This wide imbalance between foreign and local nationals in the workforce has been an essential feature in transforming the UAE and keeping pace with the fast growing economy. However, in the last few years, there has been a reinforced drive for local skills and greater levels of participation by the UAE nationals in the labour market.

This quest for homegrown skills and more local involvement in the workforce is being fuelled by the need to empower Emiratis to drive long-term economic progress of the country. The Arab Human Development Report has re-ignited public debate on the need for quality education in the Arab world. The report identified Arab countries as lagging behind in knowledge creation and, therefore, recommended ‘dissemination of high quality education for all’ as one of the strategic visions for 
Arab countries.

This recommendation was echoed in the 2007 Master Plan of UAE Ministry of Higher Education, which recognised the need to not only provide quality education locally but also to expand access to education for Emiratis. We are beginning to see unprecedented financial and regulatory commitments to help meet this knowledge vision in the Gulf. The UAE for instance, allocated 23 per cent of its 2009 budget to education while Saudi Arabia reserved over 25 per cent of its budget  —  clearly the highest sector allocation in both countries. Today, the goal of education in the UAE and across the Gulf region has gone beyond the threshold of reducing illiteracy levels. There is now a conscious effort to create knowledge economies that will enable the next generation of Gulf nationals to continue the momentum of economic progress from oil rich to a knowledge rich region.

In terms of regulatory initiatives, the Emiratisation programme in the UAE, or Saudisation as it is called in Saudi Arabia, is aimed at boosting the representation of local nationals in the workplace. For this initiative to succeed there must be a good fit between job requirements and the quality of available local talents. The creation of a knowledge economy will ensure availability of highly qualified local work force to move the country to the next level of socio-economic advancement.  The drive to build knowledge economies is stimulating an influx of international educators and professionals to complement the growing number of leading Arab academics and experts. For instance, the UAE has built a unique portfolio of international tie-ups with leading institutions around the world. There are some 150-branch campuses globally and 20 per cent of them are in UAE. Going forward it seems likely that this diversity and growing depth of experience will play a key role in achieving the region’s knowledge mandate.

However, education authorities are confronted with a number of challenges as they look to upgrade the quality of education and job readiness for Emiratis. Firstly, the predominantly youthful population of the UAE portends a future of struggle for higher education space. Demographic forecasts show that the country’s college age population will increase significantly from 2016 onwards with total enrolment among Emirati students alone predicted to reach 50,000. Therefore, higher education planners are not only faced with the task of improving quality but also the problem of providing the infrastructures necessary to accommodate forecast increase in demand for higher education space.

At the institutional level, universities and colleges across the Gulf are faced with a variety of challenges ranging from managing their recruitment, admissions and curriculum processes to measuring performance towards meeting quality assessment benchmarks.

In the last few years we have seen an emergence of a new generation of education policy-makers and administrators in the Gulf who are increasingly looking to technology to support decision-making, transform the process of teaching and learning, as well as provide students with new ways of 
working together.

Clearly, the increased funding for education in the region is creating opportunities to adopt best practices in higher education. For instance, in early 2008, the UAE Ministry of Higher Education commissioned an IT project that will unify the entire UAE public higher education data systems. With this new project the Higher Education Policy, Planning and Coordination (HEPPC) Department can make informed decision as well as get all the information they require for strategic planning.

Importantly, success in terms of developing home-grown skills in the Gulf will not undermine the demand for expatriates in the short or medium term; success will come in the form of new home grown graduates in all walks of economic life. They will innovate, they will generate new companies and new ideas, and they will engage further with institutions in the Gulf as they build more capabilities. A knowledge rich Arab world is achievable for the 
next generation.

Mathew Boice is General Manager, EMAE, for SunGard Higher Education; A global IT company providing software solutions and strategic consulting for higher education