Gulf Arab students turn away from US

Dubai: There has been a marked decrease of Gulf Arab students in the United States, statistics provided by the US embassy in Abu Dhabi have revealed.

The number of students from all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries choosing to study in the US in the academic years that ended in 2004 and 2005 fell 11.6 per cent, or 924 students.

The biggest drop in the percentage of GCC students occurred among Omanis with 20 per cent or 91 students.

The lowest was among Kuwaitis with 6.8 per cent or 126 students, while the biggest drop in the number of students was among Saudis with 486 students, a fall of 13.8 per cent.

The number of students from the UAE in that period dropped by 7.2 per cent from 1,248 to 1,158, while the number of visas issued to students and exchange visitors from the UAE between 2005 and 2006 dropped by 11 - from 1,276 to 1,265.

Statistics also revealed that the number of students from the Middle East and North Africa in the US, which includes Cyprus, Iran, Israel and Turkey, dropped from 42,042 to 35,106, or 16.5 per cent, between the academic years that ended in 2001 and 2005.

Three countries under the Middle East category that showed a rise of students in the US between 2004 and 2005 were Iraq, Palestine and Turkey.

Twenty-two more Iraqis or 15.5 per cent chose to study in the US, while Palestine showed a rise of 7.8 per cent, or 21 students, and the number of Turkish students grew by 8.6 per cent from 11,398 to 12,474.

Turkish students represented the largest group of Middle East students in the US, and Iraqi students represent the smallest, at 142.

Despite the visible decrease in interest of studying in the US among GCC students, the Counsellor for Press and Cultural Affairs at the US embassy, Hilary Olsin-Windecker, said that the United States still welcomed students from Arab countries.

"About 20 per cent of students around the world choose the US for their higher education, and a large number of people from the Middle East study in the US too," she said.

She described the recent detention of a UAE national student in Los Angeles as "very unfortunate" and added that she would ask concerned students to "put things in perspective."

Saif Al Sha'ali, a doctoral candidate in information technology at Claremont University in Los Angeles and a long-time US resident, was returning from a three-month holiday in the UAE when he was held for 26 hours with his wife and three children at Los Angeles International Airport on August 21.

Olsin-Windecker said that parents need not worry about sending their children to the United States.

"There isn't a big chance that such a thing would happen again," she said.

She added that the US embassy would soon announce a new scholarship programme for UAE national graduate students.

"We want to offer graduate students from the UAE the opportunity to study in the US," she said.

Scholars shocked by discrimination

UAE students returning from the United States expressed shock and disappointment at the recent detention of a UAE student at Los Angeles airport.

The students had recently returned from a six-week leadership programme in the US, sponsored by the US Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative, which aims to bring reform in the areas of politics, economics, education and the status of women.

Khadija Abdullah, 21, said such "discrimination" would discourage parents from sending their children to the United States.

Sarah Al Najjar, 20, said that despite appreciating what she learned about America, she would not be comfortable going there for higher education "at this time".

Other students disagreed, saying that they would choose to study in the US if given the opportunity.

However, Mohammad Al Falasi, 17, said his parents had "a problem" with sending him to the US for higher education following the Al Sha'ali incident.