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Doing it like Dubai

DUBAI International Academic City is seeking to evolve itself into a global hub of top quality universities and knowledge institutions that will attract talent from around the world. DIAC will be home to nearly 40 universities and will cater to more than 40,000 students from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The emirate hopes to use the initiative to develop what it calls a knowledge economy for the UAE and the Middle East.

DIAC which was opened only last year is billed as the world's first higher education free-zone. The whole project will take seven years to complete and will not only meet the growing needs of the country, already one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but it will also help meet the demands and requirements of the fast-evolving Middle East and the Arab world.

Dubai and UAE are already home to some fine universities and colleges like American University in Dubai and American University of Sharjah, not to mention the entirely indigenous and successful initiatives like the UAE University and Zayed University. In recent years, some of the top Western and Asian universities have set up shop in the country. The Knowledge Village in Dubai is home to many such universities and colleges. And some of these universities even help students transfer themselves to the US, UK and European campuses.

In fact, these initiatives have been so successful that other countries in the neighbourhood have started emulating them. Qatar has already set up a similar knowledge hub in Doha. Which is why this latest initiative by Dubai to set up a global free-zone of world class education is also expected to be as successful as all its previous initiatives.

The UAE leadership, especially His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has always been preoccupied with building world class centres of knowledge and excellence. Because as a visionary and pioneer nonpareil, he knows that the best way to help a country and people is by gifting it the power of knowledge.

The initiatives recently unveiled by the Mohammed Foundation and the staggering $10-billion dollar knowledge initiative that Shaikh Mohammed launched at the World Economic Forum in Jordan last year have all been part of this relentless quest to push the UAE and the Arab-Muslim world on the path to progress.

In fact, just as Dubai has always led by example, this is something that all Arab and Muslim countries, currently among the most backward in the world despite their rich human and natural resources, need to emulate.