Changing trends in academia

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Changing trends in academia
Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director, Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park

Academic institutions are working together with different industries and continue to collaborate with them to secure a bright future for students

by

Suchitra Steven Samuel

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Published: Thu 12 Apr 2018, 4:39 PM

Last updated: Wed 18 Apr 2018, 6:45 PM

Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director, Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park, shares his thoughts on educational trends in the UAE with Suchitra Steven Samuel. Excerpts: 
Trends in education
Education in general has been witnessing a number of changes. When it comes to higher education, the trend is towards borderless education, where you can see more than one university campus in more than one country. For example, SP Jain offers a number of programmes where students can study for one year each in the UAE, Singapore and Australia. As a result, students are exposed to more than just a classroom experience, they are exposed to life in general in the city where they attend, and adapt to different teaching modes and campuses. Other universities are also following this trend.
As for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), it is a blend of online learning techniques. A number of academic institutions offer courses and degrees online, and this is gaining popularity in graduate studies, especially since working professionals can acquire diplomas, or even graduate degrees, by studying from the comfort of their homes.
When it comes to higher education, there is a decline in students heading to certain destinations. In terms of destinations for higher education, the big four are US, UK, Australia and Canada. Today, there are emerging hubs for education with the UAE being one of them. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US witnessed almost 17 per cent decline in terms of international students in 2017 due to visa restrictions, fees and other factors. This allowed other hubs to grow and become a destination for students.
Earlier on, academic institutions used to work independently, however, looking at today's trends, they now work with various industries. We are noticing a number of discussions, collaborations, and communications between academic institutions and different industries.
The Dubai Science Park is part of the TECOM umbrella and works on the Industrial Strategy of the government. There are discussions with academic institutions, so that they understand DSP's plan, the courses, trends that they need to focus on and demands in the market, in terms of requirements for which kinds of studies for different students. This kind of dialogue is important. For example, Middlesex University created a sort of centre for innovation and excellence where they can have interaction with the industry. They bring mentors from the industry to conduct workshops, and train students that would allow them to better understand what is required from them once they go into the work environment. 
Adapting to new trends
We bring together the industry and academic partners through different events that we organise, such as the career fair. In the last one, we had about 6,000 students attending and about 80 companies participating in that event. This gives a window for students to interact with companies. We want to understand more from a scientific angle where we are not just guessing what the trend is but also getting into the details and having it based on numbers and facts. This is where we launched our research last year with BMI, the world's leading education events' organiser. We are working on different waves of the study. So, we started the first wave with students. We want to gauge the feedback from universities, academic institutions and recruitment agents, like how do they think, what do they think and what are they noticing. Through this we have a better picture in terms of what we do and what we have.
Another area of interest, for example is STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. We try to compare the results of the research with the trends that we noticed and we communicate these trends to the academic institutions even in terms of coming up with certain programmes that are in demand in the market which we feel is important. It is not only just them, I am sure the universities are doing their part, but we feel that there is a responsibility from our side also to shed the light on the most important trends, not only internationally, but also in Dubai as we serve a large expat population that is arriving and going back home, or travelling abroad. So, we need to understand international trends, what is important and what is of interest. So, all these things are part of what we try to look at, when it comes to responding to trends.
- suchitra@khaleejtimes.com


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