University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), the first international university and the highest-ranked Australian university in the UAE has opened the door to its state-of-the-art campus located at Dubai Knowledge Park. Set to welcome students for the Autumn intake in September 2020, the sprawling 200,000 square feet ‘Campus of the Future’ aims to cater to the anticipated surge in international students as the world adopts a more globalised approach to higher education.

Featuring a modern architectural design that combines traditional and innovative learning spaces, and fitted out with cutting-edge technologies to facilitate the teaching of the university’s best-in-class programs, the new campus is set to offer an enriching educational experience that meets the demands of today’s student population. UOWD’s new campus is also expected to support teaching staff and community research projects.

The campus includes dedicated learning and meeting rooms, small classrooms that can accommodate up to 40 students, large classrooms for up to 80 students, an exhibition space, a recruitment lounge, a student lounge, an ultramodern auditorium and a café. The premises also houses laboratories specialising in chemistry, thermodynamics, manufacturing, physics, robotics, media and communications, cybersecurity, networking and gaming, to name a few.

Professor Mohamed Salem, President, UOWD, said: “UOWD has a 27-year history of academic excellence in the UAE and is a leader in the regional tertiary education landscape. Our new campus embodies UOWD’s commitment to offering students the most advanced learning journey in the region, and reflects our passion for innovation in the field of higher education. As the world shifts towards blended learning and the digitalisation of the conventional education model, the launch of our new campus is particularly timely - incorporating traditional and modern teaching elements that are critical for today’s students to excel.”

The heart of the campus belongs to the UOWD library that features collaborative learning spaces, traditional quiet reading and study zones, meeting rooms of varied sizes, and a student lounge designed as a casual learning space.

Inspired by Australia’s veranda settings, the central atrium branches out through corridors into pockets of informal learning spaces. The buildings on the new campus feature large, open windows letting in vast amounts of natural light. The natural and organic materials leveraged throughout in designing the campus are ideal for impromptu meetings and get togethers. Through these adaptive learning spaces, the campus underscores the UOWD philosophy that learning can happen anywhere and at any time.

University of Wollongong (UOW) ranks among the leading one per cent of universities in the world for the quality of its graduates and is a top 10 Australian university. UOWD is a member of UOW’s global family of educational institutions and its curricula and teaching practices reflect those of UOW Australia. The accreditation from TEQSA Australia, Australia’s independent national quality assurance and regulatory agency for higher education, ensures that students graduating from UOWD have the option to receive their degrees from Dubai (UOWD) or Australia (UOW). All programs are certified by the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the UAE Ministry of Education and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).