“Where are you from?” I ask one of the many young Asian men populating the sparkling campus of Amity University, Dubai, where I am on a tour of the self-styled premier destination for higher education in the region – Dubai International Academic City (DIAC).
“India,” San tells me – informing me he is 20 years old and studying BBA, a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.
“How long have you been in Dubai?” I ask – and his answer is indicative of one reason for Dubai’s development as the international education hub it intends to be. “Fifteen years,” he tells me. “But I’m not Emirati, because I’ll never get an Emirati passport.”
San is essentially a local, raised in the Middle Eastern melting pot that is the UAE – he is Indian but also an international citizen of Dubai. He intends to join his father in the family business of oil exploration technology after his studies, and it seems many of his course mates will also join Dubai-based family firms upon graduation.
The UAE and particularly Dubai has attracted millions of migrants (many Asian) who saw their future in the commercial Mecca of the Middle East. For their progeny to receive an international education here before moving into business is a logical leap in a country that is 91% migrant and more international than most.
San, right, epitomises the local international student studying at DIAC
DIAC has boomed, accordingly, since its set-up in 2007 by TECOM Investments, which owns and operates a number of business parks catering to different sectors: education (it also operates the precursor to DIAC, Dubai Knowledge Village); ICT; media; sciences; and manufacturing & logistics.
According to Leigh Ann Jones-Khosla, Director of Business Development at DIAC, the campus is currently educating one-third of the 40-45,000 high school students who graduate from the UAE each year.
At present, 76% of all students at DIAC are from the UAE and 24% are international, and yet its local intake is highly international too. It is also an HE “free zone”, home to foreign-owned campuses who either rent premises from DIAC or lease land and build their own campus, as well as paying an annual licence fee of 15,000 Dirhams (UK£2,700).
They number 26 and hail from 11 countries. Many are well known, such as University of Wollongong in Australia, Heriott Watt University in the UK, India-headquartered Amity University, Michigan State University in the USA and global business school, SP Jain (which incidentally recruits the highest proportion of its student body from overseas – 76%).
With “100% foreign ownership; 100% tax-free operations; 100% repatriation of profits and effortless visa and licensing issuance procedures for students, faculty and staff”, DIAC can offer sound commercial motivations for universities keen to venture into the Middle East and recruit students from a new regional base.
“We get express visas for our students within three days”
And with domestic and many Asian and African students interested in pursuing privately-funded higher education in the UAE – 65% of UAE residents would consider a private education, reports Jones-Khosla (based on a Parthenon Group report), while 20% of Emirati students at DIAC are government-sponsored – there seems to be safe prospects in terms of demand.
Jones-Khosla cites Manipal University from India as a success story. Opening in 2003 in Dubai Knowledge Village and the first institution to move over to DIAC when it opened in 2007, Manipal has gone from teaching 63 students across four programmes in 2003, to 2,000 students across 25 programmes.
The immaculate campus is home to a number of Western brands such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee
Amity University Dubai, another successful tertiary export out of India, has big ambitions for growth. Narayanan Ramachandran, Pro Vice Chancellor, tells me that the institution is moving to a larger campus to accommodate its intake, which is expected to rise from 400 students (in its second year of recruitment) to “not less than 5,000” in the next five years.
“Everyone is fascinated by the city of gold,” says Mariam Shaikh, Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Recruitment at Amity, when asked what attracts international students to study here. She cites its safety, easy visa access and position as an economic hub as central attractions.
“Visas play a significant role – we get express visas for our students within three days and regular standard visas within 10 days,” she adds. [more>>]
For another student, Diom, from Cameroon, it was definitely commercial allure that brought him to Dubai to study at the local campus of Australia’s Murdoch University.
“I thought of Dubai and I thought it would be good to be at the forefront of a country that is an emerging economy,” the BComm in Management student says, underlining that he is “interested in business”.
As for his choice of Murdoch (which like all institutions here operates under a licence and “in partnership with” the Knowledge and Human Development Authority), he says it seemed to place a lot of emphasis on diversity.
“I saw a lot of students from different countries so immediately I felt at home,” he tells me. “There were a lot of African students here. And I had never heard of Kazakhstan before, but now I have got to know it!”
Diom from Cameroon and Sanjina, Dubai-born but Indian, both studying at Murdoch University
At Amity, Shaikh pinpoints Africa as a key recruitment region, after Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Asia. She says she is soon to visit Nigeria, and interest has been noted from Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Recently returned from Kurdistan, “where Indian education is highly esteemed”, she smiles and states, “We have lots of ambitious plans and a lot of support from our home campus [in India].”
Jones-Khosla confirms that of the 15,000 students DIAC has seen graduate so far, most hail from Asia (84%) and Africa (9%) – although 140 nationalities have passed through in total. She is emphatic about the reason for them studying in Dubai: “For students from GCC Countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) and the Asian sub-continent, the number-one reason is ability to get a job,” she states.
“The number-one reason is ability to get a job”
DIAC in fact commissioned Deloitte to produce a Regional Workforce Study which was unveiled this month. This research will be used to orient ongoing development of the education hub to ensure that graduates can plug skills gap required in the region.
Says Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director of TECOM Investments’ Education Cluster: “Armed with this [research], DIAC can refocus its efforts to ensure it is fostering the growth of an education industry that is geared towards the needs of business and a diversified UAE economy.
“We will be able to screen potential academic partners using this evidence in order to emphasise that the courses offered are relevant and serve the needs of business.”
Emmanuel Durou, Consulting Director at Deloitte Middle East, explains that the UAE is forging a reputation in certain industries – such as hospitality and tourism – but other workforce needs were not being met. “There remain some important workforce supply and demand gaps in a number of industries including energy and healthcare,” he notes.
Islamic Azad University (IAU) is one of 26 institutions based at DIAC
Shaikh at Amity concurs on the point that universities at DIAC want to build reputations for being career-focused. “We make all our graduates ready for the workforce in Dubai, organising work placements even when they are studying,” she says, relating that global companies (such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Intercontinental Hotel Group) are coming to campus to recruit Amity graduates. In particular, their hospitality & tourism graduates, “as many as we can give!”.
There has been criticism levelled in some quarters about the maturity of the academic environment in Dubai, and in terms of evolution, DIAC still only offers a fledgling range of programmes. Jones-Khosla notes that it is trying to foster a better research culture and will look at encouraging more PhD programmes on campus. Amity is investing in state-of-the-art laboratories for scientific degree programmes, notes Ramachandran.
Developing better critical thinking and problem solving among Emirati students was also required
Pro Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University, Dubai, Professor John Grainger, acknowledged during a session at the Going Global conference that developing better critical thinking and problem solving among Emirati students was also required – as was a need to foster a culture of lifelong learning.
But with job placement rates cited at 100% in some cases (SP Jain) and often 80% and above, Dubai is succeeding in positioning itself as an education hub that has employment aspirations and international outlook firmly embedded in its ethos.
Sanjina, another Murdoch University student born to migrant Indian parents in Dubai, told me, “I wanted to take an international degree because I belong to Dubai. I will definitely stay here.”
