The Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi has launched a master's degree in business and languages that it hopes will attract some of its first group of graduates. The course has been set up to capitalise on the popularity of the institution's bachelor's degree in the same subject - one in which a group of students in the university's first year of degree courses has recently completed an undergraduate programme.
"The goal is to prepare students to work in an international environment," said Dr Ronald Perlwitz, the Sorbonne academic running the course. Students choose to study two languages out of English, Arabic, German and Spanish, although they are already expected to have a high level of proficiency in them. In the course they will be taught translation skills and other commercially useful applications of their language knowledge.
Dr Perlwitz said the course was "not only teaching the language" but was also intended to help students understand the culture of the country they were working in. "If they work with German or Arab or US partners, they will know the background, how they will react and what their values are. This is something very, very important," he said. "To succeed in the UAE, it's not only about technical knowledge, it's your intercultural abilities."
Other parts of the two-year programme include courses in international law and in marketing. "We have some of our students that followed the [bachelor's] course for the first three years sign up and we've had a lot of enquiries from other students," said Dr Perlwitz, who added that the new course had received about 15 applications. "The language and business department at the Sorbonne is working well," he said. This was one reason why the course had been launched.
"The other reason is that it's really a master's designed for professionals that want to work in the UAE." Officials hope that when the course launches late next month there will be 20 to 25 students. The Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, funded by the emirate's Government, began degree courses in 2006 from a temporary campus. It is due to move to a permanent home on Reem Island later this year.
dbardsley@thenational.ae