University expected to see marked increase in academic ‘professional development’ intake

Around 250 students are expected to enrol in new professional courses in the new 2017/18 academic year which will be on offer at the University of Gibraltar.
As the university enters its third year it continues to develop courses ensuring it is providing a wide range of courses for the professional community locally.
Professor Daniella Tilbury, Vice Chancellor at the university, is confident of a marked increase in the growth of professional students in September as it prepares for a ‘professional development’ open day next month.
“The way in which we strongly connect with the local community and the way in which the university makes a vital contribution to economic development locally is part of our mission,” she says.
“This is really important because training and development is part of us taking forward a lot of our economic ambitions so the university is quite keen in supporting that economic drive especially following Brexit,” she emphasised.
The new academic year will see a with a new range of courses which are constantly being developed, Of offer in September will be sports coaching and sports management as well as professional certificates in Gibraltar law and tax amongst other topics.
This academic year has seen 55% of the student population at the University of Gibraltar undertake professional courses with just under 200 students active in the courses on offer.
The open day June 20 will also serve as a fact-finding exercise to ascertain what the potential students are interested in with regard to qualifications and training opportunities. It will also present the professional courses which will be available for the next academic year.
Professional Tilbury emphasised the importance of this because part of the mission of the university is to ensure that the course developed locally remain very relevant to the professional development needs locally.
“The professional courses are a first step in our foundation. Over the next 12 months the university will be working on the development of its undergraduate degrees aimed at international students,” she said.
The university is presently developing a business degree and sports degree and suite of Masters courses.
There is she says substantial international interest in the University of Gibraltar
“We want to make sure that those that we do attract to Gibraltar in future will add value to the university.”
Meanwhile the Open Day for professional development will be held on Tuesday 20 June at the University of Gibraltar, Europa Point Campus between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

Photo: David Parody