Al Ain is a city on the United Arab Emirates border with Oman. The town is known as an oasis education and culture and progressive thought. The city is home to some of the most prestigious universities in the region and even one of the regions first women’s colleges.

Future or current engineers, interested in the surveying technology used in applications like cartography, may be interested in pursuing the study of geoinformatics. As a branch of engineering, geoinformatics can be focused on the technology, collection, preservation, and analysis of geography.

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Much of the work force in the UAE are foreign expatriates - hence the country's population makeup being so diverse, with Emirati citizens being a minority in their own country.

Requirements for the PhD program often involve the student having already obtained a Master’s degree. Additionally, a thesis or dissertation primarily consisting of original academic research must be submitted. In some countries, this work may even need to be defended in front of a panel.