Expanding and enhancing: With strong state support and greater involvement from the private sector, capacity is increasing at all levels

Building a skilled workforce capable of driving a knowledge-based economy is Abu Dhabi’s main goal when it comes to education. In pursuit of this aim, the emirate’s government is making major investments in its schools and universities that are geared towards enhancing the quality and quantity of education for the growing local population. In addition, the private sector is expanding capacity at all levels of schooling, while recent reforms are designed to improve learning outcomes. More generally, education is a priority for the UAE as a whole, with 21% of federal spending under the medium-term draft budget for 2014-16 allocated to public and higher education.

Rising Demand

 With the population growing at an average rate of 8.1% per year between 2005 and 2012, the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary education increased 20.2%, from 258,450 in 2007 to 310,620 in 2011. Across the UAE, enrolment in higher education rose 28% between 2008 and 2011, from 86,090 students to 109,942, according to the Centre for Higher Education Data and Statistics (CHEDS). The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) estimates that over the next seven years the emirate will need more than 100 kindergarten-through-grade 12 (K-12) schools for 115,000 additional students.

Not only is the population growing, but the Abu Dhabi government is also determined to see a higher percentage of nationals complete their education. “The UAE has a very ambitious growth strategy and wants to see 60% of Emiratis graduating from university by 2020. At present, only 12% graduate from a post-secondary institution,” Eric Fouache, vice-chancellor at the Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, told OBG. “Based on the growth rates that the government hopes to achieve, the existing supply of universities is hardly saturated.”

New Standards

 Even as the number of schools increases, regulators are working to improve the quality of schools at every level. The emirate’s plan to diversify the economy away from reliance on hydrocarbons requires a highly skilled workforce and a higher level of participation from Emirati nationals. In an effort to build up the skills base, the government is working with a number of regulators to ensure learning outcomes meet the needs of future employers. Dr Thani Al Mehairi, director-general of the National Qualifications Authority (NQA), said it is crucial for Abu Dhabi to build these skills. “There is an urgent and ongoing need for human development of UAE citizens, as part of the country’s Emiratisation efforts, and also of foreign residents,” Dr Al Mehairi told OBG. “The country must address emerging skills shortages and gaps; increase labour market opportunities for individuals through education and training; and develop policies that improve economic, social and personal competitiveness.”

The NQA is a federal policy body set up in late 2010 to work with relevant entities in establishing a unified national system of qualifications. Introduced in February 2012, the 10-level Qualifications Framework for the Emirates (QFE mirates) is an integrated qualification framework encompassing higher education, vocational education and training, and general education. The authority is now implementing the scheme. Once it is in place, “QFE mirates will deliver consistent and rigorous national qualifications that are required by industry and will also assist the country’s decision-makers to develop strategic education and training policies,”

Dr Al Mehairi said. Full implementation will take some time, as the transition process for existing education and training arrangements will vary by segment.

Other national and local agencies will be responsible for implementing the framework and evaluating school success at each level. While the Ministry of Education (MoE) regulates K-12 education nationwide, ADEC oversees operations at Abu Dhabi’s K-12 schools.

In addition to managing government schools, ADEC regulates the emirate’s growing private school sector by rating institutions, regulating tuition fees and supporting private development.

Post- Secondary Standarts

 The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) is responsible for the UAE’s post-secondary schools, from diploma to PhD programmes. Within the ministry, the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) licenses all higher education institutions in the UAE.

The CAA has also become a regional model, issuing the first standards for e-learning in the GCC. The agency’s methods, for example, are cited explicitly in Oman’s higher education standards and also serve as a reference for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The commission employs teams of foreign experts, which inspect and regulate each institution under its purview, to ensure local accreditation meets international standards.

In recent years, the government at both the emirate and the national level has focused resources on enhanced vocational and technical education. The Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education Training (ACTVET) regulates vocational and training programmes. Under ACTVET, two agencies operate schools at the secondary and tertiary levels, the Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institute (ADVETI) and the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT).

At the national level, a new department of the NQA, the Vocational Education and Training Awards Commission (VETAC), is ramping up operations to regulate the field. The new commission is focused on bringing transparency to currently unregulated areas of the market, including short-term vocational training courses.

K-12 Education

 For the last few years, ADEC has focused on stimulating private sector expansion and improving the quality of government schools at the K-12 level. Private institutions, often supported by ADEC, educate the majority of the student population. While the number of pupils enrolled in government schools increased slightly from 120,410 in 2007 to 124,997 in 2011, the number in private schools went from 138,040 to 185,623 over the same period, according to data from the Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi (SCAD). The percentage of students in private schools was equal to 59.8% of the total in 2011, up from 53.4% four years earlier.

Government Schools

The emirate’s K-12 school system is divided into four stages. Schooling begins at age four, with two years of kindergarten. Cycle 1, or primary school, serves grades one through five; Cycle 2, or middle school, serves grades six through nine; and secondary schools offer grades 10-12. In the 268 public schools run by ADEC, more than three-quarters of the students are nationals.

In 2010, ADEC revised the curriculum and launched “the new school model”. The programme reformed existing teaching methods and implemented a student-centred approach to learning whereby pupils are encouraged to conduct research and think critically. Additionally, the reforms changed the language of instruction for mathematics and science to English, with the goal of improving student proficiency in the language and opening recruitment to Western-trained teachers. “There are many things required of students that were not required before, specifically in English, maths and science,” Hanan Al Sahlawi, strategic communication and media manager at ADEC, told OBG. “There had to be a change to meet the labour demand.”

ADEC initially implemented the reforms in kindergarten through third grade, but has expanded the programme by an additional grade each year, so by the 2013/14 school year pre-school through sixth grade were operating according to the new model. Implementing the model required large investments in retraining existing teachers and hiring new ones. The outcomes have not yet been measured and published, but according to preliminary studies, “there have been some significant advancements”, Al Sahlawi told OBG.

Abu Dhabi is also investing in bringing new technology into classrooms. By 2013, ADEC had provided over 50,000 digital elements (including stories and resources), in addition to textbooks that can be accessed electronically, to the primary school teachers using the new school model. However, the impact of investing in classroom technology is difficult to measure. “All the research shows that technology is only as effective as the teacher using it,” Nilay Ozral, CEO at Aldar Academies, told OBG. To support teachers in integrating the new technology, ADEC employs information and communications technology (ICT) teachers as e-learning facilitators.

Vocational Schools

The government is also working to build up the capacity of technical and vocational secondary schools. ACTVET has a mandate to raise the percentage of nationals enrolled in technical education to 30% by 2017, up from 12% in 2013. Initial expansion of the sector was driven by the government’s campaign to equip Emiratis with the technical skills the economy requires (see analysis).

As a result, students are increasingly interested in pursuing a technical track. In 2012, 5000 nationals applied for 1200 spots at ACTVET schools, for instance. Through its two operating arms, ACTVET is building additional schools to meet the growing demand, with four set to come on-line in 2014. Graduates of ACTVET schools are also doing well in post-secondary education.

Support For Private Schools

Along with reforming government schools, ADEC is working with the private sector to expand overall capacity (see analysis). The private sector has played a growing role in K-12 schooling in Abu Dhabi, which attracts institutions from around the world to serve the diverse local population. Total enrolment in K-12 private schools rose 34.5% between 2007/08 and 2011/12. The growth has provided big returns for some private providers, but the market is segmented both by curriculum and price.

Among the 183 private schools, 46 follow the MoE curriculum, but the others cater to the diverse market for international curricula, the most common being British (36 schools), American (37) and Indian (29). Additionally, parents can also find Iranian, Philippine, French and Japanese schools, to name just a few.

Large international firms have focused expansion on the lucrative British and American school market. Lower fee schools in the range of Dh10,000 ($2722) to Dh20,000 ($5444) a year generally target the emirate’s sizeable Asian population. Many of the schools teaching the Indian curriculum are known as “villa schools”, typically operated out of residential buildings. There were 72 villa schools in Abu Dhabi in 2008, when ADEC began working to move them into properly zoned buildings as part of its efforts to raise education standards across the board. In 2013/14, the number of villa schools had been reduced to 25, with six scheduled for closure by the end of the school year.

Ranking System

While the government has incentivised the growth of private education, ADEC has also adopted increasingly rigorous regulations to manage the rapidly expanding market. “The publication of ADEC inspection outcomes and rankings is good because they have brought more transparency to the schools,” Ozral said. “Not all private schools are rated in Band A.” The ADEC reports lay out specific steps schools should take to improve their rankings, and the regulator has already seen the inspections yield improvements. While results were publicised for the first time in 2013, the inspections have been taking place for four years.

ADEC regulates fees, and at times prevents schools from raising tuition. “It is to ensure that parents are getting what they pay for,” Al Sahlawi of ADEC told OBG. However, some providers worry that this system gives new entrants an unfair advantage, as they can set tuition at current market levels.

Higher Education

The same demographic trends driving increased demand for Abu Dhabi’s K-12 schools have increased enrolment in higher education institutions. “An improved classification and ranking system will help increase awareness regarding the quality of higher education in the UAE,” Tod A Laursen, president of Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KU), told OBG. “An increase in visibility will attract not only international students, but the top multidisciplinary faculty as well.” Across the UAE, enrolment of nationals in institutions ranging from diploma to PhD programmes increased 29% from 2008 to 2011, from 52,577 students to 67,852, according to the latest report from CHEDS, released in November 2012. Slightly more than half of national students attended government-run institutions in that year.

According to a report from Dubai International Academic City in collaboration with Deloitte, the UAE has become the world’s fourth-most-popular destination for expatriate students and the most attractive destination among emerging markets. The nation is home to more branch campuses than any other. The number of foreigners studying in the UAE rose 21% over three years, from 33,513 in 2008 to 42,090 in 2011. In 2012, foreigners made up 38% of the student population in tertiary institutions, and the vast majority of expatriates (93%) study in private schools.

Sector Sructure

 Across the UAE, higher education institutions are regulated and accredited by MoHESR. Abu Dhabi is home to branches of all three federal universities: the University of the United Arab Emirates (UAEU), Zayed University (ZU) and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).

Established in 1976, UAEU is the country’s oldest public higher education institution. Over 13,500 students attended the Al Ain-based school in the 2012/13 school year, and three-quarters of the student body is female. UAEU offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes, and is the only federal institution to offer PhDs.

ZU, founded in 1998 to educate women, today serves more than 9000 men and women at two campuses – one in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai. ZU offers bachelor’s degrees in arts, sciences, business, education, IT and media, along with comparable master’s degrees. HCT has 16 campuses in the UAE, four of them in Abu Dhabi. Founded to provide practical training to UAE nationals, HCT offers diploma and degree programmes.

Private Institutions

 According to the November 2012 report from CHEDS, 20 private institutions were operating in Abu Dhabi, covering a range of disciplines and offering a variety of certificates.

Abu Dhabi’s government provides financial support to a number of these institutions, as part of the effort to increase educational attainment among citizens. According the CHEDS, local governments contributed 15% of the revenues at the UAE’s private institutions in 2011. Of this Dh468m ($127.39m) in funding, the government of Abu Dhabi accounted for 79%.

Much of the funding comes in the form of tuition fees or stipends for national students, but in Abu Dhabi, the government also offers outright institutional support. In line with the goal of improving human capital in industrial fields laid out in the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, the government is particularly supportive of science and technology institutes. KU is owned and funded fully by the emirate, for example. In an effort to attract the best minds, the vast majority of students at the university do not pay fees at present.

KU currently offers bachelor’s degrees in a number of engineering and science disciplines, master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering, nuclear engineering, information security, and international and civil security, in addition to a doctorate degree programme in engineering with the option to specialise in mechanical, aerospace, nuclear, biomedical, electrical and computer, or robotics engineering. In the future, KU plans to expand its offerings.

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology offers master’s of science and PhD programmes with a focus on sustainability at its research-oriented campus in Abu Dhabi. Established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Masdar Institute opened its doors in 2009 with 82 students. In September 2013, the total number of enrolled students reached 417, of which 162 were UAE nationals.

Partnerships

 Given Abu Dhabi’s focus on preparing students for the transition to a knowledge-based economy, the emirate’s higher education institutions often partner with local industry to provide financial support, as well as input on how to align academic offerings with employers’ needs. “By establishing partnerships with the private sector, in the form of exchanging expertise and detailed IT strategy, the government can develop effective programmes for the education and training of locals to support Emiratisation,” said Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi, director-general of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research. “If you look at Economic Vision 2030, the UAE is going to be an industrial country – you need more and more engineers,” Badr Aboul-Ela, the CAA’s director, told OBG. “That is why the government is funding the Petroleum Institute (PI), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and KU.”

The PI, established in 2001 by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), had 1356 students enrolled as of 2012, all of which receive free education in exchange for a commitment to work at ADNOC for a set number of years. The institute’s purpose is crucial to supporting the development of the industry, said PI’s acting president and provost, Ismail A Tag. “Applied research in the sector will help to provide advanced solutions for many of the local challenges associated with enhanced oil recovery methods,” he told OBG. The school aims to expand enrolment to a total of 2000 students in graduate and undergraduate programmes, with a focus on educating nationals, who comprise about 80% of students. In addition to ADNOC, the firm’s upstream and downstream industry partners sponsor PI’s programmes and students, and a total of 16 firms are funding a new research centre at the institute.

Similarly, many of KU’s local students are sponsored by future employers across multiple sectors, including nuclear, telecommunications, security and health care, as well as other employers in government and semi-government entities across the UAE. KU has also created a number of industry partnerships to help fund and guide its research centres.

Having a variety of funding sources for research centres is a good thing, said KU President Laursen. “Research funding should come from various sources to help create an environment whereby universities will be encouraged to compete for resources,” Laursen told OBG. To promote ICT research, the university, along with Etisalat and British Telecom (BT), established the Etisalat-BT Innovation Centre (EBTIC). KU partnered with the Advanced Technology Investment Company, a subsidiary of government-owned investment firm Mubadala Development Company, to create a semiconductor research centre, and partnered with Mubadala Aerospace to found the Aerospace Research Centre. Additionally, the inter-disciplinary research-based Masdar Institute has entered into clean energy and advanced technology research collaboration agreements with several local and overseas partners.

Industry partnerships have also proven effective in Abu Dhabi’s secondary schools. ACTVET has signed memoranda of understanding with ADNOC, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Emirates Steel, Etihad and the Abu Dhabi Police, to provide educational training to students who will go on to be employees. In secondary technical schools and higher education diploma institutions, students are sponsored by specific firms and train in their office of future employment.

Branch campuses

While the UAE is the world’s top recipient of branch campuses of international education institutions, most of these set up shop in Dubai. Abu Dhabi does, however, offer a range of government incentives and hosts six international institutions: New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi, Morocco’s Mohammed V University, Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, INSEAD Business School, New York Institute of Technology and Strathclyde University Business School.

At its existing facility, NYU Abu Dhabi is currently serving 300 students; however, a brand-new campus with a capacity for 2000 students is now under construction. Students at the Abu Dhabi branch are offered merit-based scholarships that are not available to undergraduates in New York.

Paris Sorbonne opened an Abu Dhabi branch in 2006 and moved to a permanent site in 2009. Future growth plans include the development of a physics programme and PhD programmes. The school aims for an enrolment of 2000 by 2016. In 2013, 700 students were enrolled, about a third of which were UAE nationals.

Diversity of Study

 Of the higher education students in the UAE, 67% are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programmes, 21% are enrolled in diploma or higher diploma vocational programmes, 11.7% in master’s or postgraduate diploma programmes, and 0.3% in PhD programmes. The most common courses of study are business administration and engineering, which attract 29% and 15% of students respectively. Among UAE nationals, the concentration in these disciplines, along with sharia law, is even higher.

Despite the popularity of business degrees, the market is well saturated by business institutions. Aboul-Ela told OBG, “We do not need any more MBA programmes.”

He sees gaps in several sectors, namely medicine, dentistry and hospitality. Currently, Abu Dhabi is home to one medical school at UAEU, while there is no dentistry school. The government is supporting the expansion of training programmes for the health care and hospitality sectors as part of its broader effort to build up the local skills base and diversify the economy.

Challenges

While Abu Dhabi has the capital and the will to expand and enhance its education system, teacher recruitment and training remain key challenges. At the K-12 level, government schools continue to retrain or replace staff to ensure teachers can adapt to the new school model.

There were 10,451 teachers working in government schools during the 2011/12 school year. By the beginning of the 2013/14 year, ADEC had retrained 4300 teachers in Arabic, maths, science, art and music, while 380 school supervisors have received professional development from ADEC that will allow them to train faculty in their own schools.

By switching much of the curriculum to English, Abu Dhabi is able to increase recruitment from English-speaking Western countries, where teachers are better trained to implement the student-centred approach that is key to the new school model. “It has allowed us to attract and retain better teachers,” Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the former minister of higher education and scientific research, and current minister of culture, youth and social development, told The New York Timesin an interview. Previously, many teachers were recruited from the Arab world, mainly Egypt, where education focuses more on lectures.

Private schools also find it challenging to hire teachers with the right qualifications. Regulations require teachers to have an undergraduate specialisation in the subject they are hired to teach. “It makes attracting teachers for science and maths very difficult: first, there is a high demand for teachers of these subject in the West; secondly, teachers with other science- or maths-based first degrees – for example in engineering – who have completed the post-graduate teachers’ qualification training in the UK are also not eligible to teach maths according to ADEC regulations,” Ozral told OBG.

However, Abu Dhabi schools usually offer lucrative pay packages, both at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Compared with compensation for teachers in the UK, the packages Aldar Academies can offer in Abu Dhabi are very attractive, Ozral told OBG. In the education sector, people are the most important assets, and retaining existing high-quality staff, as well as attracting new staff, is critical.

Women In Education

 All schools must be divided by gender after grade five. However, some private schools do offer co-education in high school. The division of the sexes continues at the university level, with many institutions hosting two single-sex campuses. Levels of participation in education, however, remain highly equal. In K-12 schools, boys and girls are almost equally represented, and women also have strong representation in higher education. As of September 2013, 55% of UAE nationals in Masdar Institute’s master’s programmes are women. At the science-focused KU, for example, about 45% of the students are women, while at the PI, an engineering university, one-third are female. “You do not have that proportion of female students at any engineering programme in the US,” Youssef Lotfy Abdel Magid, dean of engineering at PI, told OBG.

Outlook

 The government remains committed to expanding education capacity at all levels. Furthermore, thanks to government incentives and increased local demand, the private sector is playing a growing role in both K-12 schools and higher education. To improve research and development at the post-secondary level, universities have partnered with key industry players, especially in engineering, energy and ICT. An emphasis on vocational and technical training is also helping provide students with the skills needed in the workplace. The emirate is also making efforts to attract international universities, which further enhance the range of post-secondary options on offer. With local and national reforms designed to improve educational outcomes, Abu Dhabi appears to be on track with its plans to build up the skills of the local workforce.