I warmly welcome all students, faculty members, and staff to the 2024-2025 academic year, which promises to be an exciting period of growth and development as we build on our advances in institutional operations and education delivery.

This academic year will see HCT continue to expand and refine our educational strategies, particularly maintaining our strong focus on work-relevant training programs; introducing new, applied educational programs; and offering redistributed program locations and tracks to enhance our students’ educational journeys.

HCT is renowned for producing leaders and innovators who excel in nation’s growing sectors, such as AI, computing & cyber technology, renewable energies, business innovation and more.  We are therefore dedicated to providing high-quality education that enables our students to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for the competitive job markets, now and in the future.

We will continue to develop our transformative educational strategy, and our institutional initiatives, to attract the best faculty from across the globe and to create an exemplary learning environment that ensures our graduates will excel in their future career paths. We believe this strategic approach will overhaul UAE’s job market’s approach to the employment of new graduates, while boosting UAE National work development opportunities for Emiratis.

Our key strategies are aligned with the “We the UAE 2031” strategy and the National Future Foresight, forged from partnerships between Academia and Industry, ensuring HCT graduates possess in-demand, industry-relevant skills. Already, we have seen the new educational strategy bearing fruit with over 7,000 new students enrolling in HCT, in various programs, bringing our student population to more than 26,000 students.

HCT's success in implementing this transformation is highly dependent upon collaborating with strategic partners to bridge the gap between our students' educational experiences and the real-world work environment, by offering practical training and apprenticeship opportunities during the students' studies. As a result, we have signed 23 collaboration and partnership agreements with public and private sector institutions, offering thousands of training and employment opportunities.

Importantly, due to such cooperation agreements, as well as many campus career fairs, Jahiz and Nafis initiatives, we are encouraging students to pursue opportunities in the private sector, resulting in enhanced graduate employment rates. Furthermore, HCT’s Apprenticeship Program, a key factor in the educational strategy, has now been incorporated into all academic programs and it is pleasing to see about 6,700 students, enrolled in Bachelor and Diploma courses, have already benefited from the Apprenticeship Program’s pilot phase. We will continue to build upon these successes and innovations, so that we can reach our long-term goal of a 90% graduate employability rate.

These strategic goals are strongly aligned to our aim of creating highly trained graduates who can obtain employment in fields that match their skills, competencies and interests, and, to date, we have already made great progress in attaining our goals, due to the commitment and support of all HCT members. Working together as a team, for a unified goal, we can meet our challenges and continue to grow and develop HCT as a leading applied science university in the UAE and the MENA region, while also enhancing our international presence and reputation.

The current 2024-2025 catalog is an important tool in achieving our lofty goals. It is a source of vital information on HCT’s programs, majors, courses, professional certifications, academic regulations, graduation requirements and much more.  I urge all HCT members to familiarize themselves with it, and for our students to include it in their collection of essential HCT resources, complementing the Student Handbook, Methaq Code of Conduct, Academic Advising booklets, student e-services, and the MyHCT app. In addition, I encourage all students to seek guidance and assistance in their academic goals throughout the year from our highly qualified faculty and staff.

It is incumbent on all of us – students, faculty and staff to make the most of our time at HCT; to be focused, applied and determined in our roles; and to set and achieve goals by working hard to improve and excel.  May God bless us all in our endeavors, as we work together towards a successful and rewarding 2024-25 academic year.

Dr Faisal Alayyan
President & CEO
Higher Colleges of Technology