DUBAI, April 29, 2008 - The booming Gulf emirate of Dubai will get a French university, following in the footsteps of oil-rich Abu Dhabi which hosts a branch of the prestigious Sorbonne university, promoters said on Tuesday.

   The university will start offering courses in January 2009 and will be part
of a project to build a district modelled after the French city of Lyon in
Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates.

   Thierry Valentin, vice president of Lyon 2 university which will oversee the French university of Dubai, told AFP that it will initially offer a limited number of courses, including intensive French-language courses.

   Degrees in economics, law, finance, management, human resources and Arab
studies will be among those offered by the university starting in the 2009-2010 academic year.

   Valentin said the university, a project conceived by the Emirates Investment and Development (Emivest) group, would initially be located in a district housing several educational establishments.

   It will eventually relocate to Lyon-Dubai City, a commercial and residential district modelled after the French city of Lyon that will be built around 2012.

   Abu Dhabi, the UAE's wealthiest member and capital, has hosted an outpost
of the Sorbonne since October 2006, the first of its kind in the world.

   The establishment of French universities in the UAE's two main emirates is
a rare event in the Gulf, where the English-speaking powers have traditionally
been dominant.

 [AFP / Expatica]