Universities in Australia gaining popularity among Middle Eastern students
Universities in the US and UK have long been among the top choices for UAE students heading abroad to study. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, many international students withdrew from American colleges because they felt US perceptions of them had changed and because visa requirements became tougher.
In 2004, international enrolments in the US had their first absolute decline for the first time since 1971, after the smallest increase in 2003, according to the Institute of International Education. Enrolment from the Middle East dropped 9 per cent and from the UAE it declined 15 per cent.
“Dubai, Sydney, Singapore—all these three cities, for all the right reasons, are on a growth tangent. That’s where the synergy comes in. They are growing economies with great opportunities and conducive business environments. We are crafting global business leaders”
As students, cast around for other options, it was universities and colleges in Australian and New Zealand that benefitted, gaining popularity among Middle Eastern students.
Currently, about 1,000 students from the UAE study in Australia annually, according to Gerard Seeber, Consul General and Senior Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and North Africa at the Australian Consulate General in Dubai.
Declines at US colleges have since reversed but the emerging prominence of Australian institutions in academic league tables is helping to keep interest high, according to Struan Robertson, regional relations manager for South East Asia and Middle East at Swinburne University of Technology. “We continually have more and more universities creeping up to the top end of the rankings and I think that’s becoming more and more recognised among Middle Eastern students,” he says.
Robertson has made six visits to the UAE in 18 months to establish links with colleges there. And while Swinburne does not currently have any specific programmes in the UAE, initial links typically lead to student exchange programmes and, over the longer term, joint degree programmes, he says.
As well as the students who head to Australia to study, many are also opting to matriculate at Australian universities that have campuses in the UAE.
One of the most established Australian universities is the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), which has been in the city for more than two decades. The university launched in 1993 with seven students. This academic year, it has 4,000 students. UOWD now has 7,000 alumni, of which about 1,200 are Emiratis – many of whom now have senior jobs in government and industry in the UAE.
“UOWD has built very strong ties between the UAE and Australia,” says Mohammed Salem, acting president of the UOWD. “The fact that the university has that many alumni has given us a very strong presence in the picture here in the UAE. These people know the Australian system through the university and they are really looking at Australia as a strong partner.”
According to the UOWD website, the external advisory board in the UAE has members that include Mohamed Al-Shamisi, the acting chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports Company; Shaima Al-Zarooni, the chief executive of International Humanitarian City; and Mahmood Al-Bastaki, the CEO of Dubai Trade FZE.
“You can feel that interest whenever we have government officials here from Australia,” Salem says. “The feeling of the need to engage with them; they really want to collaborate with Australia.”
Seeber also recognises the important of cultivating graduates and plans to start an alumni network in the UAE for people who have studied Australian universities following the “good success” of a similar scheme in Saudi Arabia.
“The [alumni] that we speak to—they’ve all had a really positive time so we sort of try and make contact with them and [explore] how we can jointly benefit from their education experience: what they have learnt and how they are applying it here,” he says.
Another of the Australian schools that has a campus in Dubai is the SP Jain Global School of Management (which though Indian in origin, now has Australian legal status). It set up here in 2004, just after Dubai announced its ambitions to become a hub for education and established Dubai Knowledge Village. The MBA course taught there was one of the first full-time MBA courses in the region. “It was a huge hit,” says Christopher Abraham, the head of the SP Jain campus in Dubai.
Since then, it has gone on to establish branches in Singapore (2006) and Sydney (2009) and offers the first multi-city MBA globally. “Dubai, Sydney, Singapore—all these three cities, for all the right reasons, are on a growth tangent,” Abraham says. “That’s where the synergy comes in. They are growing economies with great opportunities and conducive business environments. We are crafting global business leaders.”
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