Higher Colleges of Technology-Dubai organizes Orientation Day for new students

The Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai  (HCT-Dubai) welcomed last week more than 2,000 new students with their parents ahead of the start of the new academic year. The students were engaged in a day-long orientation held on Wednesday for female students in HCT-Dubai, Women’s Campus in Al Qusais and Thursday for male students at HCT-Dubai, Men’s Campus in the Academic City.

The Orientation Day is aimed at helping new students to understand the HCT culture and make a successful transfer from the school stage to the university life. It featured awareness lectures about several topics, mainly the key principles and rules followed by HCT.

Dr. Howard Reed, Director of HCT-Dubai, gave a welcoming address, which tackled various topics including the foundation students’ use of IPads instead of laptops.

In his address, Dr. Reed unveiled a raft of new laws, which will be applied in Men’s Campus in the new academic year including obligatory attendance for all students, campus bans on smoking and fizzy drinks, in addition to providing healthy trans-fat free food on campus.

Fatma Thani, Supervisor of Student Affairs at HCT-Dubai, emphasized the importance of laying down guidelines for each student’s success, saying that they have come from various educational backgrounds with different skills. “We want to provide new students with the tools they need to transfer to the higher learning stage to enable them to achieve their academic and career goals. In addition, we seek to encourage them to get engaged in non-summer activities, which besides being a source of fun, help them gain practical skills outside the classroom.”

 Dr. Howard has recently taken over the management of Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai, Men’s campus, in addition to being the director of the Dubai Women’s Campus a post he has held for more than 20 years upon directives from His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mabarak Al Nahayan, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology. The move was taken to better regulate the administrative and academic affairs in both colleges. Previously, each had its own administration.