Students:
1. Rakshita Rao
Degree: BCom in Marketing
From: University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD).
Cost of education: Between Dh50,000–Dh55,000 per year for three years.
2. Ranjita Rao
Degree: Bsc (Hons) with Psychology
From: Middlesex University, Dubai.
Cost of education: Dh47,000 per annum for three years as she has a scholarship that saves her Dh3,500 per annum.
How do they manage?
Krishna and Bharati Rao, parents of Rakshit and Ranjita said, “We had the option of sending our daughters to India for higher studies, but the good colleges have a very high cut-off percentage, while other colleges do not have such a high standard of education. We also felt that the daughters were too young to be left at hostels at the age of 17.”
What are the challenges?
Fortunately for the Rao family, the challenges are not acute. As a senior executive in a Dubai-based firm. Krishna is likely to spend Dh150,000 per child. He did not have to take any loans as his salary bracket permitted him to educate his daughters here. “I think this amount is fine at the undergraduate level and if at all my daughters think of pursuing postgraduate courses, I might consider sending them abroad to UK, US or even Australia, as I feel now they are mature enough to handle staying on their own in a different cultural context to get an international education. “
Competition for jobs is getting keener in the UAE and both the girls feel it is a challenge to get decent internships which are considered stepping stones to good jobs.
Rakshita did a seven-month internship in her third year and is now working towards getting an internship in her final year. “It is quite tough to get good internships that can later be converted into permanent jobs,” she says and is prepared to diversify from sales and marketing into jobs in human resources, an area she feels is opening up in a big way.
What are the sacrifices?
Bharati runs the home on a tight budget and, so far, they have never had a situation where they had to give up on too many luxuries as their home rent is part of the salary package. “However, in these three years, what we really gave up on was international holidays and anything that meant spending big money,” says Rao.
What is the ROI (Return on Investment)?
Rao says as parents, they do not look for a definite return on investment on educating their daughters. “I am glad that my daughters had an opportunity to get a good education here as I feel they have the best of both worlds. They are here with us and have managed to enrol in good colleges that will give them internationally recognised degrees. The classes are of a fairly high intellectual standard, there is reasonably good learning and I see that my daughters are well-groomed and on a firm footing as, at the end of it all, they will get a recognised degree and have a good chance of being professionally successful. The UAE is good ground for soft sales and marketing jobs and my daughters’ degrees can help them land good jobs here.”
