Acute shortage of psychologists has triggered glaring imbalance in UAE's psychology sector, say experts

Canadian University Dubai launches Bachelor of Arts in Psychology to boost UAE’s licensed psychology sector

Dubai, July 24, 2018:  The launch of a new bachelor program in Psychology seeks to address the glaring imbalance in availability of psychologists in proportion to population size in the UAE. 

According to well-known psychoanalyst Dr. Yana Korobko, author of the book ‘Arabs in Treatment: Development of Mental Health System and Psychoanalysis in the Arab-Islamic World’, there is just 1 psychologist per 200, 000 UAE residents, and more than 33,000 patients are without the specialist care they need.
 
The new Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program, available in both English and Arabic, has been launched by Canadian University Dubai (CUD). The university will admit its first cohort in the Fall 2018 semester.

Dr. Stefane Mostefa Kabene, program leader at CUD and a practicing psychologist, says: “As a young society with a high expat population and so many different cultural dimensions, the UAE presents an exciting backdrop for the study and practice of psychology. It is also a profession where women are very well represented and so holds great potential to strengthen the female workforce,” Dr. Stefane said.

“At CUD we have developed an exciting curriculum that will provide graduates with an immense variety of opportunities in professional practice, not just in clinical psychology, but in everything from cultural or sports psychology to educational or industrial psychology. They will also be equipped with the soft skills and core competencies of the social sciences that employers seek in every modern industry,” Dr. Stefane added.

“Psychology is so popular because it is the science of mind and behavior. Human behavior is involved in everything that human do. The fields of Engineering, accounting, computer science, medicine, the police, the army, immigration, to cite only a few examples, involve behavior, thinking, emotions and so on. Psychology helps better understand the problems and help solve them,” said Dr. Stefane.

The structure of the new program is deliberately diverse, incorporating aspects of business and management, as well as technology and artificial intelligence. With the offer of courses in both English and Arabic, the program aims to increase the capacity of the sector across both languages in the UAE. 

Addressing the demand for transferable, world-class education, CUD’s program has been designed to meet the professional licensure requirements for practice in Canada, America and the UK. The University is also working in partnership with elite international institution, Chicago School of Psychology, and is progressing the development of graduate level programs in specialist areas of the discipline.
 
Dr. Kabene concluded, “There is a desperate need in the UAE for more professionals in the field of psychology. Each year thousands of patients are going without the care that they need, and it is our hope to address this situation by creating a new generation of trained practitioners.”