KHC Group CEO and KIC President Prof. Nabil El Kadhi led a general assembly to highlight notable KIC updates, milestones, achievements, in addition to future plans and opportunities.
‘This is a milestone meeting in the history of KIC and KHC,’ kicked off the assembly, Prof. El Kadhi, referring to the cutoff point that separates KIC’s journey from its historical and fundamental milestones, and an envisioned track of opportunities.
During the Academic Year 2020/21 KIC achieved a series of strategic milestones. The college has successfully renewed its institutional licensure. The renewal of licensure is an institutional level process by which an institution is authorized by the Ministry of Education to continue providing educational programs. Following the renewal of the licensure, KIC has successfully submitted a reply to the External Review Team (ERT) of the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) for the probationary status of Associate and Bachelor programs in IT. KIC has also successfully demonstrated its distance and blended learning readiness during the CAA-MoE Inspection Visit. During that period, the college successfully relocated to a new campus in Al Ain. Such achievements ensure KIC’s long-term sustainability and credibility within its operating community.
KIC’s agility allowed a fast response in addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic. The college has swiftly adopted distance learning and blended learning formats to ensure that its students did not face any academic setbacks, by digitalizing academic and administrative functions. Integration of international grade ERP systems and introduction of an online registration system to optimize internal processes and ease the registration journey, serve as examples.
However, the achieved success was not a mere result of the adoption of new international best practices, tools and processes. Holistically, KIC managed to create a digital environment for the students to include extra-curricular in addition to the core academic deliverables. The online experience was successful in delivering a triple dimensional (3D) learning experience via high fidelity simulators, online, and blended learning formats. In line with these changes, examinations at KIC were on par with international standards to adequately test students’ knowledge. Such initiatives positively impacted student engagement, satisfaction, retention, credit-hour average per student, and other related performance indicators, evidently highlighting the success of the digitally enabled platform at KIC. Such a success story reaffirms KIC’s strong position in delivering blended and distance learning programs in their full scope, whenever required.
During 2020/21, KIC has also become a destination for students with a higher academic profile in addition to becoming a hub for research and partnership for international organizations. KIC secured academic and research partnerships with international organizations such as ISC Paris – a triple helix accredited institution; Oxford Immune Algorithmics – a startup incubated by University of Oxford; and Istanbul Aydin University – one of the biggest and most reputed universities in Turkey, which houses one of the advanced medical facilities. Such partnerships allow for preselection for master programs, a wider variety of internship opportunities, and international exposure via exchange programs.
Based on these strategic accomplishments and achieved financial sustainability, KIC is gearing towards further accomplishments. In his speech, Prof. El Kadhi, urged the team to the Change Initiative, by promoting an environment based on boosted performance and proactive mindset.
The academic offering will also be enhanced in line with KIC’s core mission of delivering applied learning. KIC will be embedding professional certification as an integral component of the academic journey, in collaboration with Khawarizmi Training Solutions to add contemporary market-driven value to bachelor and diploma programs.
Optimizing laboratory usage and delivery of applied courses across all programs, with new set of key performance indicators to be integrated per department.
In line with the college’s strategy, KIC plans to expand its program offering with futuristic programs such as Cybersecurity and Media Production in the IT Department; Digital Business as a joint program with ISC Paris; and Security Media in the Mass Communication Department. These are in addition to two programs to be introduced by the Health and Medical Sciences Department, which will be also hosting the Continuing Medical Education to develop joint offerings for internship and training purposes. KIC General Education Department will also be expanding its scope of activities by introducing three bridging courses focusing on English, Arabic, and Mathematics.
Moreover, the academic departments will aim to create KIC Innovative Incubator for applied research, startups, and new solutions, following the example of the recently set BCSI Club that was initiated by the Business Department, which focuses on sustainability. Such growth agenda does not only enable skilling-up of the students but will boost their satisfaction rates.
KIC will aim to create partner-centric relationships with its students by developing a Student Server Portal (SSP). SSP will collect requests, challenges, comments, and automatically be routed to the concerned department to be resolved within 48 hours.
Prof. El Khadi also made some community-based announcements. KIC alumni network will now expect to be integrated in a lifelong platform that will enhance their careers via continuing education program and allow the newly graduated alumni to benefit from the existing network of internship and employment opportunities.
The president also recognized accomplishments and achievements of KIC community. Dr. Santosh Ray, formerly Head of IT Department & Research was promoted to become an acting VP for Academic Affairs, and Dr. Majdi Khaleeli, Head of Business Department, was promoted to Associate Professor. These changes have created opportunities at KIC for other faculty members to set relevant benchmarks to further their careers.
Considering the set agenda, and to further enhance KIC value, the college will be working on achieving international accreditation and international ranking. Join now a new chapter at KIC.