Foundations Newsletter

Colleagues,

Welcome to the initial Foundations Newsletter, which we hope will be the first of many, written by faculty for faculty. It is our hope that the Newsletter informs, entertains and educates us about what is happening in Foundations on our campuses, both with our teachers and students.

It is a real honour and privilege to be the Executive Dean of Foundations, working with such an exceptional group of educators without whose efforts and professionalism there would be no students progressing to our Applied Diploma and Bachelor programmes. We have over 5000 students and more than 350 teachers, making us the largest of the faculties, and the difference we make to the lives of our students cannot be overstated. As our Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Tayeb Kamali, told us at the beginning of this academic year, the impression we make on our students in Foundations will stay with them throughout their time at HCT and beyond into the workplace when they graduate.

The pace of change in the HCT is bewildering at times, and the last few months has been no exception; we have had the new organizational structure, changes to personnel,  the introduction of Pre-Foundations in Dubai and the Northern Emirates and the changes to the IELTS requirements needed to exit Foundations to name but a few. We hope to discuss some of these and others in this Newsletter and invite feedback.

Your Foundations Chairs serve on the Faculty of Foundations Academic Committee (the FFAC),  – not the best acronym I’ve come ever come across  I’m sure you will agree – and I urge you to contact them concerning any aspects of Foundations you’d like to be discussed on a system-wide basis.

I hope you enjoy this Newsletter and I look forward to hearing even more about what is happening in our faculty.

Best wishes,
Tim