The UAE government is committed to diversifying the country’s revenues beyond oil, and it wants to draw a more direct line between the education that Emirati students receive and the skills the economy requires (especially for the country’s rapidly expanding tourism infrastructure). There is substantial funding allocated to study abroad scholarships for a wide range of programmes and types of institution (the new , aka RizeUp, is a perfect example).

Today, we’ll explore the UAE’s economic goals, education system, and scholarships to provide context for educators intent on recruiting in this market.

Geography: UAE is in Southwest Asia and is a federation of seven emirates (states) along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Neighbouring countries are Oman and Saudi Arabia. The largest emirate is Abu Dhabi, which takes up about three-quarters of the UAE’s total land mass. Dubai is also a major centre and education hub. The other emirates are Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah, and Fujairah. In total, UAE is a bit smaller than Portugal.

Official language: Arabic. The high number of immigrants in the country also means that a number of other languages are spoken among pockets of the population, including English, Hindi, Farsi, Urdu, and Malayalam.

Language of instruction: Arabic in public schools. Students learn English as a second language and sometimes English is used for technical/scientific subjects.

Religion: Islam, though other religions are also practised by different expat groups.

Main cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman.

Population: 10.2 million, of which 8.9 million are expats, including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Iranians, and Egyptians. There are significantly more men than women in UAE: men represent 69% of the population while women make up 31%. The most populous cities are Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi. The demographic aged 15–24 makes up 12.2% of the population. Population growth is expected to peak in 2033 at 10.7 million people. The youth unemployment rate is much lower in UAE than in other MENA countries – generally below 10%.

Economy: UAE’s economy grew by 7.6% in 2022, higher than expected. The Central Bank of UAE attributes the higher growth to stronger than anticipated performance of sectors including tourism and hospitality, real estate, transportation, and manufacturing as well as the resumption of major events drawing business people from around the globe. UAE is known for being a very open economy that attracts a wide range of foreign businesses and investment. Like other MENA countries, UAE is attempting to diversify beyond its oil businesses and tourism is a priority sector: the target is for Dubai to be the “world’s most visited destination.” In the first ten months of 2022, Dubai welcomed 11.4 million international visitors, a 134% increase over the same period the previous year.

One example of just how far the UAE government intends to go in terms of becoming the top choice for the world’s tourists is what is now on offer in the Ras Al Khaimah emirate. Raki Phillips, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, explained to :

“From cultural escapes to eco-tourism and adrenaline-fuelled adventures to beach retreats, Ras Al Khaimah appeals to a wide range of interests. [Its] attractions include the world’s first Bear Grylls Explorers Camp, the world’s first branded accommodation, as well as the highest restaurant in the UAE – 1484 by Puro. The emirate is also popular for its attractions such as the Jebel Jais Flight: The World’s Longest Zipline and Jais Sky Tour with many more attractions to open in 2022, such as Jais Sledder, the region’s longest toboggan ride that runs a length of 1,840 meters.”

The if you’re interested in the massive expansion of UAE’s tourism industry – it is fascinating.

Primary/secondary education: Primary and high school students attend either public or private schools. In the public school system (where students do not have to pay tuition), boys and girls are separated, and the system is governed by the Ministry of Education (MoE). Because instruction is in Arabic in public schools, and because there are so many expat families in UAE, private schools are a popular option for those who can afford them. The runs from September to March/ April, with two holiday breaks in the academic year.

In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the Abu Dhabi (ADEK) and (KHDA), respectively, oversee private schools rather than the Ministry of Education – private schools are not under direct government supervision.

In Abu Dhabi, 15 different curriculums are offered to students: American, British, Canadian, French, Bangladeshi, German, International Bac (IB), Indian, Iranian, Italian, Japanese, MoE (Ministry of Education), Pakistani, Filipino, and Sabis. A list of Abu Dhabi schools, as well as detailed information, can be .

Meanwhile in Dubai, there are . These are some of the top private primary/secondary international schools offering various international curriculums:

• Repton School
• King’s School, Al Barsha
• King’s School, Dubai
• Horizon English School Dubai
• Dubai College
• Dubai English Speaking School
• Jumeirah English Speaking School
• Dubai British School
• GEMS Wellington International School
• GEMS Dubai Academy

Many of these schools offer rolling admission to allow expat families and families who are in UAE for short periods of time some flexibility in enrolling their children. Students at various schools graduate at different times (e.g., secondary school may end in Grade 10 but in many international schools, two more years are necessary to graduate as per their international curriculum).

Tertiary education: UAE ranks in the world’s top 30 education systems both for primary and higher education, making it a fruitful recruiting ground for foreign educators offering undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate programmes.

UAE is also a major host of branch campuses and transnational education in general. For example, UAE is the now the top country for .

The Dubai emirate hosts the University of Dubai as well as 26 international branch campuses of universities from 12 different countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Canada. A list of those universities can be found .

The CAA is the accreditation agency of the UAE and provides on top tertiary institutions in the country.

A list of higher education institutions in Abu Dhabi can be found . For STEM programmes, the Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU) is a top 200 QS world university with an intensive research focus on applied science and engineering.

UniversityGuru.com provides this handy infographic which universities fare the best in major subject areas according to rankings such as the Shanghai, THE, and QS.

There are also high-quality in UAE. (CERT) is the most notable of these but the following are also worth exploring:

• National Institute for Vocational Education (NIVE)
• ADNOC Technical Institute (ATI)
• Petroleum Institute (PI)
• Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government
• Emirates Aviation University
• Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management
• Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institute (ADVETI)

Study abroad

The high volume of students enrolled at international schools in UAE creates a major market opportunity for foreign universities and colleges. The reports: “By some accounts, more than 90% of students at international schools intend to study overseas after graduation, so this trend will most likely accelerate tertiary mobility.”

Top destinations for Emirati students are the UK (6,015 in 2019/20), India (2,307 in 2019), and the US (1,737 in 2020/21, with most studying at the undergraduate level).

Canada and European countries are also becoming more popular for students looking for more affordable programmes than they might find in the US or UK. Vandana Mahajan, the founder of educational agency Futures Abroad, explained to UAE’s that:

“Last year we sent over 200 students to Canada from the UAE and I’m seeing a large increase from last year to this year. The recruitment season is ongoing, but we anticipate to send more than 500 students to Canada this year. The Co-op work programme is very popular and originated from Canadian universities and colleges, which means students do alternate semesters of study and work.”

The UK should see its number rise next year, as close to 3,000 UAE students applied to UK universities in 2022.

Programmes for which there will be increasing demand over the next few years will be associated with UAE’s target of being the world’s top tourist destination. These include:

• Hospitality and tourism (including eco-tourism and sports tourism)
• Event management
• Marketing and business administration
• Food-related fields
• Construction and engineering
• Aviation
• Information technology
• Digital technologies and social media marketing
• Human resource management
• And

Scholarships

Canada and the US can anticipate hosting more UAE students given the new scholarship programme aimed at sending 6,000 students to North America by 2028. The Khotwa (RizeUp) scholarship programme, with funding of US$520 million, pays for students’ entire degree programmes, including homestay accommodation and up to a year of English-language study.

Most MENA scholarships tend to send students to top-ranked universities, but the Khowta programme is less exclusive. It relies on a 2+2 model, where students begin their academic studies at a designated community college in either Canada or the US, then transfer to an affiliated university to complete their degrees. The initial set of participating colleges were reportedly selected on the basis that they (a) operate their own English-language programmes, (b) are partnered with degree-granting universities, and (c) offer homestay accommodation for visiting students.

To be eligible for a Khotwa scholarship, Emirati students must have an average of 65% or above in their final year of secondary studies, and an IELTS score of 3.0 or better. The first 170 Khotwa-funded students will begin their studies in the US and Canada in January 2023.

There are a number of other UAE scholarships to fund Emirati students abroad, including those offered by the , the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, the Department of Education and Knowledge, and the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) offers scholarships to top Emirati students pursuing engineering or science, while is for students pursuing telecommunications and information technology (e.g., computer engineering, electronic engineering and computer science). More government-funded scholarships can be found .

Many universities in the UAE offer scholarships for students as well through joint agreements between the UAE government and other countries. Information about these is best obtained by contacting staff at individual institutions.

Inbound students: UAE, especially Dubai, is becoming an education hub specialising in Western-modelled instruction as well as an exporter of students to other countries. In fact, UAE is the top host of Indian students. As many as 219,000 Indian students were enrolled in UAE higher education institutions as of July 2021, making it even more popular than Canada, US, the UK, and other countries. Over the past couple of years, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE’s Vice-President and Prime Minister, has for students as well as a permission for students to bring their relatives with them to the country as added incentives for foreign students to choose UAE.

Advice from the experts: Please enjoy this excellent hosted recently by șÚÁÏčÙÍű. On the panel were guests with immense experience in Middle Eastern markets:

• Marie-Claude Svaldi, VP of government relations and recruitment EMEA, ELS Education Services
• Craig Hastings, Division Adviser, Abu Dhabi Scholarships, Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK)
• Sarah Crowther, President, Collective Study

For additional background, please see:

• “UAE sets new tone for scholarship programmes in the Persian Gulf”
• “Scholarships, modernisation, and student mobility: Recruiting in Saudi Arabia now”

The post Recruiting in the Emirates: Big goals, world-class education, and new scholarships appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Main cities: Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, and Dhahran. The Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, and Eastern provinces hold almost three-quarters of the Kingdom’s student population.

Official language: Arabic. English is widely spoken as well.

Population: 36.2 million, of whom 37% are foreign-born. Population growth is predicted to decrease to 1% by 2030, and will start declining by 2060. About one-sixth of the population is aged 15–24. In mid-2022, almost 18% of Saudi youth were unemployed, and a significant proportion of those who could not find jobs were degree-holders. Increasing youth employment is a top priority for the Saudi government.

Language of instruction: Arabic in Saudi public schools – but English is becoming much more common in universities, especially for STEM subjects. Some English is taught in high school, but students do not generally graduate with high levels of English proficiency. Most Saudi universities have a preparatory year programme (PYP) to transition students from Arabic studies to English-language studies. Students must pass the PYP to be admitted to undergraduate programmes. There is a significant market opportunity for language schools to help Saudi students prepare for degree programmes in foreign destinations.

Religion: Islam. The government runs the country according to Wahhabism (a strict and literal Sunni interpretation of the Quran), and Saudis’ lives are greatly influenced by the rules of this version of Islam.

There has been some relaxation in the society in recent years, as summarised by :

“The kingdom’s religious police have been de-fanged, cinemas have reopened, foreign tourists have been welcomed, and Saudi Arabia has staged a film festival, operas, Formula One Grand Prix, heavyweight boxing, professional wrestling and a huge rave festival.”

Economy: In 2016, Saudi Arabia launched its strategy, the goals of which include: diversifying the economy beyond oil industries, empowering women and youth, harnessing the power of digital technologies, and advancing the country’s tourism and healthcare sectors. According to the Strategy:

“Saudi Arabia is using its investment power to create a more diverse and sustainable economy 
 and its strategic location to build its role as an integral driver of international trade and to connect three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe.”

A crucial point for educators: It would be unwise to attempt to recruit in Saudi Arabia without fully researching Vision 2030 – what its goals are, impressive progress to date, which sectors are priorities – and how these priorities are creating demand for specific education programmes and degrees. Student mobility from Saudi Arabia over the next few years will be largely determined by the planning and government bodies attached to Vision 2030.

According to the IMF, Saudi Arabia is likely to be one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year “as sweeping pro-business reforms and a sharp rise in oil prices and production power recovery from a pandemic-induced recession in 2020.” In Q3 2022, Saudi Arabia’s GDP grew 8.8% year-on-year.

Millions of foreign workers – who have always dominated private sector employment – have left the country over the past few years amid a government-led “Saudization” drive that has created barriers for many foreigners to work in the country. For example, businesses in the Kingdom must pay an “expat fee” of over USD$200 a month per foreign employee, foreigners must pay fees for dependents, and the sectors foreigners can work in are now limited.

Not coincidentally, labour force participation by Saudis is increasing, particularly among women in the private sector. notes, “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform program has an explicit objective to increase the female labor force participation rate to over 30%. For now, it looks like this objective was achieved 10 years early.”

While Saudi women’s rights remain more restricted than in many parts of the world, they have expanded under the rule of Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi women now have as much access to education as their male counterparts and they are eager to pursue university studies. There are more female than male undergraduates, for example, and women make up more than half of university students in the Kingdom. Top female Saudi students are eligible for the Kingdom’s study abroad scholarships and encouraged to apply.

The number of Saudi households in high-income brackets is 3.4 million, the highest in the region. UAE follows next with 1.5 million households in that bracket.

Education system

The number of students aged 6–24 in primary, intermediate, and tertiary schools is projected to reach 11.2 million by 2025, up from 10 million in 2018. This is the largest student population in Gulf region (GCC), and most of it is concentrated at the secondary level.

Almost 9 in 10 Saudi students attend one of over 26,000 public schools in the Kingdom. The rest attend one of roughly 4,500 private schools. Enrolment in private schools is increasing faster than in public schools and 15% all K-12 enrolments in KSA are now in private schools. A Vision 2030 goal is to see this share grow to 25% by 2030.

reports that “63% of private schools adopt the Saudi curriculum, 33% of schools adopt the American curriculum, and 17% follow the British curriculum.” In addition, given KSA’s large expat population, there are many international schools that serve families from all over the world – from Pakistan and India to Japan and the Philippines to France and Germany.

Major players in KSA private education include:

• British International School of Jedda
• GEMS Education (which, in partnership with Saudi-government-funded Hassana Investment, acquired Saudi Arabia’s largest private school operator, Ma’arif, in 2019)
• International Schools Group (ISG)
• Kingdom Schools
• SABIS Education Services
• American International School
• Aata Educational Company

At the primary level, after kindergarten, students attend six years of primary school, and then undertake three years of intermediate school. For high school, students can choose an academic orientation or a vocational one. They sit for comprehensive exams twice a year that are supervised by the Ministry of Education.

Primary/secondary education is under transformation in the country. WENR reports that: “, implemented by the company Tatweer Educational Technologies (TETCO) on the behest of the Saudi government, is ushering in smart classrooms and digital education management systems across Saudi Arabia: ‘Textbooks are being swapped out for mobile devices that provide up-to-date content in real time. Printed exams are transitioning to online assessments.’”

Tertiary: About 2.1 million students were enrolled in Saudi universities in 2022. The Council of Higher Education oversees the entire university sector, while the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) administers the system.

EY estimates that unmet demand for a place at university within KSA was 150,000 seats this year, setting up high demand for study abroad. Most Saudi students enrol in tuition-free undergraduate programmes in public tertiary institutions. There are about 50 public and private universities in KSA, as well as many community colleges, women’s colleges, and vocational schools.

predicts that the total demand for higher education among Saudis “will reach 2.8 million seats in 2030, compared to an estimated 1.97 million seats in 2022.”

Five public institutions are responsible for nearly half of all public university enrolments, and five private colleges account for nearly half of all enrolments in the private sector.

Universities in major cities deliver roughly 200 bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programs in English. Please see the for a sense of the country’s top universities.

Colliers expects demand to rise among Saudi students for the following subjects and fields:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Robotic sciences
• Energy (e.g., Nuclear, Sustainable, Renewable, Solar)
• Health (including certificates and micro-credentials to boost the skillsets of medical professionals)
• Hospitality/Tourism
• Business studies to support investments in the SME sector

offers this helpful graphic detailing the enrolments pattern (in 2019) across the Saudi higher education system.

Study abroad

The number of Saudi Arabian students studying overseas has declined from a high point in 2016, at which time there were more than 100,000 students abroad. Along with lower outbound mobility in the pandemic, the decline stems from the winding down of the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP). At its peak, KASP sent tens of thousands of students to the US and significant numbers to Canada, the United Kingdom, and other leading destinations.

The programme has now been replaced with smaller, more targeted scholarships for Saudi students. A focus on sending students to major English-language destinations in the KASP era has been replaced with a determination to place students in top universities in any region and to programmes aligned with the Vision 2030 agenda.

In 2019, there were roughly 70,000 Saudi students abroad. Western destinations’ share of Saudi students has been declining in recent years. The US remains the top enroller of Saudi students, but enrolments were just 18,206 in 2020/21, down 17% from the previous year. In 2018/19 the number was nearly 40,000, and that was still a decline from the over 60,000 Saudi students enrolled in US programmes in 2015/16.

A diplomatic spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia in 2018 led to the Saudi government abruptly cutting scholarship funding for its students in Canada and requiring many to immediately leave the country. Thousands of Saudi students left Canada and thousands more abandoned plans to begin studies in Canada. Canada had risen to be a top destination for Saudi students prior to that dispute, but there are now only around 1,500-2,000 Saudi students in Canada.

Australia has yet to recapture the Saudi market after opening its borders again in late-2021. There are (2022), down from 7,000 in 2019.

The UK, however, has held on to its Saudi enrolments. There were about 8,800 Saudis in UK universities in 2020/21, up slightly from the number the year before and similar to enrolments in 2016.

Outside of Western destinations, Malaysia is the most popular choice for Saudi students choosing to study abroad. About 2,000 Saudi students chose Malaysia according to 2019 UNESCO data.

Scholarships

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program

The foremost scholarship programme that replaces previous iterations of KASP is the , run by the Ministry of Education. Under this scheme, the Saudi government plans to send 70,000 students to 200 approved foreign institutions/programmes by 2030.

Eligible students are streamed into one of four paths under the new strategy – the Pioneers Path, the Research & Development Path, the Providers Path, and the Promising Path:

• The Pioneers Path is designed to send students to bachelor and master’s programmes in all fields at the world’s top 30 education institutions.
• The Providers Path is designed to send students into bachelor, master’s, and “training” programmes with a clear relationship with specific labour market needs. Target fields include information technology, natural sciences, mathematics and statistics engineering, manufacturing and construction, business management, and tourism.
• The Research & Development Path is oriented to producing scientists and is intended for PhD-level students. Target fields include cybersecurity, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, sustainability and environmental management, aviation and defense, nuclear energy, intelligent energy management systems, and smart and sustainable cities.
• The Promising Path streams students into bachelor, master’s, and “training” programmes oriented to specific fields including sports, digital economy, public administration, business administration, marketing, and institutional behaviour.

The Ministry of Education is now accepting applications for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program for the academic year 2023/2024 until 5 May 2023.

Important to know: Students who go to destinations such as the US, UK, Canada and Australia will not receive support for any English-language training required for their degree programmes, but students going to non-English-speaking destinations will receive support for language studies.

Other scholarships

There are many other government-funded scholarships in place with discrete goals, run by specific ministries such as the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Defence, etc. New programmes are announced regularly and there are many opportunities for foreign universities and colleges that:

• Do their research (e.g., what Vision 2030 requires in terms of skills, which Saudi universities specialise in which programmes, and which government ministries are responsible for various sectors of the economy);
• Invest in creating a foundation of contacts and goodwill, beginning with the Saudi cultural bureau in their country and extending to meetings and arrangements with in-country representatives and agents who have an understanding of how the system works;
• Invest in in-person visits, regional events, and industry networking conferences;
• Are prepared to be patient and build up trust among Saudi decision-makers;
• Understand the sophistication of the scholarship environment in Saudi Arabia and of Vision 2030 in general;
• Are prepared to be flexible and very responsive to RFPs and other queries;
• Can make a clear case for how a particular programme is aligned with a scholarship’s goals;
• Can articulate their brand well and explain why it is relevant in the Saudi context;
• Take the time to understand Saudi culture in general.

Please enjoy this excellent hosted recently by șÚÁÏčÙÍű. On the panel were guests with immense experience in Middle Eastern markets:

• Marie-Claude Svaldi, VP of government relations and recruitment EMEA, ELS Education Services
• Craig Hastings, Division Adviser, Abu Dhabi Scholarships, Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK)
• Sarah Crowther, President, Collective Study

For more information, please see:

• “Updated Saudi scholarship programme will send 70,000 students abroad by 2030”
• “The new shape of Saudi demand for study abroad”

The post Scholarships, modernisation, and student mobility: Recruiting in Saudi Arabia now appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

was announced in September 2022 and will be administered by the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK). The AED1.9 billion (US$520 million) programme is targeted to students from a variety of academic and social backgrounds “to enable them to achieve their full potential and contribute to the growth of Abu Dhabi’s knowledge-based economy.”

Khotwa scholarships will provide full funding for participating Emirati students for their entire degree programmes, including homestay accommodation and up to a year of English language study.

The programme relies on a 2+2 model, through which students will begin their academic studies , and then transfer to an affiliated university to complete their degrees. The initial set of participating colleges were reportedly selected on the basis that they (a) operate their own English language programmes, (b) are partnered with degree-granting universities, and (c) offer homestay accommodations for visiting students.

In order to be eligible for a Khotwa scholarship, Emirati students must have an average of 65% or above in their final year of secondary studies, and an IELTS score of 3.0 or better. The first 170 Khotwa-funded students will begin their studies in the US and Canada in January 2023.

Where it fits

The programme stands in contrast to other scholarship initiatives in the region, some of which have sharpened their focus on top-scoring students and elite institutions in recent years. And as such it reflects a growing awareness among policy makers in the region that only a relatively small percentage of prospective students will be served by that focus on top-ranked institutions abroad.

Governments throughout the region, meanwhile, remain committed to as well as the and are working to align scholarship programmes with those larger societal goals, including improving gender equity, reducing societal inequalities, and targeting fields of study to priority areas of industry demand.

Commenting on the Khotwa launch, Her Excellency Sara Musallam, Minister of State for Early Education and Chairperson of ADEK, said:

“This landmark programme is a strategic investment by Abu Dhabi Government to continue nurturing future-ready Emirati bachelor’s degree holders. Khotwa (RizeUp) will empower students who have not benefitted from our previous scholarships to study at international colleges and universities and graduate as highly competent, effective and productive citizens capable to enrich our national employment pool and play an active role in driving forward our knowledge-based economy.”

“Building on the success of employment rates exceeding 90% among ADEK’s scholarship graduates, we recognise the potential in providing opportunities. Consequently, we have expanded the scholarship matrix to include specific academic specializations – selected in close cooperation with government, national, and private entities – that will further enhance our graduate scholars’ employability.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Updated Saudi scholarship programme will send 70,000 students abroad by 2030“

The post UAE sets a new tone for scholarship programmes in the Persian Gulf appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

• The Pioneers Path is designed to send students to bachelors and masters programmes in all fields at the world’s top 30 education institutions.
• The Providers Path is designed to send students into bachelors, masters, and “training” programmes with a clear relationship with specific labour market needs.
• The Research & Development Path is oriented to producing scientists and is intended for PhD-level students.
• The Promising Path is meant to stream students into specific fields such as manufacturing tourism in bachelors, masters, and “training” programmes located in such countries as South Korea, Japan, and Germany.

The scholarship programme hinges on that take into account a continuum of planning for Saudi Arabia’s economic and societal goals (articulated in the macro-strategy, ). The first is “early planning for young students for their educational journey at global institutions and universities”; the second is a strategy to elevate the kingdom’s competitiveness both locally and globally” through study abroad; and the third is a commitment to supporting graduates after they return from study abroad to “improve their readiness to join the labor market locally and globally.”

Both male and female students are eligible for the scholarship programme and .

No funding for English studies

Students who go to destinations such as the US, UK, Canada and Australia will not receive support for any English-language training required for their degree programmes, but students going to non-English-speaking destinations will receive support for language studies.
 
This is an important detail given that the previous massive Saudi scholarship programme, the “King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP)” sent tens of thousands of Saudi students to programmes primarily in the US and other English destinations and included . The current scholarship programme underlines the increasing complexity of student mobility in the 2020s and the rise of non-Western destinations.
 
At the same time, the Saudi government began offering English-language instruction to first graders last year, in a bid to before the secondary and tertiary levels of education.
 
For additional background please see:

• “The new shape of Saudi demand for study abroad”

The post Updated Saudi scholarship programme will send 70,000 students abroad by 2030   appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

We also have two prominent, and recent cases, illustrating how a decline in scholarship funding can profoundly and quickly impact outbound mobility: Saudi Arabia’s massive Keeper of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Programme (previously the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme, or KASP) and Brazil’s Science Without Borders (CiĂȘncia sem Fronteiras, or CsF).

And now this year ushers in as well the first really large-scale scholarship programmes targeted to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Online learning has reached a new level of prominence over the last two years, with total enrolment estimated at 58 million worldwide in 2016. We are also seeing a rapid expansion in both the availability of online degrees from traditional higher education institutions as well as the emergence of alternate credentials from major MOOC platforms, such as edX’s “MicroMasters” or Udacity’s .

These are major trends that can be expected to act on traditional modes of delivery for higher education in the years ahead.

Now add to this the participation of tech and information giants in funding a further expansion of enrolment in online learning. In a joint announcement earlier this month, Google and Bertelsmann launched a scholarship programme that will fund 75,000 students in  programmes this year.

Google will support 60,000 scholarships in Web and Android Development, 40,000 of which will be reserved for those with no programming experience at all and 20,000 for junior developers with one-to-three years of experience. Bertelsmann will fund a further 15,000 places in the field of Data Science.

“Bertelsmann’s businesses are becoming steadily more digital,” says Bertelsmann’s Head of Talent Management Hays Steilberg. “Accordingly, digital skills and IT expertise are becoming increasingly important, especially in data science. We see it as our responsibility to make as many people as possible fit for the demanding, IT-based tasks of tomorrow’s working world.”

This year’s expanded effort builds on a pilot from 2016 which saw 70,000 European students apply for 10,000 funded spots in Udacity programmes. Aside from the greater number of scholarship spaces this year, the programme has expanded its eligibility to include students from Egypt, Israel, Russia, and Turkey.

Both corporations are already heavily invested in training, and in the last few years alone Google has trained more than three million people in the EU. Bertelsmann’s focus has historically been on training its own staff, which already have access to more than 10,000 online courses as well as those offered at  (one of the first corporate universities in Germany). But both companies are now opening the field even further with this year’s Udacity scholarships.

Udacity CEO Vish Makhijani adds, “We’re excited to be working closely with Google and Bertelsmann to continue training new talent in Europe and beyond. In less than 9 months, 75,000 people in the region will have the needed skills to advance their careers and shape the digital future. The success stories from the first cohort are inspiring and we look forward to welcoming even more students into the scholarship programme next month.”

By enrolment, Udacity is the fifth-largest MOOC platform in the world with an estimated four million registered users in 2016. Class Central reports that  were enrolled in Nanodegree programmes with Udacity last year.

For additional background, please see:

• “Online learning still expected to pressure traditional higher education models”
• “Global MOOC enrolment jumped again last year”
• “Online enrolment in US continues to grow”
• “Opening the door to new learning models”

The post Rolling out the first large-scale scholarship programmes for MOOCs appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Most recently, the concerns over timing of payments have been borne out for at least some students with an announcement from the Rivers State government that it will no longer be able to fully fund its students abroad.

Commodities a double-edged sword

The Nigerian government derives 70-80% of its revenues from oil, and earlier this month, Nigeria’s top oil official and outgoing OPEC President, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, told CNN that  and called for an emergency meeting of OPEC members. The collapse in world oil prices has seen the Nigerian currency, the naira, fall to record lows against the US dollar this year. Economic growth fell to an estimated 3% in 2015 from 6.3% the year before, and against a four-year average of 5.31% per year between 2011 and 2014. Forecast vary for 2016 with expected growth rates running in the range of .

In response, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has introduced austerity measures to the country, in part as a way of delivering on his 2015 campaign promise to weed out corruption and money laundering by the political elite. One of these measures is a policy restricting the use of foreign exchange accounts domiciled in Nigeria.

Both the falling price of oil and may be contributing to an apparent pattern where expected tuition and living stipends for scholarship students have been substantially delayed. Some students are worried they may have to return to Nigeria as a result.

Nigerians studying abroad

Even so, the fundamentals of the country’s education market are strong. With a rapidly expanding middle class, total tertiary enrolment projected to double by 2024, and demand for domestic university places far outstripping supply, Nigeria remains a key emerging market.

In 2015, Nigeria’s roughly 130 universities could admit only about 520,000 of the 1,735,720 students who sat for the country’s national entrance exam, the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The government has approved licensing for seven new private universities to help with capacity, and promised new universities of science and technology with satellite campuses around the country. But even so study abroad has been an increasingly popular option for Nigerian students in recent years.

UNESCO reports that more than 50,000 studied abroad in 2012, with the most popular countries being the UK (17,325), Ghana (11,993), the US (7,002), Ukraine (3,578), Malaysia (2,669), and Canada (2,490). These numbers have gone up substantially in certain markets since 2012: the Institute of International Education counted nearly 9,500 Nigerians studying in the United States in 2014/15 – a 20% increase over the year before – and Citizenship & Immigration Canada reported 8,620 Nigerians studying in Canada in 2014.

Felix Adedayo, managing director of the education agency FAB Educational Consulting, notes Nigeria as one of the world’s leading emerging markets for education, and one where growth has particularly accelerated over the past decade.

An ecosystem of scholarships

The wide field of available overseas scholarships has been an important factor in the increase in Nigerians studying abroad. These include those offered by the federal government, various state governments (including states such as Kano, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Sokoto, Bauchi, Yobe, and Kaduna), and by corporations.

By some estimates, as many as 40% of Nigerian students abroad have some measure of scholarship funding for their studies. All told, Nigeria spends a reported US$8 billion on scholarship programmes, and it prioritises foreign degrees in science, engineering (including aero-space engineering), medicine, environmental management and technology.

The country’s state scholarship programmes can be substantial. For example, Mr Adedayo points out that Yobe State spent USD$3.5 Million on scholarships for 9,000 students over 2014 and 2015, and Kano State has recently sponsored 2,600 students to study abroad.

Mr Adedayo also highlights the following scholarships to illustrate the range of federal, state, and privately funded programmes currently in place, some of which are more weighted to:

• Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) – Overseas Scholarships Scheme (OSS);
• Tertiary Education Trust Fund;
• ;
• Imo State Government Scholarships;
• Ikeoha Foundation;
• ;
• Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Scholarship Scheme;
• Total Nigeria National Merit Scholarship Programme;
• Mobil Nigeria Undergraduate National Scholarship Programme.

As this sampling illustrates, many of the scholarship programmes in Nigeria are directly or indirectly supported by the country’s considerable oil and gas industry, whether in the form of funding from oil and gas companies, from oil-rich states, or from the federal government itself.

In fact, it is this financial underpinning of Nigeria’s extensive scholarship systems that has now placed the stability of the scholarship funding itself into question.

Students under stress

Reports of delayed tuition and stipend payments for scholarship students began to accumulate over the last half of 2015. In November 2015, the Canadian national broadcaster CBC News reported that:

“, 246 Nigerian students in 14 universities were promised their tuition and living expenses would be covered [by RSSDA, an organisation owned and funded by Rivers State in Nigeria] during their four-year degree programme. However, they haven’t received their living allowance for the past 11 months and their tuition is millions of dollars in arrears.”

The acting executive director of the RSSDA at the time, Godwin Poi, agreed to speak with the CBC on the matter, and admitted that it “also owes CDN$2.5 million in tuition to 14 Canadian universities.” The CBC notes that CDN$1.3 million of that is owed to one university alone, the University of Regina.

At the University of Regina, RSSDA scholarship students complained of feeling “abandoned” and “stressed.” Mr Poi said that the company would endeavour to keep its promises and appealed for patience, citing the oil price slump as the reason for the payment arrears.

A related November 2015 article in University World News suggests that in Canada are not the only ones suffering, estimating that “several thousand [Nigerian] citizens studying at various universities around the world are ‘stranded.’”

The president of the Association of Federal Government Doctoral Candidates in Russia revealed to University World News that “
 students from Nigeria on scholarship in Russia and other countries, namely Morocco, Algeria, Cuba, Serbia, Turkey, China and Romania, are all stranded” because their scholarship stipends “had not been paid for the past six months.” The official excuse for the arrears, he said, was that the “budget is yet to be signed.”

Concern is also high among Nigerian scholarship students in the UK; some are worried about being sent home as part of an anticipated UK government plan to “repatriate” 29,000 Nigerians who lack required residency papers. And Nigeria News recently carried a story in which students anonymously spoke of their distress. One Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Huddersfield, said:

“We are on the verge of losing the opportunity given to us to come here and learn, go back to Nigeria and make our country a better place 
. just because we cannot pay our school fees. It is a bad image for our government at the moment. Our landlords can no longer receive just one month rent from us because they believe that we could be sent back anytime soon. This has also affected other Nigerian students here. The country’s name, as well as that of the state, is at risk.”

Recalling state-funded students

Unfortunately, it appears that the fears of RSSDA-supported students abroad have now been realised. Some weeks after these prominent reports in late-2015, the Daily Post newspaper reported on an official that it could no longer continue to fully fund scholarship students abroad. RSSDA’s Executive Director Ominim Jack explained at a December media briefing that the declining value of the Nigerian naira, in combination with collapsing oil revenues, meant that the state would have to pull back its overseas scholarship support. “Today, we have to be realistic,” he added. “We all know what is happening in Nigeria. We now have a dwindling revenue both from [Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, a system of financial transfers between federal and state governments in Nigeria] and [state revenues]. We all know our exchange rates.”

Mr Jack outlined the state government’s response, which amounts to:

• A commitment to continue fully funding students overseas who are in the last year of their studies;
• A determination that all students not yet in their final year of study abroad will now be transferred back to universities within Rivers State, particularly the University of Port Harcourt and the Rivers State University of Science and Technology;
• Students transferring back to a Rivers State institution from abroad will continue their studies with full scholarships.

The Daily Post provides an initial response from parents of affected students as well. “My child is studying in Canada,” said one. “But how can somebody who is in her third year now return to Nigeria just like that? The curriculum can never be the same.” Another parent added, “For almost one year now, the state government has stopped paying the students their allowance. And we have been taking responsibility for that. We won’t mind to continue but the government should just pay the school fees. It is a very bad decision to withdraw all the students and place them in schools in Port Harcourt.”

For the moment, many of these reports revolve around RSSDA and its students abroad, and this is but one funding agency among many in Nigeria. As Mr Adedayo points out, “Other funding bodies of student scholarship are okay without any reported problems of delaying in payment of student fees and allowances, except payment delays from the bank which is due to the new economic policy of the current government on money transfer out of the country.”

Even so, the rapid deterioration of funding for RSSDA students will be a concern for families, agents, and institutions alike given the clear relationship between oil and gas revenues and scholarship funding for Nigerian students abroad.

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Tens of thousands of Saudi students have gone abroad over the past several years with the support of the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP). The scale and ambition of the programme has been such that Saudi Arabia has become one of the most important sending markets – and certainly one of the fastest-growing – of the past decade.

With just under 60,000 students enrolled, Saudi Arabia was, for the fifth year in a row, the fourth-largest sending market for the US in 2014/15 (after only China, India, and South Korea). Nearly 14,000 Saudi students went to Canada in 2014, making it the fifth-largest sending market there. Another 10,000 studied in the UK in 2013/14, leaving Saudi Arabia as the seventh-largest non-EU sending market for British providers that year.

The KASP programme (also known as the Program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques) began in 2005 with a five-year time limit. In 2007, King Abdullah extended the programme for another two years and in 2009 a further three-year term was granted. In 2012, the news came that KASP would be extended through 2020.

KASP is administered by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (MOE). Most institutions or schools receiving KASP students will have had regular contact with SACM officials, and may have also been asked to address a variety of programme, service, and reporting requirements in relation to KASP-funded students.

In our first interview segment below, Mr Ayman Abdelhafez of the Sindibad Education Consultancy (SEC) explains that requirements may vary by provider on a case-by-case basis and according to the needs of the students as well as SACM’s goal in ensuring the students’ success in their studies.

As Mr Abdelhafez also notes, these goals may be reflected in very specific requirements from SACM regarding the number of hours of instruction per week and even class schedules.

As you will also hear in the interview, Saudi Arabia’s new monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and his officials are pursuing a number of ambitious projects in the Kingdom. The Ministry of Education has been actively engaged in discussions with other ministries, resulting in agreements to sponsor as many as 55,000 students within KASP in the years ahead. This exceeds the forecast of 40,000 students we noted in a recent report, but extends the approach we described at the time whereby KASP participation will focus on current public-sector employees as well as candidates who have a job offer from a governmental organisation, with the idea that scholarship recipients will have a secure job on their return to Saudi Arabia.

One of the implications of this approach, Mr Abdelhafez says, is that KASP will be selecting more highly qualified students, both in terms of their academic standing but also their English proficiency. “I believe this works better for the country and for the KASP programme also,” he adds.

The other thing that comes through clearly in Mr Abdelhafez’s remarks is the role that KASP has played in invigorating a culture of study abroad in Saudi Arabia:

“The idea of studying abroad has already spread all over the country.”

He continues, “It is very hard to find a house without a person – a girl or boy – who has not [received] a scholarship after high school or after a bachelor degree. Almost every house has a sponsored person. This really created the idea about studying abroad [within Saudi culture].”

“I would say that if tomorrow they closed the scholarship programme, people will still send their children abroad because now the standards in the market have been changed a lot. If you really want to be competitive, if you really want to find a good job, you have to get the skills of good language and open-mindedness and a degree from a respected university.”

This drive to study abroad is also creating a more discriminating Saudi student, one that is looking more closely at the quality and reputation of institutions abroad.

In our second and final interview segment below, Mr Abdelhafez notes that the website of the Ministry of Higher Education is a key stop for Saudi students as they begin to map out options for study at language schools or universities abroad.

For example, the screen shot below shows a sample listing for a university on illustrating the type of information provided for each institution or school, including the specific academic programmes at different levels which are open to KASP-funded students (that is, programmes to which students may be admitted and that are not yet “saturated” with other KASP students).

The SACM website for the destination country is another important information source. “If somebody wants to study in the USA, for example, they go to the  and they have a list which is categorised by state and school and [visa status].”

Mr Abdelhafez also highlights the importance of online marketing in Arabic as well as attending the International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education (IECHE), a key showcase for foreign universities every year in Riyadh. “All of the students from around the country come to the exhibition to meet with university representatives. It is one of the big events and big marketing tools for any university that targets the Saudi market.”

Furthermore, Mr Abdelhafez discusses the importance of diversification for an agency’s portfolio, highlighting new partnerships in China, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark.

Going forward, Mr Abdelhafez sees a bright future for international education in Saudi Arabia. “I believe Saudi Arabia will continue as a strong market for a long time,” he concludes. “Right now, [SEC has] four offices in Saudi Arabia and we are looking for more to help us handle the stream of students.”

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IEPs in the United States have seen mostly steady growth since the worst of the enrolment declines that followed the 9/11 attacks in 2001. However, recent changes to scholarship support for Saudi Arabian students, and other forthcoming developments within and outside the US, are creating both new challenges and new opportunities for Intensive English Programmes in America.

Saudi Arabia is currently the leading sending country for IEPs in the US. Since the implementation of the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP) in 2005, the Saudi government has sent tens of thousands of students to the US, many of which needed extensive English training before being able to undertake university studies.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) reports, “In the 2013/14 academic year, 53,919 students from Saudi Arabia were studying in the United States (), after nine consecutive years of increases. Saudi Arabia is the fourth leading place of origin for students coming to the United States for the fourth year in a row, and is by a wide margin the first among Middle Eastern countries.”

According to the on Intensive English Programmes in the US, Saudi Arabians numbered at 38,165 which accounted for just over 30% of the total IEP enrolment of 125,973 for 2013 – more than double the number of students from second-ranked China. As the following chart illustrates, two thirds of IEP students in the US come from just five source countries.

Countries of origin for international students in US IEPs, 2013. Source: IIE

In addition to these impressive numbers, Saudi students also typically enrol for longer periods of language study – nearly 19 weeks on average compared to an overall average of under 15 weeks among IEP students in the US – making their recruitment and retention an even more important consideration for many programmes.

The KASP programme as currently structured provides for full scholarship support (that is, both tuition and living expenses) for one year of intensive English training. The term of study may be extended to 18 months and accompanying family members may also undertake English studies with scholarship support. This is a significant feature as female scholarship recipients must be accompanied by a family member, and many of the male recipients are accompanied by spouses who also wish to pursue language training. There is no minimum English level required for the scholarship, and so students with minimal language skills generally require extended language studies before they are able to proceed to their academic programmes.

Changes in support for language study

It appears, however, that important changes are now afoot in terms of the level of support available for language study. The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) oversees KASP in the US and, in spring 2015, it conducted a review of all IEPs receiving Saudi scholarship students. The immediate impact of the review was that some programmes were asked to adjust their schedules (i.e., days and times of classes per week and total length of programme cycles) and to comply with new requirements for attendance records and reporting.

Saudi officials also alerted IEPs to further pending changes to the scholarship programme during the review period. And later in the spring, information began surfacing regarding several substantive changes for new scholarship programme recipients – most significantly, the reported introduction of a new six-month limit on funding for pre-academic language training.

SACM has also reportedly introduced an important change with respect to student placement in IEPs. In the past, students could “self-place” in any language programme – that is, those schools that recruited in Saudi Arabia could enrol students who would then obtain the scholarship. However, under the proposed changes all scholarship-supported IEP students are to be placed by the Saudi government.

The clear implication is that future KASP recipients will be expected to demonstrate a higher level of English proficiency, and that they will then be placed in American IEPs at the discretion of the Saudi Cultural Mission.

Although we were unable to receive official verification directly from SACM prior to publication, frequent reports of these new measures have spread in recent months through communications with Saudi students and between IEP administrators and Saudi officials.

Official statements do not speak to the question of funding for language studies, but do highlight the fact that (Phase III). Media reports indicate that Phase III (applications for which opened at the end of June 2015) will focus on current public-sector employees as well as candidates who have a job offer from a governmental organisation, with the idea that scholarship recipients will have a secured job on their return to Saudi Arabia.

Growth in other markets

While KASP appears to be reducing its support for intensive language study, other markets are stepping up their efforts to build language capacity among their international students.

Kuwait, for example, provides extensive scholarship opportunities. While the Kuwaiti numbers come nowhere close to the top-ranked Saudis or Chinese, the small, oil-rich nation ranked seventh in population counts in the . Kuwait was by far the fastest-growing source market for US IEPs that year, far exceeding any other country, with growth of 54.8% from 2012 to 2013.

When looking at , Kuwait registered a 28.2% increase in the number of students enrolled in intensive English programmes in higher education. Meanwhile, as the map below shows, intensive English enrolments were up from other nations as well.

Most significant growth markets for US higher education-affiliated IEPs in 2013/14. Source: IIE

More proximate to the US, Brazil and Mexico have both recently undertaken ambitious programmes that have led to more students joining language programmes.

Brazil began its Science without Borders in 2011, with the goal of sending more than 100,000 STEM-focused students abroad. The programme, renewed for another round of scholarships in 2014, is administered in the US by IIE and allows for up to six months of language training prior to full-time studies at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

Science without Borders was the main reason that Brazil’s student numbers grew by over 20% in the 2013 IIE Open Doors report, making it the fourth-ranked source market for American IEPs, just after Japan. According to IIE, 217 IEPs hosted a combined 8,003 students through this important mobility programme in 2014.

And as we noted earlier this year, the Mexican government aims to send as many as 18,000 of its citizens to participate in ESL-related programmes (including TESL training and English for specific purposes) as part of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas programme introduced in conjunction with the US Department of State in 2013.

Long-time IEP directors in the US are well aware of the ebb and flow of student populations over time, having seen various cycles of growth and contraction in the past with Iranian and Venezuelan students, then Japanese and Korean, and now Saudi and possibly soon more Brazilian and Mexican students. The changing tides of global economies and policies, and the growing desire of nations around the world to internationalise, will no doubt continue to drive these shifting enrolment patterns in the US in the future. In the process, they will also continue to create new opportunities and new challenges for America’s Intensive English Programmes.

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