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Education show to spread wings

DUBAI — After its resounding success in Dubai, the Gulf Education and Training and Exhibition (Getex) has now trained its sights on Bahrain, Iran and Egypt.

While Getex will be hosted in Bahrain this autumn, its plans to foray into the Iranian and Egyptian market is also on the cards, according to Anselm Godinho, MD of International Conferences and Exhibitions LLC.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Godinho said, “While Getex has originated in Dubai and it still remains our flagship event, we are expanding our reach and have already managed to host it in Abu Dhabi and India. Now we are eyeing newer markets in the future and countries like Iran and Egypt have a huge potential.”

The 19^th edition of the education exhibition got under way yesterday with Dr Saeed Hamad Al Hassani, Under Secretary for Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, inaugurating the event. The opening day of the five-day event witnessed over 500 participants addressing emerging needs in education, training and technology and colleges from all over the world were actively wooing students. More than 50 colleges from UAE were at the exhibition including leading universities like the Abu Dhabi University, American University of Sharjah, University of Dubai (UD), Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, Higher Colleges of Technology, University of Sharjah, GEMS Education among many others.

While there were about 130 universities from Europe, about 60 colleges made their way from India and over thirty-five colleges from North America were seen at the exhibition.

A total of 43 UK institutions, representing higher and further education as well as independent schools and examination boards, were present. According to figures from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, the total number of students from the UAE studying higher education (undergraduate/postgraduate level) in the UK in the academic year 2005-2006 increased by 15 per cent compared to the previous academic year. It is believed that there are now over 2,000 UAE students in the UK, with undergraduates slightly outnumbering (53 per cent of the total) the postgraduates.

Godinho said that the overall increase in exhibitors in Getex 2007 was about 15 per cent compared to last year. Technology is another arena that seems to have tremendous potential and saw a 25 per cent increase vis-a-vis last year.

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