Aussie bridges the gap between academia and the real world

The American University of Dubai (AUD) and TOUGHLOVE Advisors have announced a new collaboration aimed at bridging the gap between industry experience and academia.

Through extensive consulting services across multiple disciplines—from marketing communications and business innovation to business operations, strategy, and management—students and faculty will gain important real-life perspectives alongside course material.

Along with lectures taught by AUD faculty, TOUGHLOVE’s Senior Advisory Board – made up of 9 senior executives with over 250 years of combined practical experience – will host the program through guest speaker opportunities, roundtable discussions, hands-on mentoring and training programs for current students, internships and networking opportunities, while also providing institutional support to the wider AUD faculty.

AUD is responsible for educating many of the business leaders and entrepreneurs in the UAE today. With the University’s impressive graduate employment rates, a collaboration of this nature makes them the perfect match to add a ‘real life readiness’ component to help further prepare students for tomorrow’s workforce.

The new collaboration is part of TOUGHLOVE’s larger commitment to giving back to the community at large by ensuring students get the right exposure by developing talent in the UAE and preparing today’s youth for the next step through topic-specific content discussions, lectures and project training.

Eddie Maalouf, Partner at TOUGHLOVE Advisors and AUD alumnus, said: “We at TOUGHLOVE Advisors are honored and excited to have the opportunity to bring our decades of experience and learning to AUD’s students and programs, hopefully preparing them for life. We are Equally excited about the prospect of learning from AUD students and their projects, gaining fresh and innovative business thinking and talent while making a positive contribution to AUD’s students and management.”

Dr David Schmidt, Vice-Chancellor of the American University in Dubai, said: “We are delighted to launch this collaboration as it demonstrates yet another advantage that AUD offers students, preparing them for tomorrow and beyond.” –TradeArabia News Service