School to be part of Cambridge anniversary

One of Dubai's oldest schools is hoping to be featured in a book that will mark the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Dubai College has submitted an article for inclusion in University of Cambridge: An 800th Anniversary Portrait. Graham Penson, a spokesman for Dubai College, said it was the only school in the UAE, and one of just two in the Gulf region, that had been invited to contribute to the anniversary book.

Mr Penson has written a short history of the school and its links to the university. "It is very nice to be singled out and invited to be part of their 800th anniversary. It's a source of great pride for us," he said. "It's those people they feel have contributed to the development of the university over the years [who have been asked]." Mr Penson said Dubai College, a British-curriculum school, had a connection with Cambridge University that dated back to the school's "early days".

Dubai College celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. "We've had students going to Cambridge since the early 1980s. In terms of sixth-formers being accepted there, it's been a regular thing," he said. "We're becoming regarded by the higher education institutions as a school of some renown and some note." Chris Fagg, publisher at the London-based Third Millennium Information, which is releasing the Cambridge book in September, said the volume would be "a big book" with 350 pages.

"We have asked all sorts of people about their experiences of Cambridge - a lot of first-hand things, memories and reminiscences, have gone into the book," he said. "We could have 350 pages full of medieval bosses and stained glass, but we chose not to do that." The University of Cambridge was founded in the 13th century by a group of scholars who left the University of Oxford following disagreements with townspeople.

The institutions are regarded as Britain's top two universities and have maintained a keen rivalry over the centuries. @Email:dbardsley@thenational.ae