A White Coat, and a Promise to Every Patient
Ajman University’s Year 3 MD students received their white coats this week, stepping into the clinical training that will shape the doctors they become
The White Coat Ceremony at Ajman University (AU) is where that promise starts to pay off. This week, Year 3 MD students in the College of Medicine put on their white coats for the first time. From here, their learning moves out of the lecture hall and into hospitals, where the questions come from patients rather than exam papers.
Professor Khaled Assaleh, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, spoke first to the families who had carried those two years alongside the students. “Every person in this room has every reason to be proud,” he said. “I’m sure everyone today feels the ultimate pride seeing his son or daughter among these very fine young men and women.”
He was clear about what comes next and why it matters. “A doctor without clinical training can never be considered a doctor,” he said, thanking the partner hospitals that will open their wards to AU students. Those partnerships put students in front of real patients, guided by practicing physicians, building the judgment no textbook can teach.
Then he addressed the class directly. “You are entering the most noble profession that anyone can enter.” An engineer by training, he did not need to be a physician to see it.
Dr. Abdallah Alzoubi, Dean of the College of Medicine, called the day “a very significant milestone in their journey to become physicians.” The weight of that milestone was clear when the class rose to recite the medical oath together, coats on, families watching. In a few lines, they committed to the values that will guide every patient they meet: compassion, integrity, and professionalism.
That commitment reaches far beyond the ceremony hall. Each student who completes clinical training joins the next generation of physicians caring for communities across the UAE and beyond. The patients they will treat years from now are the real reason the coat exists.
After the program, the hall filled with flowers, family photos, and stethoscopes worn for the first time, as classmates cheered each other on as the doctors they are becoming.
