The Mass Communication Department of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), under the patronage of his Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of UAEU, launched the third Al Nawa Awards for Mass Communication recently. The launch of the third series of awards comes after the success of the first and second versions and thanks, in part, to the increasing number of participants.

The launch of the media award took place during a press conference held in the presence of Dr. Ali Rashid Al Noaimi, Vice Chancellor of UAEU; Professor Saif Al Qaydi, the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Dr. Aisha Al Nuaimi, the Chair of the Mass Communication Department.

His Excellency the Vice Chancellor of UAEU thanked his Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan for being the patron of the award, for his direct involvement with it and for his support of the organizing committee. This indicates his Excellency’s enthusiasm to embrace the media-based talents of students, not only at university level but across the whole region. This is because of the similarities of the countries within the region where the respective leaderships’ visions complement each other, local ideas are closer to their source and talented students share a mutual cultural heritage. The award was issued under the theme – Promising Media for Leading Communities – which obviously aims to stimulate good qualities, innovation, creativity and leadership in the field of media studies.

His Excellency the Vice Chancellor of the University added that this award carries implications of great importance as it is addressed to the student community and challenges them to develop important media applications. The board which oversees the award is composed of media and cultural personalities that are well known in the community. There is also a highly specialized and professional arbitration committee that evaluates the entries.

Dr. Aisha Al Nuaimi said that the award aims to promote the value of innovation among university students and does so by rightly celebrating innovative and talented students and by caring for talented young people and supporting them. This, in turn, enhances professionalism and competitiveness among students and helps to establish a younger generation who are proud of and appreciative of work in the media.

Dr. Aisha Al Nuaimi called on local and Gulf media to support this award as they are directly responsible for supporting and embracing the talents of the next generation of students. The third version of the awards expanded the number of categories to include a social media category; a film and photography element; an advertising and design section and a newspaper article award.