The six member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman – are undergoing a huge development in their higher education landscape that has attracted major American, British and Australian universities.
In line with their booming private sectors, higher education is seeing exponential growth in the number of private institutions.
The GCC is already pushing its plans to increase private sector involvement in order to bring its nationals up to international standards. Each GCC state is pursuing its own tactic to tackle its educational reform plans.
As the GCC population has risen dramatically since the Sixties, around 64 percent of the population is under 16 years of age. During the Nineties, the governments focused most of their resources on primary and secondary levels, but in the last 10 years, the demand for higher education has grown fast and has not yet been fully met.
All the GCC nations are pouring billions of dollars into expanding their private higher education institutions as a solution to their educational plans.
In the past five years Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have all opened their first private universities, with strong public support from their governments. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, more than $22b. has been assigned for education and human resource development, and this commitment has spread out across the GCC.
The main characteristic of the higher education sector is the general adoption of the American university model as the sole standard. American accreditation is highly sought after where a quality university program must be as American as possible, from its American name to its curriculum.
Among the dozens of private universities that have been built in the region, it would be hard to find a single one that is not either in partnership or affiliated with an American university.
There are 15 American universities currently operating in the GCC. Some critics say these universities are only seeking profit, while the majority has welcomed this trend in the GCC.
According to The New York Times, Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican criticized the rush overseas, saying, “A lot of these educators are trying to present themselves as benevolent and altruistic, when in reality, their programs are aimed at making money.”
The recent step by Cornell University to set up a medical school campus in Qatar has received much interest, and some high-profile projects are still underway involving American, Canadian, British and Australian universities.
Many U.S. experts see this global drive as having a direct benefit, where these programs can actually ease friction between countries and cultures. At the same time, others agree that overseas programs can help American universities raise their profiles, and eventually attract top research talents.
Despite the fact that the Gulf’s wealth has drawn many American universities to establish their campuses in the oil-rich Gulf, some experts are surprised that American universities did not show any interest in attending the last Gulf Higher Education Exhibition (GHEDEX) in Oman, while Canadian universities actively participated.
UAE and Qatar
Both Qatar and the UAE have announced ambitious plans to become the regional base for world-class higher education.
Qatar has five major U.S. universities, with campuses including Weill Cornell Medical College and Texas A&M University, with a sixth on the way. Showing its desire to attract the best universities, the Qatar Foundation pays the set-up cost of the university.
Qatar’s flagship project is Education City, just outside Doha, where branches of international universities are offering identical graduate courses to those offered in their home country. Each has a different program: Virginia Commonwealth University offers art and design; Weill Cornell Medical College offers medicine; Texas A&M University offers engineering; Carnegie Mellon University offers computer science and business administration; Georgetown University offers international relations, and Northwestern University, due to open this year, will offer journalism and communication programs.
According to the website of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, tuition fees are the same as charged at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Qatari citizens admitted to any course at Education City are awarded full tuition scholarships from the Supreme Education Council or are sponsored by Qatari corporations. Non-Qatari citizens are considered for merit scholarships or can apply to the Qatar Foundation for need-based loans up to 100 percent of tuition and fees.
Of the 1,000 students taking courses at Education City, half are Qataris. Qatar University is now teaching some courses in English and has recruited new international faculty members to reach international standards.
In the UAE George Mason, a public university in Fairfax, Virginia, arrived in the Ras Al-Kheimah in 2005 with a language program intended to help students achieve college-level English skills. The Ras Al-Kheimah students include Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Indians, Iraqis, Lebanese and Syrians, but unfortunately, George Mason has attracted few citizens from the emirates.
New York University is planning to open its new campus in Abu Dhabi soon. Both NYU and NYU-Abu Dhabi are aiming to be among the world’s top 10 universities by 2020. Abu Dhabi is promising to reimburse the New York University Campus for whatever it loses; so far neither side has put a price tag on this exciting plan.
Another player in Abu Dhabi, the University of Washington, offers short courses to citizens of the emirates, mostly women, in a government job-training program. In Dubai, Michigan State University and Rochester Institute of Technology will offer classes soon. A number of such universities already exist in the UAE, while more are in progress.
The American University in Sharjah, founded in 1977, is offering programs in engineering and business administration, while the American University in Dubai, founded in 1995, is offering information technology, business administration and interior design programs.
The Dubai government is consulting international experts about setting up a new international university at Dubai Academic City that will cost around $138 million–$500 million.
Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The American University of Kuwait has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, to develop future cooperative projects over the next five years.
In addition, Gulf University for Science and Technology – Kuwait’s first private university, which opened in 2002 – announced that "the University of Missouri at St. Louis is providing the institution with curriculum development assistance, as well as an exchange program.”
In Saudi Arabia the focus is not so much on private universities but on improving the quality of public universities. In 2005 an international collaboration between Virginia Tech and King ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz University (KAU) was formed. King ‘Abdallah Bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz is setting up a new, $2.7-b. public university – King ‘Abdallah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) – where "minds and the ideas of enlightened men and women" are shared without "discrimination." And, for the first time, men and women will study in the same classrooms.
KAUST will open in 2009 and at least 500 students are expected to enroll. Saudi Arabia is keen to reform its education system to cater for private sector needs as 30 percent of the population is under the age of 30. The Kingdom has developed a 25-year education plan – in its final stages – in consultation with international educational experts.
Bahrain and Oman
Bahrain is actively seeking collaboration with international universities. Ahlia University is working with the UK’s Brunel University, which focuses on engineering courses, to offer some of its programs. Gulf University in Bahrain has partnerships with the American University in Cairo, the American Welding Society and the American Society for Quality.
In Oman, the new Al-Mazoun College for Management and Applied Sciences announced on its website that the institution has signed an affiliation with the University of Missouri-Rolla, which has approved its curriculum and syllabuses. Recently, the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, in partnership with America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. (AMIDEAST), hosted the first EducationUSA Showcase at the Embassy. The EducationUSA Showcase aims to highlight educational opportunities to study in America.
In addition, the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) launched by the U.S. Department of State in 2002 to support cooperative efforts in the region has made several partnerships in Oman, including theEnglish Access Micro-scholarship Program between the ministries of Education and Manpower and English language centers in Muscat, Sohar, Salalah and Bureimi, and university partnerships between Sultan Qaboos University and U.S. universities.