ABU DHABI // At New York University Abu Dhabi, the ambitions are as grand as the temporary campus is modest.
"Creating a new global paradigm for higher education" is a phrase oft-repeated by Dr Al Bloom, the vice chancellor a lofty goal he believes can be accomplished by establishing a world-class institution that recruits from across the world.
The result, he says, will be a university that rivals the likes of Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge and helps Abu Dhabi become one of the "centres of the creation of ideas".
"We have a vision centred on creating a really global university where the students and faculty are drawn from round the world. The best students and best faculty," he said. "The focus of the curriculum and the school is to educate global leaders."
The response from prospective students, Dr Bloom said, has been "phenomenal", "astounding", "amazing". Academics are said to be equally enthusiastic to work at the Abu Dhabi Government-funded university, which will open this autumn in small, temporary quarters on Airport Road.
After 500 students applied under a special early admission process, just over 60 places were offered. The response from these students, who come from more than 20 countries, has been "overwhelmingly positive", Dr Bloom said.
The university now plans to accept 150 first-year students, after an initial estimate of about 100. For the remaining places, the university has 8,000 applicants to choose from, including those who applied for NYU Abu Dhabi and others who applied to NYU but asked to also be considered for the Abu Dhabi campus.
It is a stark contrast to the experiences of some other western universities that have opened campuses here and struggled to attract qualified students.
Dr Bloom was reluctant to predict how many Emiratis would be among the inaugural class, although Dr John Sexton, NYU's president, had previously suggested the figure would be about five per cent.
Perhaps keen to ensure expectations are pegged realistically, Dr Bloom would only say the university would have "good representation" from the Emirates, Middle East and North Africa and that over time would achieve its desired proportion of students from the region.
The university has, however, made considerable efforts to attract Emiratis. "We've had outreach efforts to Emirati schools," Dr Bloom said. "We're very excited by the Emirati students that we have."
Based upon Dr Sexton's earlier comments, however, NYU Abu Dhabi will not be like Qatar's Education City, where close to half the enrolment is Qatari. The government-funded project includes six small campuses of American universities which are expected to recruit many local students.
Concerns have been expressed that entry standards in Education City are lower than in the home institutions, something Dr Bloom insists will not be the case with NYU Abu Dhabi.
He says students admitted here would be among the top three per cent of those who gain entry to the main NYU campus.
But not everyone is convinced the campus, where arts, humanities and science degrees will be taught, will compete with the world's best universities, at least not from the beginning.
Dr Clifton Chadwick, a senior lecturer in international education management at the British University in Dubai, believes there is "a lot of hyperbole" surrounding the new university, and thinks top American students will prefer their best home-grown universities.
"If you're a really good student and you have a choice of the Ivy League universities or NYU Abu Dhabi, you're not going to get lost on that," he said.
However, NYU Abu Dhabi has emphasised it is recruiting globally by contacting hundreds of the world's best high schools. As a result, even if some American students believe they have better options elsewhere, NYU Abu Dhabi may have less difficulty in attracting high-fliers from the many other countries where they have focused recruiting efforts, such as Kazakhstan, especially given the financial arrangements.
"It will be an astoundingly diverse student body," Dr Bloom said.
Although some students will contribute to their costs, Dr Bloom said financial aid was comparable to that at the most generous US colleges. Students offered places are being flown out to see the campus.
By the time the operation moves to the permanent campus in Saadiyat Island in 2014, the undergraduate student body is expected to have grown to about 750. Over the following several years, it will swell to about 2,000, plus about 800 postgraduate students. Eventually there could be around 4,000 students taking undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses.
Dr Bloom is nothing if not ambitious about what this means for Abu Dhabi.
"As a result of helping a great university, a great international community, a great research environment connected to New York and our global sites around the world, it will help Abu Dhabi establish itself as one of the centres of the creation of ideas round the world," he said.
"Abu Dhabi will be able to benefit from the fact it's joining NYU in creating a new paradigm for higher education.
"It's an incredible opportunity for any city or country to be part of creating what higher education has to become for the world."
@Email:dbardsley@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The specs: 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman
Price, base / as tested Dh222,500 / Dh296,870
Engine 2.0L, flat four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed PDK
Power 300hp @ 6,500rpm
Torque 380hp @ 1,950rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.9L / 100km
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site
The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411