The British University in Dubai (BUiD) moves to full online teaching

Dubai, UAE

Sallam Sallam

Since BUiD started more than 15 years ago, we have supported and cared about our students, our staff, and all those who connect with us. To deal with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, BUiD is operating entirely online using up-to-date distance and online learning platforms to support and safeguard its students, faculty and administrative staff.

Our postgraduate students resumed their studies online this week for the third term of the academic year, while our undergraduate students will resume their  studies online next week.

Professor Abdullah Alshamsi, BUiD’s Vice Chancellor, expressed his pride in the University’s readiness and agility to offer its teaching remotely, and said: “The University has spared no effort in order to facilitate the learning process and has provided all necessary technical support for its academics and students. Furthermore, our Library has made the necessary investments in e-resources to guarantee the smooth running of the teaching process as well as ongoing research. We are very proud of the accomplishments we have achieved since we started in 2003 and with the standards reached by our students during these difficult and exceptional times.”  

BUiD is using Blackboard Ultra for its online teaching. Since the beginning of the week, all students have started attending their classes online with many expressing their satisfaction with the process using this platform.

BUiD’s world class research-led teaching and learning continues unabated and to ensure the continuity of the PhD research by our doctoral students and to enable them to complete their PhD requirements, the University has scheduled viva voce exams to be conducted online.

Joe Hazzam, studying for a PhD in Business Management, successfully passed his thesis defence in the first viva voce exam to be held entirely online last week. He defended his thesis via video conference with internal and external examiners in the UAE and the United Kingdom. On 7 April, Ikrame Sbai, studying for a PhD in Education, successfully passed her thesis defence in her online viva voce exam.

Furthermore, all supervision for postgraduate students is being done remotely to ensure the continuity of the teaching process and the full support of the University for its research students. Next week, BUiD will be supporting and guiding all its undergraduate students through their first experience of BUiD’s distance learning provision to ensure they benefit fully from it.