Application numbers double for Abu Dhabi scholarships

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) has received over 900 applications for its 2011-12 scholarship programme, the council announced yesterday. The submissions, which were double the number received for the 2010-11 programme, were for students wishing to pursue degrees in electronic engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, economics, accounting, finance and medicine. "[Applications for] electrical, chemical, electronics, and mechanical engineering are mostly neck and neck [among] students priority choices for specialty. The new priority interests of the government, we feel, sparked the surge in such specialties," Mona Majid Al Mansouri, division manager of guidance and scholarships at Adec, said. The programme is open to UAE nationals who have scored 85 per cent and above in their General Secondary Certificate or its equivalent exam at private schools as well as current university students who have completed 30 credit hours while maintaining a cumulative 3.0 GPA. The documents required to apply for the Adec-based scholarship include an admission letter from the university concerned, official transcripts (high school and/or university), a birth certificate, national ID, copy of passport or copy of the family book.