Are mixed classes a growing trend in the UAE as single-gender institutions begin admitting small batches of students of the opposite gender? Amelia Naidoo and Rania Moussly explore the issue.
Single-gender universities and colleges have always had a strong presence on the UAE education landscape. For reasons that include culture, religion and course offerings, students and parents have preferred an all-female or all-male education environment.
But as single-gender institutions such as Zayed University and the Higher Colleges of Technology have recently started admitting members of the opposite gender and as private universities mushroom across the country, will co-education become more prevalent in the future? Notes seeks the views of students from single-gender and co-education institutions, higher education officials and experts on the matter.
"There are some men in our college and they are studying science and paramedics in the same class with girls," says Dubai Women's College (DWC) student Shamma Ahmad matter-of-factly. The 25-year-old business and IT major has never studied with male students and often sees them wandering the halls of DWC.
Shamma is in favour of co-education and believes DWC could benefit from it. "Classes should be with males because studying with them makes us more confident and relaxed when we go into the workplace," says Shamma.
However, she points out a few problems.
"There are some girls who are shy because they usually remove their sheila and abaya if it gets too hot in the classroom. Imagine what the class will be like if there is a male!"
Shamma believes both co-education and single-gender options should be available as conservative families may prefer the latter.
"In my opinion mixed education should only be in college," says Huda Ahmad, 19, of DWC. "When young people sit together in the classroom many things can happen but in college you know right from wrong. You are mature."
Second-year DWC student Ayesha Salem says she isn't shy around foreign males such as DWC teachers but would be extremely withdrawn among Emirati lecturers and colleagues.
Mohsem Al Awadhi, an aviation engineering student at Dubai Men's College (DMC), says he doesn't have a problem with co-education, "but it's also got to do with culture."
"In the UAE it's a little bit difficult because the culture does not allow such things," he says.
Even at DMC there are a handful of female students earning bachelor degrees. This has evoked a mixed response from the male students.
"Some of them really approve of it because many of the guys don't know how to act with the other gender. Some of them are so shy and don't know how to talk to females," says Al Awadhi, adding that students who were more conservative did not approve of the presence of females on campus, including female lecturers.
Muntazir Shabbir, 18, is studying business at the American College of Dubai. Having been to a segregated high school, he compared the two experiences. "Say you were giving a presentation to an all-boys class, you wouldn't make much effort or care how it turned out; but giving a presentation in a mixed class, as a guy, you feel the need to impress and show them [the girls] you're smart and hardworking."
Juwana Mustafa, 17, a mass communications student at Middlesex University Dubai, feels girls are much the same. "There is no problem if girls and boys interact ... and everyone is just all friends& it's separation that causes them to do bad things like skipping classes" so that they could meet each other, said Juwana.
David Tokuta, 28, studying animation at the SAE institute, believes interaction between the genders is important and mixed learning strikes a balance. He admits that in a learning environment the presence of the opposite gender can be distracting, but does not see it affecting the learning process. He feels segregation encourages abnormal behaviour, with graduates finding it difficult to interact with the opposite gender on "a professional as well as social level".
Roudha Bel Jaflah, 21, an Emirati national, has experienced both environments. The business marketing student at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), says: "In an all girls university you will find they [girls] all have the same opinions. There is nothing much to talk about, but here [UOWD], I've had the opportunity to learn from other people's traditions."
Eman Bin Mes'har, 20, also a UAE national studying business at UOWD, believes a mere five years ago the cultural mindset would never have accepted her, as a national, attending a co-educational university. However, as Dubai has grown and become more cosmopolitan, traditional society has been obliged to broaden its thinking.
Both Roudha and Eman spoke of adjustment problems they faced while dealing with male peers. "At first it was hard talking to guys. Later, I found they weren't as threatening as I'd thought," said Roudha.
"I was shy at first. I didn't know how to approach or how to talk to them. I felt awkward& every time a classmate would talk to me, I thought he was making advances& it turned out to be not as bad as I'd thought," said Eman.
Education officials agree that students should be provided with as many choices as possible, but that they should be based on culture, comfort levels and tradition.
"We do have a few male students in the paramedic programme," says DWC director Dr Howard Reed. "It was a bit provocative and not everybody liked it in the beginning. Because of the rude treatment that the male students received from the female students, the male students were not too sure about it either!"
Since then things have settled down, Reed says.
According to him the popularity of single-gender education in the UAE is based on tradition. "It's not like in countries like America where women's colleges are struggling. This is because single-gender education has become the anomaly rather than the mainstream."
"But obviously there are UAE national students who are going to co-ed institutions so I think they tend to self select," Reed adds. "It's not everybody's thing but it needs to be a strong option for any young woman or man."
DWC associate director Dr Behjat Al Yousuf says parents shop around for what fits their children's needs as "one size does not fit all".
"Women schools address more women's needs and issues. For example men may dominate the environment with the girls at the back. With single-gender universities girls are at the same level and have the opportunity to practice and excel."
The University of Sharjah (UOS) is unique in many ways says university chancellor Professor Samy Mahmoud and the terms single-gender and co-ed don't really apply.
The university has 13 colleges with its medical colleges - medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and health sciences - and the College of Fine Arts and Design being coeducational. Other classes are segregated by gender.
"That's because we adopted a very novel and effective style of teaching in the medical faculties. Students from year one ... get training in hospital in parallel to their education so naturally in this case men and women will receive their education together because there is no segregation in hospitals," Mahmoud says.
Additionally there are seminars and conferences that male and female students attend together. UOS has three cafeterias - one male, one female and one mixed.
American University of Sharjah chancellor Dr Peter Heath says there are strengths and weaknesses in both models. He says in single gender classes there is less distraction while in the co-educational system, there is a tendency to focus on male students at the cost of their female peers.
For example, says Heath, if there are two males and two females answering a question in class, somehow the males get the attention, which is a concern.
On the other hand, 80 per cent of what you gain at university comes from outside the classroom through discussions, extracurricular events and working on projects together. "Interaction can only be enriched if you have a diversity of viewpoints."
Raymi van der Spek, vice-president of administration at UOWD says: "We believe in the model of co-education and we see its advantages because we are preparing them for a life in the workforce as employable graduates."
President of the American University in Dubai (AUD) Dr Lance E. de Masi says "the greatest advantage of a coeducational institution is the opportunity it affords for student socialisation to respectful and productive interface between the genders, just as it occurs in society at large."
De Masi continues that co-education is particularly valuable when other variables such as culture, religion, and race are also present at the campus level.
Transitioning into the workplace
Asked whether graduates from single-gender institutions are at a disadvantage when they enter the workplace, Reed responds that it depends on the opportunities people have had to interact with the opposite gender.
Yousuf says DWC students are exposed to work placement opportunities. "We strongly believe in partnering with industry and exposing them to the reality of life as early as we can... We feel they are well prepared to enter a mixed-gender environment."
De Masi says it is a "gross generalisation" to assume graduates from same-gender institutions are at a disadvantage in the workplace, arguing that the system has been responsible for the education of many successful individuals in the West.
According to Heath, "if one is going to have a competitive equality among them [men and women] then the more experience they have in interacting with each other at the university level the more beneficial for students".
In a co-educational environment students learn to exchange views and cooperate on group projects giving them the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of peers and become comfortable working with members of the opposite gender, says Becky Kilsby, career development manager at Middlesex University, Dubai. "This prepares them for the realities of the workplace."
Shamma says she didn't face any problems during her work experience at the immigration department. "It was a mixed environment. My boss kept me with a lady because he thought I would be sensitive to work with men. I told him 'no, it's okay'."
Ayesha's experience was slightly different. "I went to work at the Ajman municipality with a family member and there were mostly males. I couldn't handle that - I just wanted to sit and look down at the floor. I was just too shy."
However, she has gained more confidence since her first foray into the working world because DWC has properly prepared them she says.
Al Awadhi sums things up. "At end of the day when you graduate, you will go to an environment with mixed genders and culture," he says.
Mahmoud believes an education system must cater to a variety of interests and backgrounds and that it usually evolves in a pragmatic way. "When it makes sense, people take their education together. When there is no reason, people have it separately," he says. The main aim is to produce world class students and not be overly concerned with slogans of co-education and segregation.
Heath supports the view. "I sense a gradual tendency to experiment where it makes sense. You also start looking at the cost, unless you're a well-funded institution, when you have two small classes, even at an undergraduate level, it makes more sense to combine them."
Reed says co-education is not one of DWC's strategic objectives "but you never know what may happen". He says: "It would have to be a strategy that comes from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and also hearing from parents that it's time now to take down these single gender walls."
He feels that as the number of private institutions increase, enrolment in single-gender institutions will go down.
Van der Spek believes there is no clear evidence to show that a particular model of education is becoming more popular. "Enrolment is growing in all areas of the UAE. Some of them are segregated and some are not."
