International Branch Campuses in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar : Commonalities, Differences and Open Questions

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  • International Branch Campuses in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar:
  • Commonalities, Differences and Open Questions

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<p>  The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have traditionally been single-source economies reliant upon the export of natural resource. As the proportion of revenues from natural resource exportation began to decline, however, the states sought out alternative means of sustaining their economies, increasing their effort to integrate into the global knowledge economy and re-orienting their economic development strategies (Kumar, 2006). </p><p>  During this transition, higher education has played a critical role in cultivating human capital and fostering the innovation that stimulates economic development and sustainability (The Middle East Institute, 2010). For example, the “Arab Human Development Report: Building a Knowledge Society”, a publication by the United Nations Development Programme, observes that higher education would be the best way for the Arab world, including the UAE and Qatar, to develop a pool of skilled knowledge workers in order to sustain long-term economic growth in the global knowledge economy (UNDP, 2009). However, this report also indicated that most higher education institutions in the region were failing to produce enough qualified graduates with skills that serve the needs of the emerging knowledge economy. Since public higher education institutions cannot accommodate the increasing numbers of secondary graduates, the private sector is fulfilling the demand (Bertelsen, 2009). </p><p>  Given the above, a significant trend in the UAE and Qatar is to invite foreign universities to establish International Branch Campuses (IBCs). The number of IBCs worldwide has increased most in the last decade, from 24 in 2002, to 82 in 2006, to 162 in 2009, and to 200 in 2011, with 37 more slated to open by the end of 2014 (Becker, 2009; Lawton & Katsomitros, 2012). Of the providers, institutions from the top five source countries, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, France and India established 159 of 200 IBCs (Lawton & Katsomitros, 2012). There were 67 host countries in 2011 and the UAE, Singapore, China, and Qatar are the top four hosting countries. The UAE hosts 37 of 200 branch campuses and acts as the biggest host country in the world. Qatar is the fourth biggest host country in the world, hosting 10 campuses. The most significant differences between these two Gulf states and these two Asian countries is that the demand for IBCs in the Gulf states is mainly from national populations, while demand in the two Asian countries is mainly from international students. This difference is caused by the unique economic, political, social and cultural contexts of the two Gulf states. </p><p>  The present paper examines commonalities and differences in IBC policy development in the UAE and Qatar, and explores factors influencing commonalities and differences by looking at their economic, political, cultural and social contexts. The first section provides a definition of IBCs in cross-border higher education. The second section examines rationales of UAE and Qatar policy development with respect to recruitment and targeting students of IBCs in the two states, by examining their local contexts. The third section identifies three major questions regarding the sustainability of IBCs in the two states.</p>

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