UAEU Convocation Speech 2021-2022 Chancellor Zaki Nusseibeh

Vice Chancellor, faculty, staff and students at the United Arab Emirates University.??It is my honour to welcome you to the University and my pleasure as your Chancellor to offer a short address at the start of the new academic year.?

In my first year as Chancellor I had the opportunity to meet with many of you, and to learn about your work and plans.??This was an inspiring and enriching experience. I was also very proud to witness the strength and spirit of the university in its response to the pandemic and the upheaval and uncertainty that it brought.??I would like to use my address this year to describe what I see as the strength and spirit of the university, and what is required to maintain and lead it.

However, I want to start by telling you how excited I am for the momentous year that we look forward to, both as a university and as a nation.??

First, I am overjoyed that the University has found the mechanisms and procedures required to allow us to return to the campus.??Our approach is cautious, but we are certain of our ability to protect the wellbeing of all as we begin to enjoy each other’s company once again.??This is a fact to be much celebrated because our dialogue, discourse, and bonds will be enriched. It is through coming together that we discover what we have to learn from each other. It is how we build the understanding and respect for our differences that is necessary for us to cohere and coexist as a community.?

Second, I am overjoyed that we will be able to celebrate together the 50th?year of the union of our nation.??In the coming year, the UAE will also welcome the world to its shores at the Dubai Expo 2020.??This is an event whose objective is also to bring together the nations of the world also for the purpose of dialogue, learning, and creating relationships and networks.??Further still, we will witness the UAE taking its place as an elected member of the United Nations Security Council. There we will participate with leaders of other countries to find the measures to achieve peace and wellbeing across the world.??The UAE’s message to the Council is that we are all stronger when united.

Therefore, there is much to celebrate this year about the spirit of union within the university and the Spirit of our Union as a country.??This is a testament to the values and leadership that achieved the founding of the nation, that underpin its continuous development, and that brought about the foundation and flourishing of our university.

As you will know, I spent the majority of my career at the side of Sheikh Zayed, may his soul rest in peace. I had the opportunity to assist him as he travelled to discuss international development with the world’s leaders and explored the best ideas to bring back to enrich the development of our nation and our region.??I learned what inspired and enabled his leadership. One was his ability to bring people together to solve problems and to galvanise their motivation to achieve what at first seemed an impossible dream – the creation of a strong, stable, and prosperous nation, from scratch. The second was his love of learning.

But it was not because of his own love of learning that he created the United Arab Emirates University so early in the history of the country.??The UAEU is of course only five years younger than the UAE itself.??The UAEU was created because universities are important institutions for a country.??They serve three essential purposes.??

One is well known, and we speak about this purpose?very often?– the practical purpose of education, research, service to the community, and building the knowledge and leaders that are essential for the future.??The practical purpose of securing the nation’s capacity to sustain itself as a secure, civilized, innovative, and prosperous country. No nation in history has survived without a robust centre of higher learning.

The second purpose is often remarked upon too – the imperative of excellence.??However, I like to think of this second purpose as the imperative of distinction.??A university represents a demand that we have the audacity to succeed, to be unique, and to create.??It requires that we have in place the foundations of the education system that puts students on the path to arrive at this pinnacle of educational achievement. A university calls us to make our mark on the world – to be new, different, to create knowledge, artefacts, culture, and intellect that is entirely original. I think too that a university represents Zayed’s ambitious and relentless quest to be the best.?

But this year I think it is the third purpose that we must speak about frequently and focus on with determination.??Because a university is a symbol of unity.??The idea is in the name – uni-verse. We are united across the diversity of our disciplines, and these disciplines span the diversity of what lies under the sun. And we are united as a community of scholars, students, and the professionals who serve them.?

It is in this spirit that Zayed created the United Arab Emirates – to draw together young people from across the Emirates to join as a community.??This student community represented the new nation.??The country’s colours are present in the emblem of the UAEU, and this reminds us of that third purpose of unity.

And so now we come to my words about how a university functions.??It functions as a community.??The community has a collective identity and shared objectives in its education, research, and service.??The community functions through collegiality – the values of respect and interest in each other and our ideas and differences.??It is a tolerant community, able to offer critique and to disagree without rancour and without causing harm to others.??It is a welcoming community, whose diversity is its greatest strength.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, the past 18 months have challenged this sense of unity and community.??However, as I remarked at the beginning, it has been my pride and pleasure to witness staff, faculty, and students’ successful efforts to overcome the challenges to community presented to us by our forced absence from campus.??There have been costs, there have been losses and hard lessons learnt.??Many of us need time to recover and recoup our strength and spirits.??But I have seen that you do have the strength and spirit of unity, the unity that is the symbolic purpose of a university.??I have seen that you do have the strength and spirit as a community and what is required to make it function.

So, my message to you on this opening of the academic year, is to enjoy the opportunities you have to come together on campus. They are treasured, important moments. I request that you maintain your efforts to sustain our community during those times when we must be absent from each other once more.??I urge you to respect the measures and procedures in place to ensure our safety. By doing this you increase the likelihood that we will?all?be able to join together face-to-face much sooner.??I support you in finding the creative means to negotiate the frustrations of the routines and technologies that will enable our hybrid state.??

I thank you for your hard work and dedication to the first purpose of the university – its mission to generate learning and knowledge.??And I have every faith that you will continue to strive for excellence, and distinction.

Vice Chancellor, it is my honour to formally declare the opening of the new academic year.

6th?September 2021