The UK's higher education watchdog, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, has found only two of 11 UK campuses in the UAE are "readily recognisable" branch campuses. It has warned providers not to mislead students about what is being offered offshore and advises that providers "do more to introduce a UK academic culture".
A Canadian university campus in Dubai Knowledge Village that allowed an unlicensed Iranian university to operate from its premises has closed, leaving around 100 students to look for alternative campuses on which to complete their studies.
UK immigration rule changes were announced last week by new Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, which include the rubberstamping of a 12-month internship scheme for Chinese students in the UK at the top 211 universities. Nationals from UAE, Oman and Qatar are now also deemed low-risk.
Almost a third of the world's international school students study in the Middle East, research has shown. The region is home to 1,213 of the world's 7,016 English-medium international schools, teaching over 1 million students.
We want to start looking at delivering English language plus soft skills. And we’re also looking at India, we’ll be the first organised company that will actually market Indian universities overseas, to send students from the MENA region to study in India.
Dubai’s stature as an international education hub was reinforced this month, after data showed overall growth of 24% at its Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV) and Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) education business parks. In 2012, a further 80 partners signed up to the parks – although the number that were actual educators is unclear.
With good rates of local enrolment and strong demand from Asian and African students in particular, Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) is evolving into the regional higher education hub it wants to be. DIAC is clear on how it will develop in the future – building and expanding its range of HE programming to complement its current offer from 26 resident institutions and directly feed into the skills needs of the Middle East. Amy Baker reports.
Indian, Emirati and international educators will go head to head at major education fair this month, in a bid to tap the large expatriate Indian community living in the Gulf. 65 Indian and 100 regional and international institutions will attend the International Education Show, Sharjah.
