Boston University has signed a deal with Dubai Healthcare City to open a dental school in the coveted free-trade spot in the United Arab Emirates, edging out 20 other schools around the world.
Dental Health Center Dubai will see its first patients early next year, and the first class of students will begin their program in July 2008, said School of Dental Medicine dean Spencer Frankl.
“We estimate that approximately 20 dental schools were involved, but the high reputation of our postdoctoral training helped,” said Dubai Project Director Kathleen Ferland.
The application process began in 2004 when Dubai Healthcare City contacted BUSDM and asked the school to submit a proposal to develop a dental school for postdoctoral dental education, said Tom Kilgore, the BUSDM advanced education and international programs associate dean.
“Many schools in the United States and Europe responded to this request for proposals,” Kilgore said in an email. “Because of our international reputation and experience with other international projects, BU was awarded the Dubai project in 2005.”
President Robert Brown and Frankl signed an agreement with Dr. Muhadditha Al-Hashimi, the Dubai Healthcare City CEO who helped develop the BU Institute for Dental Research and Education Dubai and the BU Dental Health Center Dubai.
Ferland and Kilgore said the driving force behind the development of the Healthcare City stems from Dubai’s desire to diversify the Emirates’ dependency on petroleum revenues and focus more on developing science and technology to bring more healthcare and tourism.
Kilgore, who will be the Institute for Dental Research and Education chief academic officer, said both of these facilities will be part of a large academic medical center, which will include a teaching hospital, the Harvard Medical School Dubai center and other research facilities for several international healthcare corporations.
“This is not a study-abroad program for U.S. students,” Kilgore said. “It is intended for graduates from dental schools in the [Persian] Gulf region to be able to enjoy a U.S. curriculum close to home.”
Kilgore said BU’s involvement in the project reflects BUSDM and the university’s goal of globalization through building international partnerships.
“From our standpoint, pursuing this project was in keeping with Dean Frankl’s philosophy of being a ‘school without walls,'” he said.
The facilities will provide graduate dentists in the Middle East an opportunity to attend a nearby school. Most of the interest and inquiries about the Institute have come from students in the Middle East and northern Africa, Ferland said.
“Initial research indicated that there are very few opportunities for dental specialty training for dentists in the gulf region,” Kilgore said. “Up until now, students for the Middle East have had to travel to the U.S. or Europe for specialty training, and after 9-11, there is a relative reluctance for students from the Middle East to travel abroad to training.”
BU had been in contention for a communications branch in Qatar, the Gulf nation home to Al Jazeera, but lost the bid to Northwestern University in April.
