Zayed University and Explorance successfully hosted the fifth Bluenotes Conference at Raffles Dubai on 25-26 October, amongst more than 130 participants representing 50 institutions from 12 countries around the world. Panelists at the event included prestigious international speakers from the United Arab Emirates, across the GCC, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
The 5th annual Bluenotes conference was titled “Insight to Action: Driving Student Success” provided academics with a valuable opportunity to share experiences, best practices, and insights in order to enhance the student learning experience.
Professor Michael Allen, Zayed University’s Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer, gave the opening address during which he outlined progress to date in the delivery of Zayed University’s transformation strategy. During his remarks he said: “Against the backdrop of a changing world, the UAE leadership has outlined a new vision for the future; and education has a central role in the delivery of this vision. The Government’s 2071 Centennial Plan and Projects of the 50 are an ambitious series of developmental and economic projects aimed at delivering the UAE’s development over its second 50 years… As a federal institution, Zayed University has, since its foundation, played an important role in educating the nation. It is students like ours, who will come to fill those new jobs. Our role as a university therefore is to be an accelerator of change and an incubator of potential. We must inspire the promise of the future generation.”
Mr. Samer Jaffar, Explorance GM in the MENA region, reflected on the impact of the pandemic on education in general over the past three years and the opportunity ahead for universities to address the skill gap by focusing on developing and continuously assessing students’ competencies. Samer noted: “The workforce is in dire need for new skills as university graduates can directly contribute to the advancement and adoption of new technologies. Explorance partners with universities to provide a feedback ecosystem which empowers a cycle of continuous improvement in order to enhance the student experience and ensure that graduates are better equipped to contribute faster in the economy. Among Explorance’s latest innovative solutions is the Machine Learning Platform that has introduced a new perspective in analyzing unstructured feedback. This has further enabled our university partners to extract hidden insights and ensure that they are consistently measuring what aspires their students to succeed in their education journey. We are proud of the close partnership with Zayed University as we jointly welcomed the largest number of participants to the 5th edition of this conference. Bluenotes has become a reference event for quality assurance in the MENA region.”
Over two days faculty from Zayed University participated alongside leading faculty from Tufts University, the University of London, the American University in Cairo, Khalifa University and King Abdulaziz University, in addition to senior representatives from the UAE Ministry of Education.
