UAE, June 8, 2015 – Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University has revealed that its dean of e-Education School, Professor Abtar Darshan Singh, has won the International Competition on Innovative University Practices in ICT in Education, a competition organized by the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Professor Singh’s paper, entitled ‘Tamkeen: Pedagogical Discourses and Tools to Empower Online Academics and Learners’ took the top prize in the competition, which was held under the framework ‘Access, Equity and Quality: Envisioning the Future of Higher Education in a Digital Age.’ The paper was chosen after a strict and competitive selection process made by a panel of jurors—basing their decision on criteria that included innovative use of technology in instructional practices that demonstrate an engaging and inspiring character that makes learning enjoyable.