SDG 4: Quality Education
SDG 4, "Quality Education," is at the forefront of AUM University's mission in Kuwait. The university is unwavering in its commitment to providing a world-class education that is both accessible and of the highest quality. AUM recognizes that education is a powerful tool for personal and societal development, and thus, it continually strives to improve and innovate in the following ways:
Academic Excellence
AUM maintains rigorous academic standards and offers a diverse range of programs designed to meet international educational benchmarks. This ensures that students receive a high-quality education that prepares them for success in their careers and beyond.
Faculty Development
The university invests in its faculty, supporting their professional development and research endeavors. This commitment to faculty growth translates into more effective teaching and mentorship for students.
Modern Learning Environments
AUM fosters an engaging and technologically advanced learning environment. The university leverages innovative teaching methods and modern facilities to enhance the educational experience.
Inclusivity
AUM promotes inclusivity by offering a diverse and welcoming campus environment. The university values diversity and recognizes that a broad spectrum of perspectives enriches the learning experience.
Community Engagement
AUM actively engages with the community through outreach programs, workshops, and partnerships with local organizations. These initiatives promote lifelong learning and educational advancement beyond the campus.
Research and Innovation
AUM encourages research and innovation among its faculty and students, contributing to the generation of new knowledge and advancements in various disciplines.
Global Perspective
The university fosters a global perspective by collaborating with international institutions and offering opportunities for students to study abroad, broadening their horizons and enhancing their educational experience.
AUM's commitment to SDG 4 goes beyond providing quality education; it also focuses on fostering critical thinking, creativity, and a sense of responsibility in its students. By continually striving for excellence and embracing a holistic approach to education, AUM contributes to the achievement of SDG 4 and empowers its students to excel in an ever-evolving global landscape.
The Library merges high-tech facilities and equipment with modern design and provides a large academic collection of print and electronic resources.
The Library provides a welcoming and well-managed facility that encourages research and dissemination of scholarly information and ideas. It also provides information resources and services to support the instructional programs and educational goals of the university.
To achieve these goals, the Library provides a rich collection of print and electronic resources with a strong focus on course-related information literacy and reference support. The book collection contains both print and e-books in areas relating to programs offered at AUM. The Library has an expansive number of online databases for research with on-campus & off-campus access.
Mission
To provide the AUM academic community with the world caliber high-quality academic resources in both print and digital formats to facilitate the learning and research within the institution and offer the innovative services to support lifelong learning experience along with stimulation of intellectual curiosity.
Objectives
· To select, acquire, organize and maintain learning resources and information resources.
· To provide intellectual and physical access to Library resources and expert assistance.
· To assist students, faculty and staff to access list of resources and retrieve information effectively.
· To support a functional and welcoming physical space for collections, study areas and services for students and staff.
· To provide a range of books, periodicals, e-resources, and other media at appropriate levels to meet the needs of the Institute.
· To establish state of art resources and facilities by responding to academic and research needs.
· To provide innovative, responsive, and effective services, to meet the changing needs of the faculty and student body.
Working Hours
The Library is open from Sunday through Thursday from 8.00 AM to 8.00 PM. Library hours are adjusted during Midterm and Final Exams periods and during Ramadan. These changes are posted on Moodle. The library is closed on Public and University holidays throughout the year.
Library Support
The Library staff is available to answer questions or provide assistance to faculty, students and staff via the Help Desk or by Email: Library.Support@aum.edu.kw
Resources
The Library has its own single gateway to access all Library resources and services from one point. Most of these resources are online and can be accessed on and off- campus.
Circulation Service: Our circulation service provides issue/return/renewal/ reservation services for students to ensure they make the most of the library resources. We also give ready reference services to its users
Book Section: Contains over 10,000 printed books, in all subject areas offered by the university, out of which over 2000 books are in the field of mathematics, engineering and technology, as well as the Reference collection
Periodicals: Library has its own subscriptions of more than 41 printed peer reviewed journals/magazines, which users can use to access current news updates, scholarly research articles, and other forms of periodicals. A Majority of these subscriptions are also available electronically
E-Resources: The library is subscribed to up to 60 academic databases and digital resources, which are listed on the library website individually or in collections. The majority of these resources are databases for academic publications, giving full-text access to over 85,000 Journals and Conference Proceedings. Some databases are dedicated to e-books and reference materials, providing close to 450,000 titles for online reading and article/chapter download. 10 of the databases are for citations and abstracts with over 100 million aggregated records covering a variety of research fields. Remaining digital resources include 3 video databases with over 100,000 video titles providing searchable transcripts and a number of databases best described as research tools offering a mixed variety of teaching and research utilities. In the field of engineering, the library subscribes to the most relevant resources such as: IEEE proceedings, books and journals, Compendex – Engineering Village, Knovel, Science Direct, and Springer Link as well as American Chemical Society (ACS) publications and ESDU engineering standards.
Computer Lab: Our well-equipped computer lab provides students with access to all online resources subscribed to by the Library. The Library is equipped with over 180 computers that are freely accessible for the patrons to access all subscribed online resources
OPAC: Patrons can search for AUM Library resources such as books, journals and other resources through the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) on the AUM Library website. AUM Library online public access catalog allows patrons to check availability status of library resources, including books and journals and provides them with personal accounts where they can overview the items they have checked out and the overdue items.
Services
1. Circulation
The Library aims to support the research and learning experience through providing accessible print resources through a dedicated circulation policy available on the library website.
2. Interactive Facilities
Video walls, which may be connected to or separated from the touch table facing it. When connected, the content on the touch table gets mirrored on the video wall. It has been used to show students’ academic activities and students’ graduation ceremony.
Touch tables, which may be used separately or connected to the video wall. When disconnected, it may be used for group study/ research of online content and databases and several educational games.
Interactive (touch)/marketing screens: screens found in the hallway. Interactive touch screens for marketing and advertising purposes such as workshops, events, competitions, student affairs announcements, internships …etc.
Touch tablets: are found on the study rooms door for on spot room booking, or accessing room after booking, etc.
Access control system/Tablets: used for students to swipe their card for the study room doors to open.
Self-check kiosks: found near the library exit for students to check out, check in and renew their borrowed books.
Collaborative Space: The library has four collaborative spaces that can house up to 8 people for interactive and collaborative work
3. Cinema
One of the available facilities at Library is the high-tech Cinema. This is an HD Cinema with high-quality equipment and around 100 movie theater seats which offers the full experience of watching a movie at a cinema.
· The Library conducts open-reservation sessions two days a week. These movie sessions follow a specific inspirational or motivational theme every semester in a variety of genres, such as action, drama, and sports.
· The faculty can also request a session at the Cinema to show a particular educational movie from AUM’s online databases, where students can enjoy the clarity of the visuals as well as the full-surround sound system.
One of the available facilities at Library is the high-tech Cinema. This is an HD Cinema with high-quality equipment and around 100 movie theater seats which offers the full experience of watching a movie at a cinema.
· The Library conducts open-reservation sessions two days a week. These movie sessions follow a specific inspirational or motivational theme every semester in a variety of genres, such as action, drama, and sports.
· The faculty can also request a session at the Cinema to show a particular educational movie from AUM’s online databases, where students can enjoy the clarity of the visuals as well as the full-surround sound system.
4. Study Room Reservation
The Library has 18 fully equipped individual group study rooms.
Each study room is accessed via a room booking system that the students may access on the library website to book a room.
The doors have access control where the student who reserved the room may swipe his/her student ID for the doors to open.
Study rooms may accommodate up to 6 students.
Each room in the loud zone is equipped with interactive touch screens.
5. E-Learning Zones
The AUM Hi-Tech library has 4 E-learning zones, equipped with 180 all-in-one touchscreen computers for students to access all electronic resources available through the library and the E-learning courses.
6. Individual Study Spaces
The Library provides individual study spaces that can accommodate a big number of students. In addition to this, the library also has 28 fully connected high-tech individual study cubicles.
7. Off-Campus Access
The university uses a proxy service so that students, faculty and staff can access online resources such as the catalog, databases, and e-learning platform from outside the campus. This service involves students signing in with their university credentials, which allows them to be recognized by providers as AUM members and allowed off-campus access.
Online literature references
Oxford Link
bartleby.com Link
Infobase Link
Library literature subscribes
Proquest literature on line Link
Credo Link
Databases Dictionaries
Dictionary of Business Link
Dictionary of Science and Technology Link
Dictionary of Financial Engineering Link
The Penguin English Dictionary Link
English dictionary free of charge
Marriam webster Link
The free dictionary Link
Dictionary.com Link
Cambridge dictionary Link
The library is subscribed to many academic databases and digital resources, which are listed on the library website individually or in collections.
Some of the databases/ descriptions:
Through AUM’s partnership with Softskills, the university offers students, faculty, and staff an exclusive access to over 7,000 soft skills world-class video courses. This platform allows students to create their own learning plans and set their self-development goals.
AUM E-Learning provides students with a flexible and effective learning environment, with a wealth of functionalities and tools a click away.
Courses offered at AUM E-Learning Portal:
Business skills courseware
Desktop skills courseware
IT courseware
Navigating the Site: What are the main navigation options available?
Course Catalogue: All available courses are listed. Students can select and add courses to their Learning Plan from the Course Catalogue.
My Learning Plan: This is where students can see a list of their active courses and launch their chosen course.
My Training Report: Details of student training progress can be viewed including access details, duration and scores.
AUM provides free access to Soft Skills platform to its students, alumni, faculty, staff and students of the American College of the Middle East.
AUM Soft Skills E-courses platform provides the opportunity to engage in self-paced e-courses that will upgrade their skills.
Through AUM’s partnership with Softskills, the university offers exclusive access to over 7,000+ soft skills world-class video courses. This platform allows learners’ to create their own learning plans and set their self-development goals in various topics. The 7,000+ courses fall under important curriculum topics that are grouped per solution areas under three main categories: Business, Productivity and IT:
As part of their education at AUM and within the general education requirements, all AUM students take at least one or many courses dedicated for promoting good health and well-being.
During the partial and full lockdown in Kuwait that came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, AUM launched a website dedicated to youth in Kuwait titled “AUM Youth”, which aimed to encourage young people to stay fit, healthy, and sharp. The website included educational and athletic courses and competitions. The educational courses offered to high school students in Kuwait through the website include coding, robotics, web design, English tutoring, and Math tutoring.
