UAE | Education

Tussle on for tertiary students

While the UAE is trying to establish itself as a higher education hub, new competitors are attempting to lure prospective students abroad

  • By Rania Moussly,Staff reporter
  • Published: 00:00 November 8, 2009
  • Notes

  • "I'd prefer to go abroad to get a different social circle and broaden my horizons." - Asma Farooq, Cambridge International School, Dubai
  • Image Credit: Illustration By Luis Vazquez, Gulf News

It is widely believed that competition is healthy and in the cut-throat world of today's marketplace, higher education is no exception. The UAE is building itself as a higher educational hub for the region set to draw students from all corners of the Far and Middle East. However, like any other business venture, it does not go unrivalled. Campus Notes takes a look at new competitors that are aggressively recruiting students in the region.

Regional competition

At educational exhibitions such as the Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX) held recently, institutions came from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, India, Malaysia and Russia in hopes of recruiting prospective students from the UAE. At this year's autumn leg of the tour a prominent presence was that of the emerging Qatar Foundation's Education City (QFEC). Home to six leading American university branch campuses specialising in fine arts, medicine, engineering, business and information technology, diplomacy and journalism and communications, QFEC is looking to cater to a range of students and their interests.

Assistant vice-president for faculty and student services at QFEC, Dr Dennis Roberts said: "We don't want to be a student's second choice, we want to be their first."

He added that students who once had to go abroad for quality education now have it on their doorstep. "We want students to see the benefits of staying here [in Qatar]," said Roberts.

More than 51 per cent of the 3,252 students enrolled at QFEC last year were Qatari and the rest were international or expatriate recruits. "We want to be a place that provides high-quality rigorous education available for Qatar and other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries," said Roberts.

On competing with UAE organisations such as Dubai International Academic City, Dubai Knowledge Village and the University City in Sharjah he said: "I see it as nothing but positive."

International competition

Campus Notes spoke to Dr Syed Alwee Alsagoff, director of the education and marketing division of the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, who said a significant portion of the country's 70,000 strong international student population comes from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and China.

Not many are recruited from the UAE, despite the fact that the ministry's regional office is located in Dubai. "The office doesn't recruit students per se; it is more a centre for referrals," he said.

He said students from the Middle East like studying in Malaysia because of the similarity in the environment. "There is a strong Arab and Muslim cultural influence in Malaysia. Students feel at home because we eat the same things and dress the same way."

Institutions such as the five-year-old British University in Egypt (BUE) is rigorously trying to recruit Egyptian expatriates in the UAE and get them to further their education back home. "The student population is very diverse here, and there are a lot of Egyptian expatriates interested in sending their children for higher education back in Egypt," said Kevin Millam from the BUE English department. According to Millam the BUE is unique because students graduate with two degrees — one from Egypt and another from the University of Loughborough in the UK. With the motive of upping its recruiting game, BUE is planning to forge links with schools in Dubai for visits and presentations.

When asked if BUE was directly competing with universities based in the UAE, Millam said: "No, I don't think so."

Collaborative competition

Chancellor of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) Dr Peter Heath views competition as healthy and a reality of life.

"To some extent institutions offering students a better alternative for education make us all better," he said. Regarding the QFEC reaching out to students in the region, Heath said AUS recruits students from Qatar, both nationals and expatriates, and it is therefore "in bad form for us to complain about them competing in the UAE".

On the increase in inter-university in the country and the region Heath compared it to a restaurant. He said: "You put your menu out there and try to attract customers on the atmosphere and the quality of offerings, but you don't expect to be the only restaurant in town."

He went on to make the point that at the undergraduate level, competition is fierce for the recruitment of students. However, at the postgraduate level the same universities competing for undergraduate students are collaborating on local and regional research projects to the benefit of all. "We all agree that we compete but at the same time are open to collaboration," said Heath. He went on to say that although AUS might worry about the competition, "other universities do the same thing we do; we are all in this together".

Students oblivious

Although university heads might lose sleep over the growth or decline of their student numbers, the students themselves are oblivious. Many of the students Campus Notes spoke to are either interested in moving away from home to gain an independent experience or simply finding a programme that best fits their needs.

Shehzeen Akhteer, a freshman at Michigan State University in Dubai, came to the UAE from Qatar. "I wanted to be independent yet stay close to my parents," she said. Akhteer said an attractive factor of studying in Dubai is the experience of both Eastern and Western cultures, which is something not offered in a more "slow-paced" country like Qatar. So given all the efforts of the QFEC to keep students studying at home, some seem to slip through the cracks purely because of a desire to flee the nest and live alone.

Similarly Asma Farooq, a final year student at Cambridge International School in Dubai, wants to go to university away from home. She went to GETEX to scope out her options and was drawn to international universities with branch campuses in the UAE.

What attracted her most, besides the quality of education, was the option to transfer abroad. "I'd prefer to go abroad to get a different social circle and broaden my horizons," she said.

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