Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer speaks at QS MAPLE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2020

Hugh Martin, the Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer of The British University in Dubai (BUiD), spoke at the QS MAPLE Virtual Conference 2020, hosted by Prince Mohammed bin Fahd University on 16-17 September, joining university leaders with movers and shakers in the education sector.

The theme of the conference was ‘Innovative Middle East and Africa: Higher Education-led Economic Diversity and Globalisation’.

On his panel Hugh spoke on ‘Preparing the region to become an economic power over the coming decade’, along with panellists Haifa Al Kaylani, Founder and Chairman of the Arab International Women’s Forum, Professor Francois Therin of the Africa Business School in Morocco, and Winne Eley of the City University, Hong Kong.

Hugh emphasised that the role of universities is to prepare graduates for the world they face – global citizens who contribute to all sectors of society. To thrive and succeed in tomorrow’s world, graduates need the creative, analytical, communicative, discursive, presentational, and rhetorical skills that universities provide.

He said, “The world in which our graduates of today and tomorrow will have to find their way is full of shocks and surprises; it is mutable, diverse, and uncompromisingly complex. STEM simply does not have all the answers and a reliance on or bias towards STEM will not bring economic or social success in the long run.”

“Let universities do what they’re good at – pushing the boundaries of knowledge and creating a fairer society for everyone, no matter their race, gender, sexuality, physical ability, or the amount of money they have.”

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