EM Normandie has chosen the United Arab Emirates and the city of Dubai as the location of its third international campus. With its ideal location at the heart of Dubai Knowledge Park, the 1,400 m² campus welcomed its first Master’s in Management (Programme Grande Ecole – undergraduate level 3) students in October 2022 for one year, and M1 students in January 2023 for one semester. EM Normandie is the first French business school to open its own campus in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates federal government’s Commission for Academic Accreditations (CAA) has just awarded the School a “Higher Education Provider” institutional licence, allowing it to teach on site and to recruit students. The Commission has also accredited its Bachelor’s in International Management programme.
An ideal location at the heart of Dubai Knowledge Park
The campus is located in the Dubai Knowledge Park, an educational cluster of more than 14,000 students, which includes prestigious international training institutions specialising in management. It is also home to the headquarters of multinationals such as Dell Technologies, Cisco Systems and Huawei. DKP’s aim is to attract a talent pool to the United Arab Emirates, to make it a hub for the economy of the future.
This prime location for both recreation and study in a rapidly developing city offers easy access to shops, transport and the Palm Jumeirah island, and excellent employment opportunities for future graduates.
The new campus has a surface area of 1,400 m² and can accommodate up to 500 students. It incorporates ultra-modern learning spaces, communal spaces for students and staff and administrative offices. On one level, it has half a dozen classrooms equipped with the latest digital technologies for face-to-face, remote and hybrid classes, co-working spaces, private work spaces and flex-office spaces, a FabLab, catering and reception areas, a gaming zone for student associations, chillout areas and games for students (with a sofa, table tennis, table football, air hockey, a PS5 and more) and an Executive Education Center.
The 130 m² Learning Center is equipped with logistics and AI-focused reading spaces in English and Arabic, as well as co-working rooms. Students have free access to all of EM Normandie’s digital resources via the Virtual Learning Center. Like all of the School’s campuses, the site provides an exceptional environment for study, with students benefitting from the full EM Normandie experience.
The site is already planning an additional floor to double its capacity and accommodate growing numbers of students in the coming years.
Structure and outlook
The courses that EM Normandie is running on the campus are aligned with the UAE’s strategic ambitions, and follow bilateral agreements with France aimed at promoting commercial, academic, research and cultural exchanges. EM Normandie will train young graduates to join sectors with high recruitment demand, such as logistics, IT project management, digital business, and marketing and sales. French companies in the location have eagerly awaited these programmes, to support them with high growth and recruitment issues.
Lead by Khaireddine Mouakhar, previously Caen Campus Director, EM Normandie in the UAE FZ-LLC currently employs around ten people, including nine recruited locally. 42 students from the Master’s in Management programme moved to the Dubai campus in October 2022 under a mobility agreement, followed by a further 17 in January 2023.
From the start of the 2023-24 academic year, the campus will also welcome both students from EM Normandie and international students recruited mainly from the Gulf countries, India and Africa to its Bachelor’s in International Management, Master’s in International Marketing and Business Development and Master’s in International Logistics and Port Management, both of which are currently being accredited by the CAA. The Master’s in International Logistics and Port Management will be the only programme in the United Arab Emirates which offers specialist port management training. All of these training courses will be taught by local external professors and specialists, as well as EM Normandie teacher-researchers.
The School is forging a number of partnerships to develop links with the regional economic network, including Alliance France, CCI France, the French Business Council, Dell, DHL, Google, Campus France, CMA-CGM and DP World. To date, there are around 50 Alumni living in the Emirates. They have been delighted to learn of EM Normandie’s new campus in Dubai, and have become great ambassadors of the School in the companies they work for.
Dubai is a busy hub located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. This global port city, is a unique learning ecosystem and a great testing ground for our students, especially on the topic of tomorrow’s Smart Cities
Elian Pilvin
Dean and Managing Director of EM Normandie