Live-in facilities could attract int’l students to Dubai universities
dubai — Free zones and university campuses across Dubai are being urged to provide accommodation infrastructure for students, to help push forward its bid to attract more international undergraduates to the city.
In the past, the demand for student accommodation has been low here. But as the number of students in higher education continues to grow — at an average of 10 per cent annually — so too is the demand for livein options.
Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Higher Education Forum at IPSEF on Thursday, Dr Warren Fox, Chief of Higher Education at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), said it is gaps like this that universities should be looking to fill.
“One of the difficulties that our students face is cost of living, housing and transportation. So we are encouraging the free zones themselves to bring in providers of housing and we’re advising campuses to build their own accommodation.”
At present, around 30 per cent of the 60,000 students in Dubai are made up of international stu-
We are encouraging the free zones to bring in providers of housing and we’re advising campuses to build their own accommodation. Dr Warren Fox, Chief of Higher Education, KHDA
dents. But with this demographic pitted as one of the biggest areas for growth in the higher education sector, it is the demands of these students that need to be addressed.
Although on-site living is a “relatively new concept” in Dubai, Fox said it is something which has the huge support of the KHDA.
To date, only a handful of international branch campus universities in Dubai offer accommodation on-site, including Amity University and Heriot-Watt University.
And in a previous interview with Khaleej Times, a spokesperson from Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai said the city’s recent growth in the sector meant student housing hadn’t quite “caught up with the demand”. Couple that with the UAE’s strict rental laws and payment requirements, it was putting overseas students off studying here.
kelly@khaleejtimes.com
Dubai continues to push its bid to attract more international students to further strengthen the burgeoning higher education sector here – with Chinese nationals firmly in its eye line.
Of the 60,000 university students in Dubai today, just 30 per cent account for international enrollments.
Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Higher Education Forum, Jitin Sethi, senior vice president, Parthenon-EY said overseas students are one of the biggest areas for growth for Dubai-based universities. “Recognising the right student profile is crucial here. It will be significantly tougher to focus those efforts on the US, UK, or Australia, purely because of their well-established higher education reputation. These universities need to appeal to students who want a quality education which is price sensitive.”
The UAE’s strong business relationship with China, as well as its growing Chinese expat population, means it makes sense for campuses to focus largely on Chinese students.
“China has one of the biggest exports when it comes to sending students overseas for studies, but many of them return to China to upstart businesses. Dubai is much closer to their home; it has the English-driven education system they are after, at a lower price. It is a market that needs to be tapped, and I think this is something we will see happen over the next five years.”
With international branch campuses from 12 different countries already established in Dubai, and five campuses newly-opened this year including University of South Wales, Curtin University, Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, Birmingham University and Abu Dhabi University in Dubai, Dubai has shown the world it can become a leading global business hub, so “now it is leveraging this success to attract international students”. reporters@khaleejtimes.com