Dubai: The UAE University (UAEU) has been named the winner of the Scientific and Cultural Achievement Award for 2016/2017 by the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation.
The announcement was made by Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Secretary-General of the foundation, who said that the university was selected as the winner following many meetings by the foundation’s board of trustees concerning the 237 nominees for the awards.
The board decided to grant the award to UAEU due to the scientific and cultural values that it sought to consolidate in the community, as well as to honour the journey of the university that was set up in Al Ain in 1976 by the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as the first integrated national university in the country.
“The Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation is immensely proud to select the UAE University as the winner of the award, coinciding with 2018 being declared as the Year of Zayed,” said Ahmad.
“Shaikh Zayed wanted UAEU to be a federal university with an Arab and Islamic identity, as well as a source for intellect, culture and science,” he added.
Ahmad pointed out that this is the first time that the award has been awarded to an educational institution. He said that this recognises the role of these institutions in spreading knowledge and handing it down from generation to generation.
“UAE University contributed to achieve the dream of a young country, preserving a prestigious standard for education that instils confidence in the power of knowledge and its role in vocational and intellectual leadership in all walks of life,” Ahmad added.
