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About Specialization
MANAGING THE CORE OF THE BUSINESS WORLD
College of Business Administration seeks to advance knowledge of finance through across-the-board teaching. This is achieved by drawing interactive and video conferencing sessions through a mixed group of faculties, including those from other continents. The range of course work and research at the individual level and extensive problem-solving exercises drawn from case studies, make students more confident and sets the pace for learning in a modern way. Young finance practitioners are responsible for learning more about raising capital, investment, deregulation and retirement of funds, insurance and risk management, real estate sectors and vis à- vis allocation of resources at personal, institutional, corporate, and global levels. The areas of corporate finance, corporate governance, investment banking and analysis of financial markets are also included to give them an appreciative fervour.
COURSE STRUCTURE
Students will start with general and core courses and then progress to ten courses in the finance specialization and free elective courses. The practical aspects of the courses offered in the specialization comply with Dubai’s vision as a world-class leading financial hub; therefore, studying and practicing finance leads to a compelling future career in United Arab Emirates. COBA offers a strong multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and friendly atmosphere for students in this program. The specialization courses equip students with the necessary tools to be ready for the practical world and prepare them for a better future in their careers within the financial industry. This is further enhanced by the internship opportunities provided to students to enhance their practical financial skills and experiences.
PROFESSIONAL BODY ACCREDITATION
College of Business Administration Curriculum received International Accreditation by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). CIMA has partnered with AICPA (American Institute of CPAs), and the merger -now named AICPA- Association of International Certified Professional Accountants – is the world’s largest professional body of management accountants. The accreditation resulted in several COBA specializations attaining equivalency and exemptions from CIMA that will ensure graduating market-ready students. Students can benefit from these exemptions and attain the elite CGMA – Chartered Global Management Accountant certification.
COBA has also collaborated with the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) to get Certified Management Accountant (CMA) scholarships for its students.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Develop critical analysis skills relevant to their career paths
- Analyze and interpret specialized data and information to make rational business decisions
- Apply innovative and advanced approaches to evaluate the national and international business environment
- Demonstrate practical skills of various business disciplines
- Acquire knowledge about the fundamental concepts, principles and theories in the specialization
Program Structure
Course Category
General Education Courses
Core Courses
Specialization Courses
Free Elective
Total
Total Number of Courses
11
17
10
4
45
Total Number of Credit Hours
33
51
30
12
126 Credit Hours
A: University Core Requirements
The student selects 6 credit hours (2 courses) from the list below:
The purpose of this course is to facilitate the process of transition into the new academic and cultural environment for the new students enrolled in the AUE. Furthermore, it aims to promote their confidence so that they could succeed and meet their academic requirements. The course assimilates academic content with interactive in-class activities to ensure understanding of curricular options and begin to develop a future career plan through self-reflection.
Innovation is the engine of opportunity and, acting as a catalyst, this course is intended to ignite an interest in innovation and inspire entrepreneurial action. At the core of innovation and entrepreneurship is a commitment to experiential learning that will encourage students to engage in critical thinking, creative problem-solving while also equipping them with the soft skills needed in their pursuit of academic and professional endeavors. Students will discuss the relevance and role of innovation and entrepreneurship in work and life situations; determine opportunities for creative disruption and design a strategy for its implementation; develop a practical understanding of innovation through thoughtful debate and exercises, and demonstrate critical thinking and individual insight with a personal mastery portfolio.
B: Languages and Communication Studies
The student selects 9 credit hours (3 courses) from the list below:
Students must take all of the following courses:
This course provides students with advanced writing skills in English so that they can successfully pursue their studies in various academic specializations. It helps students to develop, improve, and upgrade their writing and structure skills, and it also acquaints students with technical writing, research papers, and essays since brief research methods are applied in student projects and assignments.
The intent of this course is two-fold. First, it introduces students with the basic research terminologies. Second, it familiarizes them with the process of research from choosing a topic to writing the proposal. Students will be immersed in hands on experience where they will be introduced to research concepts that will help them understand, interpret, and critique a scientific research. Contents to be covered include the language of research, types of research, elements of scientific research proposal, writing an academic research proposal using APA style, research ethics, crafting data collection instruments, and interpreting data.
Students must take one of the following Arabic Language courses:
This course is designed to enable students to analyze multiple texts in various fields of knowledge. In order to be able to distinguish between texts despite their difference of contents, it also enables student to simulate those texts in a correct way, and to transform the information into skill and behavior. And since writing is an integrated building process, and that the building is affected by its parts, therefore student needs models, linguistic laws, planning, cohesion and goals including: news and inquiries, demand and influence of the recipient.
This course is based on the principle that “Education” is an accumulative task especially when it comes to language learning. This process undergoes specific stages to assist the non-Arabic speakers to reach the ultimate goal which is to acquire the required skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) easily and accurately. To achieve this aim, text-based dialogues are provided as a head start for the non-Arabic speakers to continue to the higher levels. The course also provides basic elements for reading, writing, dialogues, and listening to assist the learners to confidently interact with the Arab community.
This course is designed to enable the Arabic-speaking student with the necessary language skills, especially focusing on the steps of writing reports, official letters and systematic research. To achieve this, and to develop the student’s abilities to understand correctly what he reads and listens, and to gain the ability to write articles, reports, meeting minutes and recommendations of conferences and seminars in a sound manner, the course was concerned with training the student in basic writing skills; such as multiple spelling rules, punctuation marks, paragraph system, and essay writing progressively.
C: The Natural sciences or Mathematics
The student selects 6 credit hours (2 courses) from the list below:
The natural science course incorporates a wide range of subjects sciences such as astronomy, geology, biology, chemistry, and environmental science. The course will present the scientific facts of astronomy, the Earth and its weather, water, and environment, biology, and nutrition with the chemicals of life. The course emphasizes understanding the core principles of different branches of science and their effects on our lives. Moreover, the course explores the scope of natural phenomena, changing environmental conditions, general health rules of nutrition, and the variety of living organisms. The course helps the students to acquire skills in observation, critical thinking, analyzing, interpreting, understanding, and discussing scientific terminology and facts.
This course gives a thorough introduction to sustainable energy, conservation, and energy efficiency within the UAE and the world. It will explore the relationship between energy, environment, economy, and ecological well-being. It will discuss energy production from the biology, natural science, environmental science, and social sciences perspectives. A variety of topics will be introduced including global warming, climate change, sustainable food production, solid wastemanagement, environmental and natural resources laws. The course includes the growing challenges of climate change and energy crises and proposes solutions to overcome them.
The ‘Principles of Environmental Science course is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of environmental science to undergraduate students. It includes topics from different areas of study such as ecology, biology, soil science, and atmospheric science. The course aims at raising environmental awareness among students and providing them with the scientific knowledge and skills to identify, prevent and solve environmental problems. Additionally, it deals with ecological concepts, organism interactions, communities, and ecosystems. The course focuses on key areas of population dynamics, biodiversity, human activities, environment-managed ecosystems, air quality, water, and solid waste management.
This course is designed to develop a good understanding of the fundamental concepts of mathematics. It also stresses crucial cognitive transferable skills such as the ability to think logically and concisely. Mastering this course will give students the confidence to go on and do further courses in mathematics and statistics.
D: The Social or Behavioral Sciences
The student selects 3 credit hours (1 course) from the list below:
An introduction to the science of psychology, its theories, and foundations. The course is focused on principles and research methodologies, including the following topics: history of psychology, the biology of mind, memory, learning, child and personality development, psychological disorders, and therapy. The course aims to introduce the basis of psychology, provide the foundational knowledge to pursue the subject in more depth in the future, and build an ongoing interest in the application of psychology in everyday life.
This course serves as an introduction to the interdisciplinary and multifaceted social sciences. The content of the course covers the range of different disciplines that social sciences consists of, namely: anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, economics, and to a lesser extent also history and geography. The secondary aim of the course is moreover for students to develop their critical thinking skills by engaging actively with material about social issues, social change, and social institutions.
This course will introduce the students to the key concepts of Political Science and its principal tools. The course will discuss the role of main political actors in the field of politics and their function.
This course introduces the science of Sociology. Students will examine Society, Institutions, and the relationships that make up a social context. The scientific methodology used to study social interactions, stratification, and other elements of sociological inquiry will be discussed to emphasize the core concept of sociology as a systematic study of societies and social structures
This course provides an understanding of anthropology, the study of human beings throughout time and space. Anthropology is a broad discipline that studies humans from a holistic perspective looking at both biological and cultural aspects. Anthropologists use different methods to understand and study humans. During this course, students will experience ethnographic fieldwork.
This course will provide the students with a comprehensive overview of geography. Emphasis is on concepts that are necessary to understand global, regional, and local issues. This course also includes topics on both human and physical geography.
E: The Humanities or Arts
The student selects 3 credit hours (1 course) from the list below:
This course explores Arab art and aesthetics from the beginning of the twentieth century to date. The students will learn about the contemporary art and design movement in Arab countries, the expression of cultural identity, as well as the factors involved, and changes in aesthetics from Islamic to Arabic art. They will also study and analyze the role of pioneer artists from various generations with emphasis on their influence on contemporary Arab art.
This course will introduce the students to the key concepts of philosophy and its principle tools. The course will discuss the schools of philosophical thought and will apply philosophical analysis to the topics of knowledge, religion, mind, freedom, responsibility, and ethics.
This course provides an overview of Middle-Eastern History, including the sources of Middle Eastern History. The course will conclude with discussions about perspectives on Middle-Eastern History.
This course provides an overview of World / General History. The course will conclude with discussions about perspectives on World History. It surveys the history of humankind from 250CE till 1990 CE. In addition, interregional, comparative, cross-cultural, transnational, and historiographical topics will be considered. The objective of the course is to explore the roots of contemporary globalization and to develop historical thinking and writing.
This course will provide the students with a comprehensive overview of English literature in the United States. It will familiarize the students primarily with early Anglo-American writers and the different literary movements that took place in the United States. Today American literature includes many minority literary works, but the historical matrix remains Anglo-Saxon if we are to consider the dominant culture as the starting historical point.
This course aims to focus on the evolution of Islamic Art through a chronological overview of various trends and approaches throughout history. Students will explore and analyze the rise and influence of Islam leading to the formation of a new artistic culture the world over.
F: Islamic Studies
The student selects 3 credit hours (1 course) from the list below
This course will expand students’ knowledge to enable them to understand the Islamic culture and its characteristics. It analyzes the sources of legislation in Islam. It offers a review of the history of Islam and how it is currently the fastest-growing religion in the world.
The course is designed to give an in-depth understanding of the Islamic civilization. It deals with the universal principles that went into the making of the Islamic civilization. It examines the basic ideas of Islamic civilization besides exploring their contemporary relevance and challenges. The course seeks to effectively address the notion of the ‘clash of civilizations.
G: UAE Studies
The student selects 3 credit hours (1 course) from the list below
The course is designed to introduce the UAE and GCC society with its historical background and uniqueness. It is aimed at enabling students to understand the specific features of the society along with its customs, traditions, and lifestyle. The course will introduce the processes and the challenges of development as well as the future aspirations of the UAE and GCC Society.
This course marks students’ first journey into the discipline of management. The focus of this course is to expose students to the fundamentals of the four functions of management of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Within each function students are introduced to a multitude of managerial areas of focus including decision-making, organizational structure, power and politics, leadership, teams, motivation, and communication.
This principle level course introduces students with the fundamentals of accounting terms, rules, concepts, procedures, and systems. Topics covered include the art of recording, classifying and analyzing the data into useful information for both the internal and external users. Students are introduced to the double entry accounting concepts, general journals and the accounting cycle.
This is an introductory level course and introduces the concepts of management accounting. It involves accounting as a tool for planning and managing; students are acquainted with techniques and understand how relevant accounting information is used for effective operational planning and decision-making.
This course is designed to introduce students to basic microeconomics concepts relating to individual decision-making. The course exposes students to the meaning, nature, and methods of studying Microeconomics. The concepts of supply, demand, and elasticity are used to analyze the behaviors of consumers and firms in different types of markets. Main topics covered include: consumer behavior, firm production costs, Pure Competition, Monopolistic Competition, Monopoly, and Oligopoly.
The course is aimed to provide both theoretical explanations and practical understanding of the utilization of information system in managerial decision making. Further it is aimed to discuss procedure for planning of the information system, as well its proper organization and application in technological advancements. The course is mainly of a managerial outlook, aimed for better utilization of the latest information technology for managerial planning, organizing, implementation and decision making at all levels of managerial activities.
The General Statistics course is designed to develop good understanding of the basic concepts of statistical theorems, and applications. The course covers topics such as data collection methods, organization of data, analysis and interpretation of results. A software package will be used to analyze the statistical data.
This course aims to acquire a sound education in those statistical concepts and its applications in the fields of business and economics. This course requires fundamental understanding of basic statistics like frequency distribution, averages, measures of variability, probability, confidence intervals. The course also recommends a prior understanding of software application and MS Excel. Course covers statistical concepts and methods like hypothesis testing, variance Tests, chi-Square analysis and ANOVA with an emphasis on business application.
This course familiarizes the students with the scope, terminology, topics, and procedures of marketing in a modern company. It introduces the principles of marketing with providing a comprehensive overview of the marketing process from marketing research and analysis up to capturing customer value. Marketing channels, developing marketing strategies, consumer behavior, societal marketing, and new product planning are also discussed.
This course examines the financial strategic and operational decisions in organizations. It aims to provide the decision maker with the financial theory, concepts, and tools necessary to make better financial managerial decisions as well as enable the student to make sound decisions regarding financial analyses and judgments performed by others.
This course is concerned with the study of the behaviour of the economy as a whole. It analyses how the overall level of output, employment and prices are determined and how these in turn are affected by fiscal and monetary policies. issues to be covered include Keynesian Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply and Macroeconomic Equilibrium, GDP determination, the use of fiscal and monetary policies in stabilizing the economy and the role of government policy in promoting long-term economic growth.
Organizational behavior studies the influence of individuals, groups, and structure on behavior within organizations; its chief goal is to improve an organization’s effectiveness. This course introduces students to the core concepts of organizational behavior including attitudes, emotions, and moods; communication; conflict and negotiation; diversity; group behavior and work teams; individual decision making; leadership and power; motivation; organization culture and structure; organizational change; and personality and values.
The course aims to interpret the basic theories and the practices in production and operations management. The course equips the students with the necessary skills, and utilization of tools and techniques for effective and efficient management of operations. It further provides skills to the students for better decision-making and problem solving in any industrial scenario.
This course familiarizes students with the concept of the rule of law as a mechanism for ordering people’s (and companies’) behavior, and for providing predictability and certainty in planning business transactions. Students will consider the legal issues inherent in business, considered from the standpoint of various business roles such as business owner, corporate officer, board member, shareholder, partner, officer, manager, employer and employee, customer and client. It aims to have students anticipate potential legal issues in business transactions so that they can plan to avoid legal problems and, when they do occur, formulate solutions.
This course discusses the essence of Quantitative Analysis and covers various types of analysis including: decision analysis and risk attitudes, inventory control, linear programming, transportation problem, queuing theory, and simulations. Emphasis is on the formulation of problems and their solutions by standard methods and by computer packages such as MS Excel and QM.
Arab Gulf Area has developed as a major destination for international business. In the recent times, GCC nations remain as one among the trade blocks which is competitively placed in the world economy. Diversified business interests from oil, petroleum, marine products, tourism etc created momentum for regional growth and investments. The course provides students a better understanding related to the best opportunities and the good practices that needs to be followed to engage in business in the region. The subject mainly focuses on the policies and procedures to engage in business, free zone operations, PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis among GCC nations as a directive for doing business in the GCC nations.
This course captures the complexity of current business environment and offers contemporary concepts and skills which enables the students to design cutting-edge strategy through skills building exercises. Furthermore, it benefits attendees to gain necessary knowledge to manage consistent higher organizational performance by reading, analyzing and designing suitable working environment. Different models and tools in the course are practically applicable to find out strengths, weakness of the organizations, this analysis finally helps students to design the effective strategies and strategic plan for the business.
The course in International Business provides emphasis to the global business scenario, analyze interrelation between governments and business across borders. Further it studies the economic dynamics between countries/regions. The course provides a detailed insight into the international monetary system, international trade and foreign direct investment. The basic objective of the course is to provide an understanding of the global economy to gain the best understanding of the subject with the major issues related to the business environment. This course is generally “macro” in its composition, which is developed to provide intellectual focus with emphasis on the impact and overriding theories best describing the International Business scenario.
Intermediate Accounting I is the first course in a two-course sequence with a focus on the continued study of the accounting and reporting processes within the framework of accounting theory. Main topics include in-depth analysis of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), accounting theory, and requirements for publicly owned corporations. The course is targeted towards undergraduate accounting and finance specializations and focuses on the importance of preparing, analyzing, and communicating business information in ways that are relevant and useful to the end users of financial reports. This course builds upon the theories, principles and practices surveyed in ACC 100 (Principles of Accounting) and incorporates the examination of current real-world issues in financial reporting and analysis.
This course introduces students with the techniques used by cost accountants in the organizations. Approaches include cost control and product costing which assists in managerial decision making. Topics include cost accounting concepts, procedures, methods and techniques used for personnel, production, factory overhead costs, inventory, work-in-progress, costs allocation of service department, job orders, process, joint and by-product costing, cost control, and standard costing.
The aims of the course are to introduce the students to the main role of the central banks, banking sector and the main monetary policies. In addition, the course enables them to learn about the major financial markets and their regulations. On the other hand, the course targets toward teaching the students about the current monetary practices linking them to the field of banking industry. Money is the blood stream of any economy; this course introduces the students into the basic concepts of banking and how changes in the money supply can affect any economy. It covers topics including barter, the evolution of money, the gold system, trade, investments and currencies. The accounting treatment of the financial banking products is also discussed to acquaint students with the technical knowledge of banking and reserve systems. Monetary policy
The course enriches the knowledge of finance students about the difference between the conventional and Islamic banking financial system. The goal of the course is to equip students with the knowledge of banking activities that are consistent with the Shariah principles and its application as well as developing moral and ethical financial values for implementation.
This finance course advances the preliminary concepts covered at the introductory level and applies them to fundamental activities of financing, investing and valuation of corporations. This involves allocation and acquisition of resources, leveraging the capital structure of the firms and analysis of corporate transactions. This course aims at determining the best methodology to achieve wealth maximization for shareholders. It acquaints the students with valuation of financial assets, financial investing decisions, capital budgeting, and dividend payout policies, with emphasis on both short-term and long-term managerial policies.
This course lays emphasis on the planning process including short-term plans, and the budgetary goals and objectives of management. It explains how adequate planning and budgeting can help with financial problem solving and foster growth in the long run. This course, also, explains control concepts and fundamentals; the preparation and presentations of the processes and how to analyze results and variances. This results in applying the practical techniques at various managerial levels within a business environment. Topics covered include, targets, direction, budgeting resource allocation, and control activities.
This course advances students in acquiring the in-depth knowledge of Finance and Financial Institutions and its management. Emphasis is laid on the global financial markets and how the financial instruments play a key role in governing the money market around the world. Business interactions are explained between the banking industry and other financial institutions instruments and the capital markets to understand the characteristics and behavior of such markets. Students analyze the banking and other financial products and their performance for effective management of assets, liabilities and resources.
This course provides important insights of basic investment concepts, strategies, and theories in the contemporary financial environment. It introduces students to various investing strategies and focuses on the application and the implementation of these strategies. Topics covered include the determinants of stock prices, dividend growth models, fund management and investment strategic policy. The course introduces students to the analytical approach of how investors identify critical success factors, and explain how effective investors and fund managers plan and implement strategies related to portfolio management and international investment.
This course aims at introducing concepts of security analysis and designing strategies for creating stock portfolios. It covers the market structure theories, risk mechanisms and analysis of different valuation approaches for sound investing decisions. Students will be introduced to hedge management strategies and the emerging field of behavioral finance will be discussed throughout the course.
This course advances students into the international aspects of international financial management and being effective in the global financial market. It involves theories related to foreign currencies, hedging techniques, swaps, interest rates and global political risk. Students will be exposed to the foreign market dynamics in order to analyze the multinational firms within the global financial market arena; and, they will be able to assess the international environment, recognize opportunities, implement strategies, assess exposure to risk and manage the financial risk.
12 Credit Hours must be chosen from any other college/specialization in condition the prerequisites of the chosen courses are met.
Recommended Study Plan
Accreditations
The American University in the Emirates is licensed by the UAE Ministry of Education – Commission for Academic Accreditation | caa.ae
Prof. Asma Salman
Professor / Dean
Prof. Munther-Momany
Professor / Program Director - Master of Business Administration
Prof. Sung IL Hong
Assistant Professor / Program Director - Master of Sports Management
Dr. Azzam Hannon
Associate Professor / Department Chair of Accounting and Finance
Dr. Nikolina-Ljepava
Assistant Professor / Department Chair of Management
Dr. Edyta Skibińska
Assistant Professor / Specialization Coordinator - Hospital and Healthcare Management
Dr. Mohammad Alsmairat
Assistant Professor / Specialization Coordinator - Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Dr. Riad-Al-Chami
Assistant Professor / Specialization Coordinator - E-commerce and Marketing
Dr. Samer Kobrossy
Assistant Professor / Specialization Coordinator - Business Management
Dr. Tamara Mohammad
Assistant Professor / Specialization Coordinator - Human Resource Management
Dr. Alaa Mushtaha
Assistant Professor / Director of Innovation & Lifelong Learning (RYADA)
Prof. Salaheddin Abosedra
Professor
Undergraduate Requirements
For undergraduate degree completion, graduate students must satisfy the following requirements:
- Earn a minimum CGPA of 2.00 on a scale of 4.00.
- Successfully complete all courses as described in the study plan.
- The Degree Completion requirements must be met within the timeframe of the program.
- Transfer students must successfully earn a minimum of 50% of the course credits for the program at AUE.
Joining the Program
- Fall Semester
- September
- Spring Semester
- January
- Summer Semester
- May