The Dh12 billion Dubai Education Council project aims to give expatriates a valid reason to stay, educate their children in the UAE and feel at home.
Dubai has changed, not just in developmental growth but in attitudes. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is the driving force spearheading that change.
The expatriate workforce is no longer considered a necessity but instead a talent pool that needs to be nurtured and catered to.
The idea of a knowledge-based economy is not new, but Shaikh Mohammad is ensuring it is well understood and implemented.
One of the many steps in that direction is the Dubai Academic City, a project being implemented under the chairmanship of the Dubai Education Council.
READY IN 2012
The 129 million square foot campus will offer education to more than 150,000 students by 2012, when the development will be complete.
The first set of five universities including Zayed University, Dubai Men's College, and Heriot-Watt University will open for teaching in September.
Currently there are 22,000 students studying in more than 30 universities in Dubai. The Dubai Academic City will allow students from around the region to study, live and work within its environment - a quality education destination that will create students who can fulfil the needs of the job market.
"We are ready ... we have to stop importing talent," said Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman of the Dubai Education Council.
He said the authorities would like to retain the expatriate workforce that is already in the country and producing.
"They are here and are contributing members ... we have to be able to offer their children quality education choices, so they remain in the country. And this continues ... UAE, for many expatriates, becomes like their home," he said.
He said they are working towards ensuring that the talent pool in the country stays in the UAE, rather than travelling out and losing it to immigration.
DRAINING OF KNOWLEDGE
"The region suffers from a clear deficiency in strong academic institutions that are able to provide quality education that can compete globally. This results in a noticeable drain of human resources in search of better educational opportunities in other countries."
One of the many ways to ensure this is prevented is by offering quality education and programmes that are well suited to the job market in the UAE and the region at large.
They will also allow students to find part-time jobs to help them fund their education and create more opportunities for talented young people to study, find good jobs and make a place in the UAE.
"It is a unique experiment for us, allowing students to work. We are still learning from it," Bin Byat said.
"Skilled labour is the core of human development ... almost one third of the population of the Middle East and North Africa is below 15 years of age. The potential benefit that can be gained from this young generation depends on the availability of educational opportunities that cater to the actual needs of the job market."
The projection is the creation of 100 million jobs in the region by 2020, which translates to around 6 million jobs a year.
Byat said, with this in mind the programmes that will be on offer in the Dubai Academic City would be well tailored to the labour market's needs.
He said: "Construction, urban development, hospitality, transport ... and the other sectors will offer greater job opportunities to students."
They will work towards an extensive cooperation with industry, to allow students more opportunities for internships, work placements, research and on-campus recruitment.
"Scholarships, recruitment ... we will actively encourage that," he added.
Dubai Academic City will also put special emphasis on research-based programmes, as that will help in both development and in creating students who can help take the nation forward.
SMALLER RATIOS
Currently there are nine top universities at Dubai Knowledge Village offering students a cross-section of programmes.
Dr Abdullah Al Karam, CEO of the Dubai Knowledge Village, said: "With Dubai Academic City we are trying to create an environment where there will be many top universities offering programmes to a limited number of students.
"Massive universities are not the way forward. This means smaller classrooms, a high student-teacher ratio, quality education and numerous university choices."
They do not have a definite number of universities that will eventually have branch campuses in the Dubai Academic City.
The kind of universities that will set up home in the new facility will range from medium-level to elite educational institutions, offering a spectrum of programmes.
NO CEILING ON FEES
This will mean varying fee structures.
Bin Byat said the Dubai Education Council would only fulfil its role of ensuring a certain benchmark of quality; the cost structure will be dependent on the institution itself.
There will be institutions that will offer larger programmes at lower costs and top universities offering expensive courses.
"The cost of education ... overall, will be in the medium range," Bin Byat said.
Dubai Academic City will offer residential facilities to students and faculty, although Bin Byat said they would prefer that the individual organisations facilitate that.
Their commitment to the Dh12 billion project is worth Dh1 billion, especially in terms of setting up the infrastructure and the facilities that will allow the institutes to function, interact and offer students the latest in educational environments.
This ultimately brings us to the question of quality control, especially in light of the recent happenings at Dubai Knowledge Village related to the University of Southern Queensland. Accreditation is a huge problem.
The Dubai Education Council's answer to that is to have quality checks carried out at regular intervals by the mother campus of the branches being set up at Dubai Academic City. They are working on setting up similar quality controls on the school system.
"We have signed up with authorities in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Switzerland to ensure the schools are operating within the specific quality standards of the curriculum they are offering. We are ensuring there are regular checks by inspectors."
Bin Byat implied that a similar quality check system would be implemented for the higher educational institutions operating in Dubai Academic City. This means only branch campuses with established international identities can open there, not individual universities.
QUALITY CONTROL
He said: "The local universities will follow the Ministry of Higher Education guidelines for accreditation and quality control."
When asked about the problem of poor standard of Arabic among expatriate students and a similar poor competency in English among UAE national students studying in the public sector, he said they were addressing that also.
"We are dealing with it in a horizontal manner, not vertical ... a student can present a mathematics class in Arabic in the case of expatriates and similarly a biology class in English in case of national students."
Bin Byat explained the aim is to raise the overall quality of the student, rather than just tackle it as a singular issue of subject competence.
As development goes, in the future, Dubai Knowledge Village will serve more as an environment for institutes that offer professional training programmes, while the higher education institutes will be housed in Dubai Academic City.
As the project develops and evolves, it promises to give young people in the region a more than fair shot at quality education and good employment opportunities to lead a quality life.
WHAT DOES THE PROJECT MEAN FOR STUDENTS?
- The 129 million square foot campus will offer education to more than 150,000 students by 2012, when the development will be complete.
- The Dubai Academic City will allow students from around the region to study, live and work within its environment - a quality education destination that will create students who can fulfil the needs of the job market.
- They will also allow students to find part-time jobs to help them fund their education and create more opportunities for talented young people to study, find good jobs and make a place in the UAE.
- The projection is the creation of 100 million jobs in the region by 2020, which translates to around 6 million a year. With this in mind the programmes that will be on offer at Dubai Academic City would be well tailored to the labour market's needs.
- Construction, urban development, hospitality, transport ... and the other sectors that will offer greater job opportunities to students will be the focus of the programmes to be available at DAC.
- Scholarships, recruitment will be actively encouraged.
- There will be many top universities offering programmes to a limited number of students.
The kind of universities that will set up home in the new facility will range from medium-level to elite educational institutions.
- There will be varying fee structures, with the overall cost being in the medium range.
- Quality checks will be carried out at regular intervals by the mother campus of the branches being set up at Dubai Academic City. This means only branch campuses with established international identities can open up there, not individual universities.
