Postcard from...

Dubai)

Flying high in the desert

A highly specialised four-year course in aviation management offers an incentive to work
with a top airline
Aviation has been my pas-
sion since childhood.
Growing up in Kenya for
12 years and travelling
between Nairobi and Goa
at least once a year, heav-
ily influenced my interest
in aviation. After my fam-
ily decided to relocate to
Belgaum for good, I joined Phoenix Public
School to complete my education from Class
VIII to X. The ICSE board of education has a
provision where students can opt for the
commerce stream right from Class IX stu-
dents can take up economics and commer-
cial studies instead of physics, chemistry,
math and biology. Name:
Meghraj Suhas Patil
I decided to take up this option instead of Course:

following the herd and studying engineering. BBA Aviation Management

After completing Class X, I joined Jain Pre-
University in Belgaum and continued my
studies in commerce. It was in Class XI that I
discovered about BBA: Aviation Manage-
ment, a four-year specialised course wherein
students learn about aviation from a business
point of view. The course was being offered
in Dubai by Emirates Aviation University, an
institution owned by Dubai-based Emirates
Airline. My confidence in opting for this
course was further strengthened by shows
such as Ultimate Airport Dubai and Air Crash
Investigation that stream on The National
Geographic Channel.
I passed Class XII with flying colours and
landed at Emirates Aviation University. The
university is located in the south of Dubai
and feels like an oasis in the desert. The sub-
jects that come under the spectrum of BBA
aviation management are airport operations,
airline operations, air transport team project,
air transport quality and safety, aircraft
design and performance mixed with gen-
eric business courses such as statistics, eco-
nomics, accountancy, management inform-
ation systems, and so on. A major incentive
after completing the course with a high
GPA, is the opportunity to get recruited into
Emirates airline.
Cosmopolitan
Dubai never feels like a foreign land as,
around 42% of the population is Indian.
There are many nationalities in my class in-
cluding British, Russians, Zimbabweans,
Afghans, Maldivians, Jordanians, Slovaks
and Iraqis. It is one of the most cosmopol-
itan and competitive environments I have
ever lived in. The faculty is mostly British
and Indian. I have completed my second
year. Although the university is in a desert,
it has managed to get a sports complex and
College:
Emirates Aviation University
a lush green ground where soccer is the
most played game. Other activities include
table tennis, foosball, chess and carom. I
am a journalist for a university-based
magazine that mostly focuses on aviation.
The Emiratis are warm and affectionate
people with a lot of love for their mother-
land. They are hard working individuals at
par with the global workforce. Dubai
provides the right type of environment for
students where one can notice the amal-
gamation of western sophistication with the
conservative and reserved culture of the
Arabs.
Meghraj Suhas Patil has completed his second
year of BBA aviation management at Emirates
Aviation University, Dubai.