Scholarships, simulators and satellites: students set the pace at Ru'ya 2026

Dubai: At Ru'ya 2026, some of the busiest people on the floor weren't recruiters. They were students, who had lots of questions, plans and plenty of energy. 

Take Moza Khitbi, a 17-year old high school senior who showed up with a bunch of friends and a mission. Medicine? Engineering? They were open to everything. They stopped at various kiosks, asking about scholarships, how long each degree takes and exactly what they need to get in. By the end, they said they finally understood what their next steps look like. “I am going to focus on my grades first, language tests next, and then on to university,” she told Gulf News.

Her current subjects are biology, maths, chemistry and physics, so the science route looks promising and no wonder they were hovering around the Dubai Health booth, asking away.

Nearby, another student named Adazak had competition on his mind. He was competing in the Rubu' Qarn Science & Technology hackathon, where the challenge is to build a business idea that makes workplaces less stressful. But he was not there just for the trophy. He was scouting jobs, too. Adazak has another 2 years still before he joins the workforce. 

He found the pilots at the Emirates booth along with a simulator and was intrigued. While flying wasn’t one of his career choices he did want to get a sense of what it takes to be up in the sky.

For students whose dreams are a little further out, there was the National Space Academy, one of the fair's STEM partners. The academy aims to build young Emiratis' expertise in space science and technology. Showcasing their work were Khalid and Abdelaziz Alhammadi, who’ve put together WATAN SAT, an environmental monitoring satellite, that can monitor pollution and environmental changes in the Arabian Gulf and waters surrounding the UAE. The data would go to a ground station and a live dashboard. The team says it was inspired by the disruption to Gulf shipping this year. 

What ties these students together is curiosity. They are not collecting freebies. They are asking employers, "How do I get where you are?" and universities, "What will it take?" For a generation with more choices than ever, Ru'ya is where the guesswork ends and the game plan begins.