Dubai is home for some 70 different universities and it is already on record as having the highest concentration of university branch campuses in the world, with international students coming from 70 different countries. There is no shortage of colleges, universities and branches of foreign universities in Dubai, but time has come for this city to think quality not just quantity when it comes to higher education.
To fully sustain its lead as a global intellectual hub and to implement it’s newly announced 10x initiatives to stay ahead of the crowd with experimental, out-of-the-box future-oriented exponential thinking, Dubai urgently needs at least one home-grown university that eventually makes it into the top 100 universities of the world.
A forward thinking city like Dubai deserves to have its own world class, state-of-the-art university to produce the best of research, accommodate tenured professors and attract local and global talent capable of competing with graduates of the current top 20 universities worldwide.
Dubai does not need more foreign universities or university branches but just one great national university that carries the name, the spirit and the high standard of Dubai. This world class university cannot be imported or bought. It has to be organic and genuinely home-grown while carrying the Dubai/UAE brand.
A great country must have its own great university that truly reflects its rising soft power. One reason why America is a great country is because 17 of the top 20 universities in the world are located in the United States. There is no written hand book on how to build a Harvard-like University. But it is doable and it is a dream worthy of pursuing and it is a challenge to be taken seriously by this city which prides itself on doing the impossible. This one challenge needs to be addressed with full determination today not tomorrow. It is urgent enough and it cannot wait until tomorrow.
The Dubai model has passed the test of sustainability and nothing will put to rest the nagging question of how suitable the Dubai economy is more than having a quality higher education as its future lead sector.
Investing in quality education and bring higher education to international standards is now universally acknowledged as the first item for future success.
A Dubai that has already reached the heights of success in many areas is fully capable of having a Harvard of its own.
If this city, with the full blessing of the whole country, has a working plan to reach Mars by 2021, why cannot it also have a well thought out plan to establish one world-class university? And if Dubai and the UAE are eager to build the first ever city on Mars by 2117, why not invest generously in building one — and if possible several — world-class universities at home where it matters the most? And if Dubai and the UAE can build state-of-the-art infrastructure, the second-biggest and most competitive economy in the region in record time, why cannot it also build a state-of-the-art university?
Massive achievements of the past 40 years have convinced everybody that no one should underestimate Dubai and the UAE. Time and again, the city and the country have delivered the most amazing deliverables. Indeed, once the highly ambitious UAE and the extraordinary city of Dubai take upon themselves a challenge of whatever magnitude, the seemingly impossible becomes mission accomplished nearly instantly.
Learning from Asia
This time around they should take the lead, not from the US which is in disarray these days, or the old continent Europe, but from a rising Asia — especially in places such as Singapore and South Korea.
Hence if Singapore can build its own great university, why can’t Dubai do the same? The National University of Singapore is ranked 24th on the 2016 World University Rankings. Indeed if Seoul can have its own world-class university, why can’t Dubai have one too? The Seoul National University, which was established in 1946, is ranked 72nd in the 2016 World University Rankings. Asian universities should be the role model for Dubai and the UAE. They made it into the top list and Dubai will too.
Building a genuinely home-grown Harvard-like university should be an integral part of the future of the visionary city of Dubai. What distinguishes Dubai is not that it is a city with a vision. It’s a cliché for cities to have a 2020 or 2030 vision these days. Dubai, however, is not a typical city with a vision; it is a visionary city, led by a visionary leader and populated by visionary people.
A visionary city is a city that has lofty dreams. This city is on record as having said ‘I have a dream’. In his best-selling book titled My Vision, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, stated that he wants Dubai to be the Cordoba of its time. For nearly eight centuries Cordoba was the centre for learning and knowledge production. It was the recognised capital of a great civilisation of Andalusia that planted the seeds of enlightenment in Europe.
The visionary city of Dubai is destined to play its role in history. One sure way to do this is not just to have one but several Harvard-like universities that keep it ahead of all cities of the 21st century.
Dr Abdulkhaleq Abdulla is professor of Political Science, chairman of the Arab Council for Social Sciences, theacss.org and a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/Abdulkhaleq_UAE.
