SunGard Higher Education Supports Initiative for Teachers’ Education in the UAE
ECAE Deploys PowerCAMPUS Solution to Help Connected Community for Excellence in Teachers’ Training
Abu Dhabi, UAE – May 31, 2009: Emirates College of Advanced Education (ECAE) is collaborating with global higher education specialist SunGard Higher Education in an initiative to connect teachers, faculty and staff and make the institution a centre of excellence in teacher education. ECAE will deploy SunGard Higher Education’s PowerCAMPUS Unified Digital Campus solution, built on Microsoft .Net and Sharepoint technologies, to help connect the ECAE learning community. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi established ECAE to be a world-class institution and regional leader in teacher preparation, educational research and school development.
The first phase of the initiative established critical support functions for prospective and current teachers to start the bachelor of education program. The second phase, already underway, will help the college to manage the steady growth in enrolments through the scheduling of resources, rooms and teacher groups. Connecting the ECAE learning community is of vital importance to enable the sharing of knowledge and experience. To achieve a digital college environment, self-service access to college administration and a portal are all being launched in summer 2009. A third phase of the project is anticipated to provide human resources, payroll and finance capabilities.
Paul Corcoran, director of corporate services, ECAE, commented: “To prepare a new generation of high quality teachers and education leaders for the region we must leverage our current campus, prepare for the move to our new facilities, attract and retain the best faculty and deliver to our student teachers. PowerCAMPUS plays a key role in helping us to manage these important transitions while maintaining a high standard of service to our constituents. As we grow and develop, we are seeking to continually improve the way we work and provide the best possible learning environment for our students and staff.”
ECAE partnered with the sole teacher training institute in Singapore, National Institute of Education, and Institute of Nanyang Technological University to pave the way for further exchanges of intellectual knowledge between its students and overseas counterparts. Faculty has been recruited globally to provide the latest best practices in teacher education. The collaboration with SunGard Higher Education emphasizes the institution’s commitment to providing state-of-the-art training and facilities that help set it apart as a teacher training institution. ECAE will play a key role in the modernization of school education in the UAE and throughout the Middle East by preparing a new generation of graduate teachers and educational leaders.
“SunGard Higher Education and Microsoft worked closely with ECAE executives to validate a vision they had for not only meeting their operational needs but also being able to integrate their systems to benefit students and faculty. The use of Microsoft technologies, such as SharePoint, within PowerCAMPUS will help ECAE integrate desktop environments, Web resources, the administrative and library systems, as well as future e-learning initiatives,” said Mathew Boice, general manager, EMEA, SunGard Higher Education.
“We are pleased to see ECAE taking an active role within our growing regional PowerCAMPUS community, and sharing experiences with other PowerCAMPUS users from Europe and the U.S. The user group conference met recently at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. It is rewarding to see ECAE taking shape as the institution quickly establishes itself to deliver on the mission to prepare a new generation of Emirati teachers,” Mr. Boice added.
About ECAE
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has established ECAE in Abu Dhabi to be a new world class institution and regional leader in teacher preparation, educational research and school development.
Established to play a key role in the modernization of school education in the UAE and throughout the Middle East, ECAE will prepare a new generation of graduate teachers and educational leaders. ECAE will combine expertise from world class institutions together with valuable local input to ensure instruction is of the highest quality. In addition ECAE will provide ongoing accredited professional development programs for teachers and administrators. New buildings incorporating first class facilities including ICT have been designed to accommodate 4000 full and part-time students.
About SunGard Higher Education
SunGard Higher Education provides software and support, systems implementation and integration, strategic consulting, and technology management services to help colleges and universities build, unify, and manage their digital campuses. Bringing together people, processes, and technology, SunGard Higher Education assists 1,600 higher education organizations around the world, including colleges, universities, campuses, foundations, state systems, central and district offices to strengthen institutional performance through improved constituent services, increased accountability, and better educational experiences. www.sungardhe.com.
About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and IT services companies. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including the world’s 25 largest financial services companies.
SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.
With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and services company on the Forbes list of private businesses. Based on information compiled by Datamonitor*, SunGard is the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurance & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedented five times. For more information, please visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
*January 2009 Technology Vendors Financial Database Tracker http://www.datamonitor.com
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