Generalist

The School of Business Administration at the not-for-profit American University in Dubai (AUD) became an official school of AUD in 2000. Its aim is to provide "job-ready" graduates with a range of skills and professional knowledge.

The mission of the AUD School of Business’s MBA program is to provide graduates who aspire to leadership and management roles with the opportunity to pursue a high level of professional preparation to enhance their prospective careers. The MBA curriculum is designed to ensure broad and integrated conceptual coverage of functional business areas by enabling the application of the concepts, principles, and analytical research tools and techniques from the different business disciplines to guide decision-making in the global environment of business. The program promotes strategic thinking, ethical values, social responsibility, and cultural diversity.

The AUD MBA program is a graduate-level, two-year, full-time program. It consists of nine common core courses and three advanced elective/concentration courses. Eight of the common core courses provide broad exposure to the functional areas of management. The ninth common core course, strategic management and policy, is the program’s capstone course, and is normally taken during the last term in the program.

In addition to the core courses, three additional concentrations are available: finance – which focuses on financial strategies, analysis, financial management, and financial systems of a variety of public and private-sector businesses, to provide overall management training as well as the technical financial skills to work in the finance industry; management – which emphasizes developing the soft and technical skills needed to lead businesses effectively, including HR and change-management strategies; and marketing – which focuses on acquiring the branding and communications strategies, and effective and efficient distribution processes, needed to acquire and maintain a growing customer base – also for entrepreneurs.

In their application for admission, students must specify whether they are interested in pursuing the generalist MBA program or a program with a concentration in finance or marketing. The MBA thesis is optional for all students and counts as an advanced elective for those who choose the thesis option. AUD has a selective admission policy based on entrance examinations and students' past academic record and grades. It has an internationally diverse faculty of over 350, and a student body comprising over 120 nationalities. It provides intensive English courses for non-native English speakers.

AUD's multicomplex campus is situated next to Media City, Internet City, Jumeirah Palm Island, and the five-star beach resort area of Dubai. It is 15 minutes from the heart of Dubai's financial and commercial center, and 25 minutes from Dubai International Airport. Buildings are equipped with the latest technology, and there is an on-site student center with indoor sports facilities, a barber shop, a beauty salon, a travel agency, a bank, a copy center, a bookstore, a supermarket, and food courts.