Three universities in the United Arab Emirates are providing several scholarship packages to former MSU Dubai students in an attempt to better facilitate credit transfers and possible travel accommodations.
Officials at the American University in Dubai, or AUD, the American University in Sharjah, or AUS, and the Dubai campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT Dubai, cooperated throughout the summer after MSU officials announced in early July undergraduate programs would be cut at MSU Dubai, said Eric Freedman, associate dean of International Studies and Programs.
Under the plan, students will receive a certain amount of scholarship money per semester for up to four semesters should they choose to attend one of the three participating universities, Freedman said.
AUD transfers will receive $750, AUS transfers will receive $1,500 and RIT Dubai transfers will receive $300. About 10 students have accepted one of the three packages, Freedman said.
According to each of the universities’ Web sites, AUD tuition averages about $8,500, AUS at about $10,000 and RIT Dubai at about $16,000 for the current school year.
About 50 out of 85 students affected by the program cuts now live in East Lansing and attend MSU, Freedman said. Personal, cultural and financial reasons might prohibit the remainder from relocating.
“For those who could not come to East Lansing, we did make arrangements with the top three universities in the region,” Freedman said. “As part of the arrangements, MSU Dubai students will receive scholarships that go to close the tuition gap — largely close it between those universities’ and MSU’s tuition gap.”
MSU and other university scholarship contributions are not yet known, he said.
“We don’t know precisely how many students will take advantage of the scholarships,” Freedman said. “(We don’t know) if they want to attend one university or another nor if they’ll stay for the full four semesters.”
Transfer students to MSU’s East Lansing campus will receive one round-trip airline flight per academic year between Lansing and a student’s home in addition to a personalized financial aid package, Freedman said.
Although a number of former MSU Dubai students have accepted a scholarship package, former MSU Dubai student Tamara Mohammad Abdul Hadi said in an e-mail that the universities’ efforts do not make up for abandoning students after programs were cut without advanced knowledge.
“Honestly, if you were in our shoes right now and had just experienced this horrible summer where our university shut its doors on us and dismissed us so coldheartedly and easily, I don’t think you’d be too grateful to be getting a scholarship to a third rate university which anyone with a 1.5 cumulative GPA can get into,” Abdul Hadi said in the e-mail.
Abdul Hadi said she will not accept any “bogus scholarship” from any university if it is an attempt at compensation.
MSU and its university partnerships are making the transition for students as smooth as possible, AUD president Lance de Masi said in a statement.
“We commend the efforts made by MSU to establish itself in the Middle East,” he said.
“We are happy to be able to accommodate their students — our institutions after all share a common goal to create opportunities for students to get a solid international education.”
MSU Dubai interim executive director Harold Sollenberger said in a statement he is pleased of the “cooperation and receptions” students are receiving.
Officials will continue to work with students during this process, Freedman said.
“From the first moment they stepped into a classroom in Dubai, they were Spartans,” he said.
“We owe them an obligation and we would not walk away from that responsibility.”
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