Under the patronage of GFH Financial Group (GFH), the university honoured the graduates of Batches 2020 and 2021 on December 12 and 13, 2021, in succession at the Bahrain Harbour’s waterfront, strictly adhering to the health protocols mandated by the National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus.

Mr. Hisham Alrayes, Chairman of the Board of Directors extended his profound appreciation to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa for the notable leadership and continuing support to the higher education sector. He also commended His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, for the great achievements, in particular those related to combating the coronavirus pandemic, also thanking the hard work and sacrifices extended by the national medical team. In his message to the graduates, Mr Alrayes said “Our relationship with you will not end with your graduation. You were and will always be a part of the university with its new and ambitious identity, University of Technology Bahrain, through the Alumni Club of which you are a member now. We will continue to communicate with you and support you, and we look forward to your participation in shaping the future of your university through becoming important members contributing to the economic development of our beloved Kingdom.”

Dr. Hasan Almulla thanked Mr. Hisham Alrayes and members of the Board of Directors for the unwavering support and patronage of university. He also praised HE the Minister of Education, Dr. Majed bin Ali Al Nuaimi, and Her Excellency Dr. Shaikha Rana bint Isa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, Secretary General of the Higher Education Council, for their unlimited support of the university and higher education sector. Also in his message, he shared his learned lessons to the graduates – take control of life and future, choose relationships wisely, and never give up on dreams.

A total of 790 graduates from the 2 batches were conferred of their respective degree programmes in Master of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelor of Science in Informatics Engineering (BSIE), Bachelor of Science in Mechatronics Engineering (BSME), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS), Bachelor of Science in International Business (BSIB), and Bachelor of Science in Business Informatics (BSBI), in the presence of highly esteemed and honourable guests. Among them were top graduate of each degree programme who were awarded a scholarship by GFH Financial Group to further study MBA at the university.

Dr. Hasan Almulla awarded a plaque of recognition and a grant for the remaining trimesters to Fatema Murad, a Bachelor of Business Informatics student, as an appreciation of her national achievement – for having been a recipient of eGOVERNMENT EXCELLENCE AWARD 2021 after besting other candidates for the First Place in Best Electronic Proposal.

Earlier, her award was presented by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology

According to Ms. Fatema Murad, their winning proposal on Boulevard 360° will certainly impact both educational and economic sectors in the Kingdom of Bahrain upon its implementation. This will help the ministry of works and municipalities of affairs and urban planning to reduce their work through an automated and improved mechanism to a faster and more efficient mapping procedure. With this Boulevard 360°, Bahrain can increase trade balance and export which will have a good impact on the national economy. In the educational sectors, it will lead schools and universities to push their students to innovate unique and relevant ideas with the use of the latest technologies.

While the university envisions to continue inspiring students and the future generations to come with the advancement and application of knowledge, UTB remains supportive of students’ endeavours through its provision of various services across disciplines.

The Community Engagement Office, Office of Student Affairs, and Student Council organised three pertinent activities with Bahrain Mobility International Centre on November 8, 10 and 14 primarily with the aim at extending the university’s outreach to persons with disabilities, who are being cared by the organisation.

In the first activity thru webinar, BMI introduce its noble role in serving persons with disabilities. The university officers, faculty, staff, and students expressed their interest in the voluntary tasks needed by the centre to perform their services.

The second activity was a physical visit to the kindergarten of the centre, where a group of UTB students and faculty members carried out various activities including playing and giving away toys to 42 children with disabilities.

The third activity is the highlight of the collaboration. It drew over 60 persons with disabilities between 18-30 years old, BMI staff, UTB President and other senior university officers and staff, college deans, programme heads, faculty members and students. Such event was graced by speeches from both parties and covered various games, short presentations, craft work, arts, competitions, and prizes given by UTB to the PWDs. The event also provided an opportunity for UTB college officials to discuss with the centre’s officials a possible collaboration with capstone projects, research work, and technological ideas of benefits to the PWDs. As tokens of appreciation to BMI’s noble role, UTB donated 5 laptops while the UTB President presented a plaque of appreciation to the president of the centre.

The conduct of such activities is in line with the university’s vision, mission and strategic goal on community engagement, and its efforts to strengthen engagement with external institutions especially by initiating outreach activities and services of value and impact to the community.

The university believes that today’s higher education institutions are not just places to get scientific degrees but incubators with the ability to create welcoming and dynamic campus environments and foster the kind of educational opportunities that translate into success, and therefore it is vital that in order to build such a university environment, a diversified culture is becoming important and effective for any HE institutions. Diversity in the classroom is also extremely important as bringing together people from multiple cultures into one classroom can make for a very lively and productive learning experience.

With the above in mind, UTB has always extended its bridges of communications to students from neighboring countries and to expatriate communities within Bahrain and beyond, stressing on the importance of culture diversification in improving student learning and environment.

For this reason, the university this academic year made efforts to reach the Indian community in Bahrain with a number of activities started on 13 August 2021 addressing this community with a Webinar on Awareness for Higher Education in Regional Languages like Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam followed on 11th November 2021 by an activity organized between UTB and the Indian Ladies Association (ILA) to showcase the Indian culture on campus with the participation of other Indian cultural performing organizations such as Bahrain Odiya Samaj, Bahrain Kerala Samajam, Karnataka Club, Tamil Sanga, Punjabi Club, Andhra Club and other distinguished guests, thus marketing the beginning of further collaborations between the university and the association on one hand and the Indian community in general on the other hand being the largest expatriate community in the kingdom. A meeting is also under preparation between ILA and UTB to launch various activities of mutual benefits to the university and the Indian community in Bahrain.

Dr. Hasan Almulla, UTB President, pointed out the significance of holding cultural shows and that as individuals and members of the community, people certainly are aware that culture is an important part of upbringing and who they are today. He assured that such event will put smiles on the faces, motivate and inspire talents, and relive values of cultural diversity – something that the University of Technology Bahrain incorporates in its strategic direction. By incorporating different cultures, UTB can ignite brighter sparks that inspire innovations and excellence in its instruction, research, and extension services.

Now more than ever, UTB has pretty good number of Indian students, faculty, and staff, and the number becomes larger each year. Being one of the largest expatriate and cultural-oriented communities in Bahrain, Indian partnerships and collaborations with University of Technology Bahrain are good opportunities for cultural exchanges, diverse working environment, academic scholarships, and increased brand awareness to wider communities.

For UTB, it was a good time to preserve and celebrate the wonders of Indian culture for all that it has contributed to individuals, institutions, communities, and the world as a whole.

Moreover, UTB is of the view that coping with the evolving community, technology and innovations yields strong cultural tie-ups with the different communities in the Kingdom, provision of the most affordable fee structure for all higher education hopefuls, and public accessibility of the university’s facilities – all geared towards better services to students and all other stakeholders, hence diversifying its collaborations to all expat communities in Bahrain and beyond.

Three Bachelor of Science in International Business (BSIB) students qualify as one of five finalists of the PwC’s Academy and Wiley University Accounting and Finance University challenge among 17 teams of participating universities from Egypt, KSA, UAE, Lebanon and Bahrain.

Mentored by Dr. Maria Cecilia Lagaras, the UTB team compose of Ahmed Almadani, Sarah Almalood and Jebestin Samraj, all are nearing to complete their BSIB programme. During the competition, the students proved their finance and accounting acumen and level of understanding of various topics ranging from behavioural to technical. In the final round, they were able to think strategically to solve a business case and present their findings to the panelists.

Such participation is a great opportunity for them to accelerate their professional qualifications. As a price for this recognition, the UTB students are awarded 15% scholarship to pursue professional certifications such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with PwC’s Academy and Wiley University.

Meanwhile, UTB continues to strengthen its student support services to inspire more talents and skills to stand out in the marketplace.

The university participated in the Bahraini National Pavilion (BNP) at GITEX 2021 from 17 to 21 of October at the World Trade Center in Dubai under the slogan “Together we create a bolder digital future.”  

Through its participation in the exhibition, the university aims to showcase its recently announced strategy and studied improvements that will include its academic programmes and activities as one of the first private universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Dr. Hasan Almulla, President of University of Technology Bahrain, said on this occasion: “Under a new name and a new strategy, we are very excited about this participation in the Bahraini National Pavilion at GITEX 2021, in line with the new era that will witness transformative development of University of Technology Bahrain.”

“UTB embodies the goals and directives set by the university’s board of directors, which affirms that science and technology are the basis for success in our rapidly developing and highly competitive digital world. We are working hard to invest in local and international events to support our direction so that the university becomes one of the largest regional universities offering academic programmes and courses at the highest level of quality,” Dr. Almulla added. It is noteworthy that the University of Technology Bahrain’s participation at GITEX 2021 comes in line with the university’s mission. With the university currently undergoing significant transformation, it will radically upgrade its position as one of the main providers of cutting-edge technology and business programmes. The development plans which are currently being executed include total renovation of its campus spreading over more than 53,000 square meters, IT systems, academic programmes including at least 5 new academic programmes, sports facilities, staffing, and other key areas of the university operations.

At the onset of the new academic year, the university through its Faculty Development Office, organized training for all faculty members handling engineering and computer science programmes in coordination with specialists from Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET), USA.

Centering on program assessment based on outcomes-based education, faculty participants were trained in various strategies to gauge students’ knowledge and skills and to provide for continual teaching and learning improvement. This pedagogical approach allows students to be driven by outcomes that can be manifested in their knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. Students are expected to be more responsible for their own learning, hence increased involvement in the classroom activities and assessments.

With the drive to be a leading university in business, science, and technology, and in response to the global multiple transitions of the corporate world, the students are taught and guided to seek newer skills and innovations to propel their careers further.

With the initiatives of the university to raise the capabilities of youth and contribute effectively to community service, the Centre for General Education in coordination with the Marketing and Communications Department organized a camp and championship activities for the Qadisiyah Youth Empowerment Centre on August 3-13, 2021. This camp was held at the Qadisiyah Youth Empowerment Centre and included a variety of activities and lectures in addition to sports competitions.

The camp also included an event held in the center’s gymnasium on Saturday, August 7, in which a number of university members participated. It included competitions in the Arabic and English languages that included twisting texts and organizing sentences, competitions on Bahrain’s history, English language proficiency, and questions about current events. Short educational and awareness lectures were presented on the daily uses of the English language and computer applications in addition to a lecture in the field of engineering and robotics. At the end of the event, prizes were distributed to the winners of these competitions. The head of the Qadisiyah Youth Empowerment Centre in the presence of some university professors distributed certificates to the participants in the first aid course held in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

By organizing this event, UTB aims to develop the participants’ skills through various interactive activities and sports competitions, as the university believes in its role in serving the community and encouraging young people to engage in such community services through volunteer work, in addition to providing them with different skills in the field of leadership and teamwork.

Students from the different colleges have been bagging recognition and awards in various competitions locally, regionally, and globally through the mentorship of experienced professors in relative fields.

To mention, engineering students have hooked ranks in the World Robot Olympiad, IET GCC Robotics Challenge, Huawei ICT Competition and recently, the Huawei Seeds for the Future Program 2020. Computer science students have made the university proud in Huawei ICT Skills Competition, Hackathon, First Programming Competition, and Bahrain Collegiate Programming Competition. Business students participated in TradeQuest (TQ) Program to simulate competitive financial operations. 

At present, the university aims to develop new and more opportunities for students to meet the demands of the digital world and beyond.

More and more faculty members have gained the recognition of Senior Fellowship and Fellowship from Advance HE – UK, formerly Higher Education Academy (HEA) after successful demonstration and qualification to UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. 

Dr. Anupama Prasanth – Dean of College of Computer Science; and Dr. Beda Aleta – Dean of College of Engineering, are in view that this award will motivate them to do even more in demonstrating effective approaches to teaching and learning support toward high quality student learning. It also is a consolidation of personal development and manifestation of professional practice in their higher education career.

Earlier, Dr. Noaman Mohammad Noaman, Dr. Husham Ahmed, Dr. Lina Calucag, Dr. Suzette Valdez, Dr. Priyanka Surendran, Dr. Manolo Anto, and Dr. Jayendira Sankar were also recognized as Senior Fellows. 

Dr. Jeena Ann John, Ms. Ezra A. Aziz Ahmed, Ms. Mariam Al Salman, and Ms. Fatema Hasan, the Document Center Control Supervisor – all faculty members of the College of Administrative and Financial Sciences, were awarded fellowship. They regard that such recognition is an opportunity to grow more and to be motivated to continue great work.

There are other faculty members who are in the process of their fellowship application.