Nov. 8, 2007
Media contact: Patty Wellborn
604-795-2891
or 604-504-7441, local 2819
patty.wellborn@ucfv.ca
UCFV partners with an Abu Dhabi university to design new fashion program
When approached by a college in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that wanted to establish a fashion design program, UCFV’s International department and fashion design instructors heeded the call.
But they didn’t send UCFV faculty members to Abu Dhabi to teach fashion classes to students. Rather, UCFV sent instructors to teach the teachers. Last month, fashion design instructor Gayle Ramsden left for the UAE where she teamed up with staff from the Al Khawarizmi International College. Ramsden’s trip is the culmination of more than a year of cross-ocean meetings and planning, explains Catherine Dawson of UCFV International Education.
“We have taken our professionalism to a whole new level and are moving into an entirely new field of business where we work as consultants,” explains Dawson. “We are in the process of nurturing, developing, and incubating this brand-new program.”
During the next two years, Ramsden will embark on three more trips to Abu Dhabi to help with the on-the-ground details for establishing the associate degree program in fashion design. Back at UCFV she will act as an online coach for staff at Al Khawarizmi, supplying continuous advice to help launch the program.
“The UAE is one of the most modern countries in the Arab world,” Dawson adds. “The women I know who live there are liberal in many ways and it’s exciting to be starting a project that will teach a trade and develop more skilled professionals in that country.”
During the next few months, mostly via the Internet, Ramsden and other UCFV Fashion Design faculty will on how to establish the program. While in Abu Dhabi, Ramsden will help Al Khawarizmi staff design a sewing room, plan the best layout for the electronics so machinery can operate, establish a list of teaching materials, suggest text books, outline a hiring procedure for teaching staff, and help establish protocol for attracting, registering, and retaining fashion design students.
“We are taking the very best of our program and making it adaptable for them,” explains Ramsden. “This first trip is mostly about asking questions like how big do they want their program to be? How many students? What are their expectations? I’ll be working with the staff to provide those answers.”
She’s thrilled to be in the planning stages for a brand new fashion design program in a foreign country. And it’s exciting, she says, to be in such a cosmopolitan city that has many mixed cultures, languages, and traditions. The rich textures and colours of the fabrics, combined with the multinational mix of residents in the UAE and the already thriving fashion industry in that part of the world, makes it an exciting place to be starting a fashion design program, she says.
“We tend to look at fashion from a western perspective, and yes there is a large population of women who wear the traditional abaya (the full-length black garment worn over street clothes). But there is more of a fashion fusion going on than many people would think,” Ramsden says.
This venture in consulting with international universities to establish programs is fairly new for UCFV, but International Education director Karola Stinson notes that UCFV has been requested to help launch a Teaching English as a Foreign Language program at another foreign university.
UCFV offers a number of opportunities for international travel to its students through its International Education department, co-operative education arrangements, and international partnerships that facilitate internships, study tours, and exchange trips. For more information about UCFV’s international links and opportunities, please visit www.ucfv.ca/international.
UCFV also offers a two-year, full-time Fashion Design diploma program that is designed for students seeking a career in the fashion industry. For more information about UCFV’s fashion design program, go to www.ucfv.ca/fashion.
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