Michael,
It’s my sincere apology for this late reply.
To answer your questions, I have started from envisioning what UAE higher education would need from a mother’s perspectives. If I were an Emirati mother looking for an exceptional university for my daughters, I would make sure to look for the following qualities in a University where:
• She could freely explore her apparent as well as hidden potentials
• There are ample opportunities for her to understand the rest of the world
• There are practical experiences in which she can encounter collaborative working/learning to prepare for the real world
• Leadership training and imaginative solution seeking are nurtured
• The understanding of a paradigm shift in roles of faculty as facilitators and the university as an open-system is pursued
Within a couple of semesters of working at ZU, I have observed that we as faculty do have a great deal of energy and passion to serve the University and UAE, and that a majority of students have unique motivations to contribute to the development of UAE. I believe that these are our strengths as an institution.
I acknowledge that it’s my privilege to teach these young brilliant ladies as the first UAE design generation who is and will be the leaders of UAE design. It must be the same case for many other departments at ZU. It’s exciting to envision the future of ZU as we pave the path to excel these young women to be the contemporary front leaders of their fields.
Listed below are a couple of my brief thoughts/suggestions that perhaps might help to build a positive future of Zayed University, focusing on the Art and Design Department.
1. Excelling the Practicality of Learning:
Dubai for example has a great deal of design issues that will benefit students’ learning if it is integrated with their classroom learning. Sustainable Design would be a great example if design courses could systematically educate them first and then have them involved in finding solutions, working closely with local companies and clients.
2. Making the Collaborative Faculty Community Stronger:
The diversity of the ZU faculty’s expertise and experience should be a blessing for us. Currently, individual faculty efforts and expertise are scattered and need to be integrated into curricular development in order maximize our strength. ZU’s faculty community needs to attain collaborative teamwork so that our efforts are effectively exploited.
3. Revisiting The Curriculum Development Process:
The Art and Design Department curriculum has not been defined as of yet as you are aware of already. Faculty learning opportunities should be coupled with refining curriculums. ILA days are not used well enough for us to collaborate. We might need to enhance ILA day activities, which has to be clearly integrated into the departmental level of curricular development.
4. University Programs for Prospective Students.
Recruiting high quality prospective students can be achieved by developing a rigorous portfolio review process and/or by offering short workshops for each major, which is a norm for many international universities.
5. Taking Advantage of e-Learning Technologies:
Most of our students are tech savvy and respond well and seem to enjoy learning with technologies according to my teaching experience here at ZU. Current web 2.0 technologies offer valuable opportunities that classroom learning can enhance and enrich. Course and learning management aid tools like content management with blog system, Moodle or m-Learning tools should be thoroughly examined and discussed for assisting our students and faculty. Blended learning approaches should be discussed among faculty to strengthen the curriculum development.
6. Building Open Classrooms
a. Bringing engaging client based projects and industry experts’ workshops into ZU.
b. Experiencing global dialogues: Example: Art 495 Global Module with University of Champlain (USA) for 4 weeks working on Global Warming last semester. It was identified that when our students had an opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas on a forum, they easily overcame their shyness and engaged in conversations and discussions.
7. Enhancing Graphic Design Programs with Media Design
Educating socially responsible designers is one of most important tasks of design education. The current graphic design program should look into embracing the media design needs, which requires integrated study amongst film, sound, animation, and graphic design. The integrations of each field of design will strengthen the programs and eventually provide tools for visual communication designers.
8. Developing New Fashion and Jewelry Design Program
I have observed that many talented design students are very much interested in Fashion and Jewelry Design in general, as is much of the UAE public. Some said they enrolled in Graphic Design instead because ZU doesn’t offer Fashion or Jewelry studies. It would not only be a wonderful addition, but also a way of nurturing students’ interests as well as an opportunity for us to seek the industry-integrated program.
I look forward to further discussions.
Sincerely,
Yunsun
