial to develop our children’s study methods and enable them to achieve a promising future using innovative approaches. This makes them able to assume their responsibilities with pride and appreciation. We also thank Rabdan Academy for their interaction with students and providing all assistance to enable them to adapt and succeed within the university environment, which will open new horizons for them to a bright and sustainable future for our country”.

Commenting on the initiative, student Mariam enrolled in the Dual Credit Program at Rabdan Academy said: “Choosing the university and academic discipline is among the students’ priorities after the completion of the high school, thus, this initiative makes it much easier for the student. I also thank Rabdan Academy for the support it provides. The program enables us to continue our university education while inside the country and with our family, and it saves us time”.

It is noteworthy that Rabdan Academy is a government-owned world-class education institution established to coordinate and enhance learning outcomes for organizations and individuals in the safety, security, defense, emergency preparedness and crisis management sectors (SSDEC). The Academy is accredited by the UAE’s Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the Ministry of Education.

The Academy provides learning in a dual sector approach, combining academic and vocational education in one place whilst recognizing prior learning and experience and providing accredited and transferable credit from course to course and job to job. The Academy offers Degree Programs in Business Continuity Management (BCM), Integrated Emergency Management (IEM), Policing and Security (PAS), Crime Scenes (CSI), and Homeland Security.

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© Press Release 2020