Culture & Education | Monday 13 April, 2015 11:13 am |

MODUL University Vienna will run undergraduate, graduate, and MBA programs as well as tourism courses in the United Arab Emirates

The first campus of an Austrian private university in the heart of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be opened by MODUL University Vienna in 2016. The internationally renowned private university announced today that it has signed a cooperation agreement with the DACH ADVISORY Group, a specialist in the transfer of cross boarder business models between the German-speaking world, Russia/CIS, and the Middle East. The campus will be built in Dubai’s fastest growing business zone, the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) in Jumeirah Lakes Towers and will welcome students in fall 2016. The study programs offered will be accredited in both Austria and the UAE. As such, MODUL University Vienna will make an important contribution to education exports and lay the groundwork for strengthening international economic relations between Central Europe and the Middle East.

MODUL University Vienna, owned by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, will be the first Austrian private university to set up a campus in the heart of Dubai, UAE. The set up of the campus will be completed with the help of the DACH ADVISORY Group by the end of 2015. The study programs and courses will receive official Austrian as well as UAE accreditation, offering a unique combination of quality standards.

Exporting Quality Education
Commenting on the decision to export MODUL University’s educational programs to the Middle East, Christian Hoffmann, Managing Director of MODUL University Vienna, said: “We know from our enrollment figures that Austrian private universities enjoy a sterling international reputation for their quality standards. The decision to export these standards has been made partly with a view to raising the profile of Austria as an educational supplier on the world stage.” In fact, the accreditation authority of Austria (AQA – Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria) and that of the Emirate of Dubai (Knowledge and Human Development Authority) are both involved in the joint project between MODUL University Vienna and the DACH ADVISORY Group and will officially attest to the high quality of the proposed educational programs.

The Dubai campus will offer English-taught undergraduate, graduate, and MBA degree programs, as well as courses run by the Tourism College MODUL. With this joint undertaking, the university and the college are continuing the more than century-old tradition of the MODUL brand and its expertise both in business practice and at the secondary and tertiary levels of education. The new campus will provide its students with a holistic infrastructure giving them a fully-fledged educational experience.

Apart from the opportunity to export Austrian educational standards, Managing Director Hoffmann also sees economic advantages in the foreign venture. “By establishing our own campus in a dynamic economic region of the world, we’re laying strong foundations for lasting economic relations between Central Europe and the UAE.” This is a view shared by Zaid Maleh, CEO of the DACH ADVISORY Group: “Dubai is an ideal setting for international educational programs. As the most important center of business, finance, commerce, and education in the entire Middle East, Dubai has become an international metropolis in the past two decades, a trend that will continue when it hosts Expo 2020. Austrian expertise enjoys an excellent reputation here, which is why we, as experts in the development and running of international universities, approached MODUL University to be our highly renowned partner.”

MODUL Quality
The cooperation with the DACH ADVISORY Group, which is headquartered and licensed as an investment management company in Dubai and also maintains offices in Moscow and Vienna, foresees a clear separation of roles. While the DACH ADVISORY Group will take care of the financing, establishment and running of the new campus, MODUL University Vienna will focus on providing the curriculum and the educational concepts as well as guarantee the academic quality assurance for the Campus in Dubai.

Managing Director Hoffmann said of the cooperation: “Education exports can only be successful if quality is ensured. The division of responsibilities envisaged for the campus gives us a clear mandate to establish our customary standards of quality in Dubai. To this end we can rely on our MODUL brand with its century-old tradition.”

Thanks to the all-round experience of the DACH ADVISORY Group in the Middle East, the future campus will be situated at the fastest growing business zone in Dubai, the Jumeirah Lakes Towers, giving the students the highest levels of convenience coupled with excellent transportation infrastructure and first hand exposure to more than 10,000 companies within the business zone of DMCC.


About MODUL University Vienna (status: March 2015)
MODUL University Vienna is an international private university in Austria and is owned by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. It offers study programs (BBA, BSc, MSc, MBA and PhD programs) in the areas of international business and management, new media technology, public governance & administration and sustainable development, as well as tourism and hospitality management. The study programs meet strict accreditation guidelines and, due to their international focus, are conducted in English. The university campus is located at Kahlenberg, in Vienna’s 19th district.

About DACH ADVISORY
Founded in 2011 as a boutique advisory firm, DACH ADVISORY evolved as a fully-fledged and specialized investment firm headquartered in Dubai with offices in Vienna & Moscow. The firm utilizes its global platform while leveraging off its local access to private & institutional investors granting its client a unique stakeholder approach. DACH ADVISORY generates its knowhow and expertise from German speaking Europe while bridging the gap to some of the fastest growing economies in Asia, Russia / CIS and the Middle East. Its mandate is to support its clients through every stage of their business lifecycle – holistic approach – leading to sustainable value creation.