We capitalize on theses opportunities by introducing new innovative ways of knowledge delivery, use of computational design tools, and other means of communicating knowledge effectively to our students in order to fulfill our main job to prepare our students to be effective players in shaping and improving the built environment in our cities.

UAE University has been offering an architectural curriculum that is directed towards the fulfillment of the architectural professional needs of UAE society. The department of architectural engineering was established in 1981. The academic year 1985-1986 witnessed the first graduating class from the department. Since then, the department has been consistently graduating students. Our continuous effort for improvement utilizing our past experiences in meeting future challenges has made the architectural curriculum at UAE University emerging as a benchmark program across the region and has been attracting international attention. The department at the present time is inspired by achievements and experience gained over the past twenty some years while the department’s future depends upon our continuous collective effort to develop and improve our professional and educational services in such a way that we would always be ahead of the UAE society’s needs and expectations. The department’s architectural engineering program and curriculum are truly relevant to the needs of the country and graduates highly qualified architectural engineering national graduates to meet the demand imposed by the nation’s continuous commitment to urban, industrial and economic growth as depicted by the country’s ambitious development plans. The department has been guiding successfully many generations of students who have strong interest to become recognized architectural professionals serving the Emirates professional community and the Emirates society at large. As a result, our department mission is to provide market-driven and community-oriented professional degree programs with state of the art content and knowledge delivery suitable to the professional needs of the 21st century as well as to provide students with the foundation for understanding the physical built environment and its processes and to prepare them to become, after graduation, knowledgeable and skillful professionals able to serve well their country.

The architectural program curriculum has a wide strong base of science, humanities and engineering fundamentals upon which intensive specialization courses, graduation projects and professional training are built to complement this strong educational foundation. The program delivery focuses on developing the students’ abilities to think, analyze and identify appropriate solutions. Thus, the department takes a pride at providing outstanding architectural program characterized by developing the student’s higher order thinking, analyzing and solving skills as well as lifelong learning skills and personal qualities. Also, the program provides core competencies so that our graduates can be able to manage resources, work with others, acquire and use information, master architectural design and construction systems and be able to work effectively with related technologies. Additionally, the department provides students through their practical training with numerous opportunities to utilize effectively the most recent relevant technologies and to develop their professional and management skills to work effectively in business oriented, problem solving work environments.

The academic quality of our students is a result of the shared responsibility between our students and faculty. In the department, students’ learning is the center point of our efforts. The department places emphasis on faculty role as facilitators for self-learning through experimentation and discovery as well as being effective academic advisors to guide students and provide them with the most appropriate advisement needed to achieve their academic goals. Throughout our program, students are given opportunities to innovate and identify non-traditional design solutions. Students also learn about environmentally conscious practice, heritage preservation and natural resources conservation. Particular emphasis is also placed on professional competency and skills development not only through the curriculum but also through a well-guided fields trips and practical training programs designed to familiarize students with their expected future professional responsibilities after graduation. At the Department of Architectural Engineering we believe that the academic educational process is a joint team effort and cannot be achieved through individualized inputs. Teaching is a cooperative integrated effort of faculty and teaching staff to offer integrated knowledge base that is directed towards students’ learning by doing, experimentation and teamwork. Such an academic environment enhances our efforts in areas such as capstone courses, outcomes-based learning, self-learning, long-life learning and students’ innovation abilities. The department continues to update and improve of its curriculum to ensure that our curriculum is among the best architectural curricula worldwide. This includes continuous revision of courses, their contents, and linking theories and competencies, skills and practices both horizontally and vertically within the curriculum. This kind of exercise gives faculty a better understanding of their role, responsibilities and commitments as well as an awareness of the curriculum goals and program outcomes.

As a department, our education goals are tied well with the faculty research and community services. The faculty research is considered an important asset to our curriculum as well as our services to the UAE community. The department makes great efforts to disseminate cutting edge relevant architectural knowledge within the UAE society and maintain its reputed academic stature within the region as well as on the international arena. The realization of our department’s mission allows us to achieve, in the near future, a distinctive academic status through our dynamic strategic planning that is geared towards continuous improvement. The department applies an effective self-learning educational philosophy with numerous lifelong learning possibilities particularly through e-learning. The department also encourages faculty to be innovative in their teaching methodologies in the area of learning-by-doing and students' teamwork. In the past few years, educational outcomes assessment has become our means to evaluate and improve our academic services in the department. Besides, the department has well defined plans to continue recruit the highest qualified faculty and staff, to develop and expands its educational services, and to enhance its interactive rule within the local society. Department’s faculty are continuously working towards achieving a quality leap in the academic performance in all areas of services namely; teaching, advising, research, academic publishing, university development and society service.

In short, our graduates are well trained and able to utilize the state of the art architectural knowledge and technologies. Our graduates are architectural engineers with the imaginative vision needed to help shaping the UAE built environment of the future. In conclusion, this continuous effort for improvement would not have been possible without the students’ commitment, hard work and enthusiasm, faculty devotion and commitment and the university continuous support to turn the department into an inspiring place that can serve well the built environment. Or simply we call our department a department designed with Inspiration and engineered for the built environment.

Due to the special status and emphasis given by the government to urbanization and modernization of the UAE cities and towns, our graduates are fortunate to be in continuous demands to work as architectural engineers in the government various ministries, municipalities, departments of town planning as well as to work in the private sector in construction and contracting companies, design and engineering consulting firms, and many other commercial authorities and businesses. The alumni of the department have been serving with distinction in a vast array of positions. Many of our former graduates hold senior positions in many organizations, departments, and authorities at federal and emirates governmental offices as well as private firms. Job opportunities for graduates are promising in large architectural and engineering firms, construction firms, property development and management organizations, property investors and banks and other major institutions, local, Emirate and Federal agencies, government offices, police, civil defense and the armed forces.

Finally, I take this opportunity to thank our students, faculty and college and university administrators for their distinguished collective efforts in making our department not only a success story but above all a leading center for architectural engineering education in the region. Last but not least, I thank all of those who contributed to the development of our webpage.