UAEU Board of Trustees’ Fifth Meeting

UAEU Board of Trustees’ Fifth Meeting of the Academic Year 2021/2022

The Board of Trustees of the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) met on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, under the Chairmanship of the Chancellor, Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, Cultural Advisor to H.H. the President of the UAE.

The UAEU Board of Trustees is its Governing Board with responsibility for the quality, integrity, and financial sustainability of the University. Acting on behalf of public and stakeholder interest, it exercises oversight of the University’s strategic plans and performance. In this respect the UAEU is privileged to benefit from the advice of a Board of Trustees with immense accumulated expertise in the leadership of industrial, government, community, and academic institutions. Its membership comprises:

• E. Mariam Bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment
• E. Saeed Al-Bahri Salem Al-Ameri, Director General of Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority
• E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Chief Investment Officer, G42
• E. Mona Ghanim Al-Marri, Director General of the Government of Dubai’s Media Office
• E Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority
• E. Saeed Rashed Al-Yateem, Assistant Undersecretary for Resources and Budget, UAE Ministry of Finance
• E. Faisal Al-Bannai, Executive Chairman of the EDGE Group
• E. Dr. Mohammed Ali Al-Sheryani, Director of Community Affairs at the Supreme Council for National Security
• E. Tayba Al-Hashmi, CEO ADNOC Sour Gas
• Hon. Professor the Lord Ajay Kakkar PC, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, University College London (UK), President, the Thrombosis Research Institute and Chair of King’s Health Partners
• Amna Al-Shamry Al-Ajmi, Senior Planning Analyst, Employee Engagement at ADNOC Distribution

Today the Board of Trustees was presented with the University’s global ranking for 2023, as assessed by Quacquarelli Symonds, and gave analysis of the two-year action plan that the UAEU has developed to accelerate the advance of its ranking.

In accord with international norms of good governance, the Board of Trustees will undertake a routine periodic assessment of its own performance in 2022, facilitated by an external interdependent adviser. The Board of Trustees duly noted the details and timeline of the process.

The Board of Trustees noted that the UAE Cabinet has made new appointments to the positions of Minister of Education, Minister of State for Public Education and Future Technology, and Minister of State for Early Education. It further noted the Ministerial brief to re-evaluate how young people are taught, to ensure graduates are well prepared for the workplaces of the future, and to seek structural changes across the education system. The Board of Trustees confirmed that it is looking forward to engaging with the new ministers to support the education sector in the country.

The Board of Trustees received a report from the Chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam. Following the report’s recommendations, the Board of Trustees approved a new Bachelor of Science program in Data Science and revisions to all the Undergraduate programs of the University’s College of Engineering.

The Board of Trustees received a report from the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, H.E. Dr Tariq Bin Hendi. The report gave detail of the Committee’s updates to the UAEU’s risk strategy and its approval of the UAEU’s audited financial statements for the calendar year 2021, undertaken under the authority delegated to it by the Board of Trustees and in discharge of its responsibility for financial oversight.

Having approved budgetary targets for 2023 at its meeting on 20 April 2022, the Board of Trustees ratified the full budget for 2023 which had been presented first to the Ministry of Finance.