Graduation 2013

Manchester Business School is the dynamic, global arm of the University of Manchester, with an international network of centres in the key business centres and capitals of the world. This includes Dubai, where the Middle East Centre has proved to be every bit as dynamic and vibrant as the city itself, and Dubai Knowledge Village the perfect host – positioned at the hub of education and training for the region.

We are deeply indebted to His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, United Arab Emirates Minister for Culture, Youth & Social Development, for his generous patronage of our inaugural Graduation Ceremony. His enthusiastic support for our work and his commitment to creating world class educational opportunities in the UAE is truly inspiring.

We should also recognise the superb leadership of our Middle East Regional Director, Randa Bessiso who, with her excellent team, has achieved such outstanding success in building our School’s presence and impact here.

Our students, graduates and alumni, are all part of a global MBS community and an incredibly powerful and supportive network of highly qualified professionals. Our Middle East students make a valuable contribution to this, as high calibre working professionals. The region is rapidly gaining a global profile within the business world and is attracting some of the most accomplished professionals looking to develop their careers; we find our students to be very well educated and ambitious, highly motivated and ready to join the ranks of senior management.

As one of the first business schools in the UK and Europe, MBS has acquired a vast amount of experience and expertise in management education; as one of the first of the major global business schools to launch in the Middle East, it has been a journey of tremendous learning for us through our centre in Dubai and a valuable opportunity to understand more about the region and its culture and to share this with our students in other parts of the world, through our teaching. Our openness to learning as an organisation is a vital part of our ability to remain relevant and to help our students develop the skills for a successful global career and business life.

This inaugural MBA Graduation Ceremony marks a very proud moment for Manchester Business School and for the graduates of which we are also proud. Graduation marks the beginning of a new chapter in our relationship with students and our aim is to make this a career-long and lifelong relationship.

Manchester Business School is developing rapidly in many ways, not least in the new buildings and facilities, complemented by a hotel and conference complex, which will transform our campus into a world class centre for management education – within a campus that reflects our ambition and status as a global business school. We hope that many of our graduates and friends in the Middle East will take the opportunity to visit us when in the UK and experience the excitement of a vibrant new campus in development.

On behalf of Manchester Business School I would like to congratulate you upon the completion of your MBA. Studying for an MBA at the same time as undertaking work commitments and maintaining family relationships is exceptionally hard. Therefore, on your behalf, I would particularly like to thank your family, friends and employers for the support they have given you during the time you have sent studying for your MBA.

Our mission is transform your life through education and I am confident that the experience you have gained whilst studying on our Global MBA programme has been transformative. You are now Masters of Business Administration, please use the skills that we have taught you to transform both your own working lives and the working lives of your colleagues. I wish you every success in the future and please remember that Manchester Business School is always here to support you.

The UAE has always been an exciting place to live and work and it has also proved to be the ideal location for our Middle East Centre, and Dubai Knowledge Village has been the ideal host and partner. We operate in some of the top business centres in the world and Dubai is certainly one of these – alongside our other international centres in Miami, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the campus in Manchester, of course.

We are delighted with the quality of MBA students we attract here and are actively building a community for and around them, including the Middle East Alumni Group. The MBS Middle East Centre has now developed to the point where we can attain this new and historic milestone, our first graduation ceremony, for MBS and the University of Manchester.

It has been satisfying for me to be a part of the development of the Middle East Centre and see it evolve into our largest international centre. MBS is committed to continuing this development and contributing to the development of human capital in the UAE.

We thank you all for your involvement in making our MBS Middle East Centre such a huge success and are delighted that so many of you can join us on this memorable occasion. 

I am very proud and delighted to share the news that University of Manchester has honoured our MBA graduates in the Middle East at a historic occasion marking the University of Manchester’s first graduation ceremony in the region.

Held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Culture Youth & Community Development, who also honoured us by delivering the keynote address, the congregation ceremony was presided over by the Dean of Manchester Business School, Professor Fiona Devine, who conferred Manchester MBA degrees on 85 graduates. The formalities were followed by a memorable celebratory Alumni Gala Dinner. After a very special day and a genuinely emotional experience for many us, it leaves us with a long list of people to thank.

The first graduation ceremony is testament to the success we have enjoyed in the Middle East since we launched the Middle East Centre in Dubai in 2006; and specifically the quality of our students, which is the defining feature of the region. It was an occasion full of symbolism for us as we marked the achievement of our own Middle East graduates, in a ceremony that combined the traditions and formality of a venerable university, with the joy and pleasure of a family occasion with the graduates and their partners, parents and children, there to share and witness the final act of the MBA programme in a series of very proud personal moments. And the families were so welcome to the occasion because of the significant contributions they had made to the achievements of the graduates.

The ceremony marked real personal achievements. As His Excellency Sheikh Nayahan said so eloquently in his address to the congregation ceremony, describing the achievement as……“far more than a mere MBA - but a Manchester MBA; one of the world’s most distinguished business degrees.” 

Our deepest gratitude goes to His Excellency Sheikh Nayahan for his personal support and encouragement in bringing this truly historic occasion to fruition in the UAE, and for his inspiring words to our new graduates and their families. Our thanks to Professor Fiona Devine for personally presiding over this ground breaking ceremony. And of course to all our graduates and their families and the many people and organisations that helped make this occasion possible, on behalf of the Middle East Centre, our heartfelt thanks to you all.