Minister of State Zaki Nusseibeh appointed chancellor of UAE University

The university is one of the country's best higher education institutions and is in the top 300 globally

Minister of State Zaki Nusseibeh is the new chancellor of United Arab Emirates University. Chris Whiteoak / The National 

Minister of State Zaki Nusseibeh has been appointed as United Arab Emirates University’s new chancellor.

President Sheikh Khalifa issued a decree appointing the minister.

Mr Nusseibeh is the Minister for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation as well as the Cultural Adviser at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.

Mr Nusseibeh succeeds Saeed Ahmed Ghobash, the former chancellor of UAE University, which is ranked 284 by international higher education analysts Quacquarelli Symonds.

It was founded by Sheikh Zayed in 1976.

As the chancellor of the university, Mr Nusseibeh will help develop its vision and speak at the annual convocation ceremony.

Previously, he was on the board of trustees at the Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.

This year, the minister was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest societies in the US.

Originally from Jerusalem, Mr Nusseibeh arrived in the UAE in 1967 after studying economics at Cambridge in the UK.

He has held important positions in the UAE government since 1968.

When the Arab-Israeli War broke out, he came to Abu Dhabi on the advice of his father.

The war was a brief conflict fought in June 1967 between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

Mr Nusseibeh came to the UAE with a few personal items and about 100 books.

After a brief spell with a family-owned contracting company, he took a job as a stringer for foreign media outlets who had a growing interest in the emerging Gulf states.

This led to work as the translator and adviser of Sheikh Zayed, who would become the country’s founding President when the United Arab Emirates formed in 1971.

Mr Nusseibeh has served at the forefront of Abu Dhabi's cultural development.

He has been a cultural adviser at the Presidential Court since 1975, and founded two classical music festivals.