Higher Education Digest – October 2020 – Middle East Edition

OPPORTUNITIES, REFORMS & BEST PRACTICES MIDDLE EAST EDITION

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

October 2020

Vol - 2 Issue - 14

MIDDLE EAST EDITION Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Andrew Scott Joseph Alex

Naomi Wilson Stanly Lui Emma James

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MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

Middle East: An Emerging Global Hub of Higher Education and Research

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ducation is one of the high priorities for the Middle East region that has seen a spectacular economic rise over the past decades. For instance, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been engaged in a successful internationalization strategy, which has helped the country to emerge as one of the leading transnational education hubs in the world.

In a study conducted by the British Council, UAE was ranked high in terms of regulatory frameworks for student mobility, openness to transnational education, and recognition procedures for foreign degrees. As a result of it, UAE saw rapidly increasing outbound, and inbound student flows. Over the past few years, the number of international students choosing UAE universities has been rising sharply.

With the help of policies that support the internationalization of the higher education sector, substantial government spending and institutes continuously finding top positions in global university rankings, UAE is giving the western countries a run for their money. In fact, UAE is fast becoming an ideal location for institutions worldwide

seeking to broaden their global footprints. According to the Observatory of Borderless Education, UAE is the second leading country for international branch campuses behind China.

To explore the Middle East’s Higher Education System, we have come up with this special edition that features a collection of insightful articles. Written by academic experts and industry leaders, the essays discuss the higher education opportunities, reforms, and best practices in the Middle East. On the cover, we feature Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi, President & CEO, Higher Colleges of Technology – UAE. Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi, who has more than thirty-five research publications in world-class scientific journals and international conferences, writes about the ‘Persona 4.0’ concept, which is an expansive vision that can be developed in line with future advancements and challenges. The pages inside are filled with insights, information, and inspirations.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc. Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Dr.Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Dr. Venus M. Alboruto, PhD, Master Teacher, Researcher, Innovator, Trainer.

6 Major General (Rtd.) Dr. Sunil Chandra, VSM (Vishishta Seva Medal), Ph.D, M. Phil, MA, M.Ed, PGBDA Ex-M D Army Welfare Education Society, ExCOO GEMS Education - India, Ex- Addl Dir Gen - Army Education, Mentor - Adventure-Pulse

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE.

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com

Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Shanthi Rajan (MSHRM, FHEA, AMCILT) Director, Institution Development, University of Stirling, RAK Campus, UAE.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Senior Director HR. Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Suramya Mathai, Ph.D,M.Ed,MA,BA. Teachers Training Expert, Writer, Author, Speaker & Social Worker

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

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MUST-WATCH EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Creating Everlasting Societal and Economic Impact: HCT Today’s Distinctions and Strategic Foresight for Tomorrow Dr Ahmed Samy, Executive Director of Strategy & Future, Higher Colleges of Technology

MUST-WATCH EDTECH SOLUTION PROVIDER OF THE YEAR

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Blackboard: Supporting Education Institutions Across the Globe with Technology and Best Practices Robert Speed, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Blackboard

Ednex: Supporting Continuous Engineering and Vocational Education with Virtual, Remote Lab and Management System Senthil Kugan, Founder & CEO, EdNex

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ACADEMIC VIEW

In the Mission of Developing Job Creators – A Multipronged Approach from Middle East Higher Education System

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Prof. A M Sakkthivel, Professor of Marketing, Skyline University College

60 Higher Education - Challenges and Opportunities in the Middle East

Student-Centred Reform of Higher Education in the Middle East Region: The Importance of Promoting Engaged Teaching and Fostering an Entrepreneurial Mindset Prof Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, President & Prof Stephen C. Wilhite, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Success (Provost), American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK)

Prof Amitabh Upadhya, Provost & Vice President Academic Affairs, American College of Dubai

74 Adapting to the ‘New Normal’ of Higher Education Dr Fazal Malik, Dean of Humanities, Arts and Applied Sciences, Amity University, Dubai

Future-Proofing the University Campus Hugh Martin, Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer, The British University in Dubai

102 Learning by Doing: An Ancient Formula to Meaningful Education Dr Jacinta Dsilva, Assistant Professor – Marketing, Business School, Modul University, Dubai

92 Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST): A Higher Education Space Sciences Oasis in the Middle East Dr Ilias Fernini, Deputy General Director for Research Laboratories, Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST)

106 Not Only ‘Research Informed Teaching’ but ‘Teaching Informed Research’ in Enterprise Education Dr Naveed Yasin, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, Canadian University Dubai

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112 UAE - A New Sunshine in International Higher Education?

Dr Indranil Bose, Dean-School of Business, University of Bolton, Ras Al Khaimah

Learning Transformation: The Future of Middle East Business learning is Blended and Personalised Randa Bessiso, Founder and Director - Middle East, The University of Manchester, and Chair of the UAE-UK Business Council’s Higher Education Sub Group

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Myself, Yourself, iSelf: University Leadership in a Post-COVID World

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Dr Simon Jones, Vice-Chancellor at the National University, Oman

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The Significance of Research in Solving Real-World Problems Dr Yousef Al-Assaf, President, Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai

Higher Education Opportunities, Reform, and Best Practices in the Middle East Dr Tahani Aldosemani, Associate Professor of Educational Technology, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

144 134 Current Trends in Higher Education: A UAE Perspective Velanand SR, Managing Director, University of Stirling, Ras Al Khaimah

Bringing “Integrity� to Dinner Dr Zeenath Reza Khan, Head, Technology and Integrity in Academia and Beyond Research Group, University of Wollongong in Dubai

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STUDENT SPEAKS

GCC Student Mobility in Higher Education and the Unique Opportunities in UAE

50 Football, Biotechnology and Psychology: The Perks of Dreaming Big and Pursuing Passions Aidha Faisal, Student, BITS Pilani Dubai

INTERVIEW

66 UAE’s Higher Education Scenario Post-COVID Looks Very Bright Dr Christopher Abraham, CEO & Head, SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Dr Ajay Shukla, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Higher Education UAE

70 The Future of Higher Education in the UAE Daniel Adkins, CEO of Transnational Academic Group Education Management Services Provider of Curtin University Dubai

118 The Middle East Needs a World-Class Blended Learning University Dr Senthil Nathan, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi

COVER FEATURE

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Leading HCT to set new global standard in higher education in the Middle East

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Established in 1988, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) is the UAE’s largest applied higher educational institution, and the nation’s first approved university economic free zone.

Today, the institute has a well-respected reputation for innovative and applied workplace relevant education. More than 20,000 students attend HCT’s 16 modern, technology-enhanced men’s and women’s campuses in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, Fujairah, Madinat Zayed, Ras Al Khaimah, Ruwais, and Sharjah. Since 1991, HCT has awarded over 85,500 academic credentials to more than 61,000 graduates.

In this Middle East special edition of Higher Education Digest, we cover two informatic articles written Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi (President & CEO, HCT) and Dr Ahmed Samy (Executive Director of Strategy & Future, HCT).

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi, President & CEO, Higher Colleges of Technology - UAE

Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi received his PhD from

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Duke University, the USA in 1997 and received his Master and Bachelor degrees from Boston University. He is the President & CEO for the Higher Colleges of Technology as per Federal Decree (29) for 2015. Before his appointment in HCT, he was the Managing Director of the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT) from 2007 till the end of 2014, where he established Applied Technology High Schools (ATHS), Fatima College for Health Sciences, and Abu Dhabi Polytechnic. Started his career at UAE University as an associate professor, Dr AlShamsi’s appointments at UAE University included the post of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research where he founded a University-wide Internship and Work Integrated Learning (iWIL) program.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

COVER FEATURE

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he Fourth Industrial Revolution continues to fundamentally change the way we live, learn, and interact with each other. Driven by technological advancement, this exciting chapter in our history presents both challenges and opportunities, and educators are obliged to ensure the next generation is prepared and equipped to embrace them. These extraordinary circumstances we currently find ourselves in demonstrate that the future can become the present in a blink of an eye. Addressing such challenges requires organizational agility, preemptive strategies, and continuous innovation.

Talent development is a crucial component of education, making it imperative for educators to prepare students for their chosen careers. Technological breakthroughs, coupled with a global crisis like the COVID-19 outbreak, have had a significant disruptive impact on several economic sectors, some are

Higher Education Digest October 2020

collapsing, and others are flourishing or emerging. This disruption is impacting the types of jobs available and, in turn, forcing educational institutions to reconsider which talents they should nurture and develop.

Witnessing these emerging developments and challenges, we arrive at a new school of thought in talent development that I call ‘Persona 4.0’. This refers to the qualities and attributes that I believe will be perceived as valuable traits in the future. This ‘Persona 4.0’ is like a three-dimensional model of the ideal target persona that education providers ought to nurture and groom.

Persona 4.0 shall ensure graduates readiness not only for jobs that do not yet exist but also for unexpected challenges, such as COVID19 outbreak. The three dimensions are: ‘Digital Persona’, ‘Professional Persona’, and ‘Entrepreneurial Persona’, all of which should be developed alongside each other to craft the target persona of the future.

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The ‘Digital Persona’ reflects the importance of empowering individual learners with the right tools to bring out their natural disposition to embracing technology.

The ‘Professional Persona’ gives individuals the ability to lean in a continuous fashion embracing lifelong learning.

Finally, the ‘Entrepreneurial Persona’ equips individuals to put their digital and professional personas in practice coupled with research and analysis to come up with creative ideas and ultimately turn them into innovative startups, a true contribution to the knowledge economy and societal wellbeing. The remaining of this article further explores each of these persona dimensions.

Starting with the Professional Persona, the ability to become professional learners throughout their entire life and beyond just their work-life or specific careers.

A professional learner persona that can navigate rough waters and overcome challenges as and when they come. These are the individuals who reach an advanced

level of knowledge through a process of learning that is unapologetically self-reliant. Looking back, we see a clear evolution in educational themes, from instructional learning (where the educator plays the central role) to interactive learning (where it is shared with the learner), to knowledge building and empowerment in their latest incarnation. The latter produces professional learners with creative mindsets capable of critical thinking and problemsolving in a progressive manner fueled by their passion for learning.

While education remained unchanged for extended periods in the past, today’s landscape is completely different due to the rapidly accelerating technological breakthroughs we witness daily. Today’s generation of learners is vastly removed from their predecessors, benefitting from advanced skillsets shaped by a combination of all previous educational methodologies. This is evident from their swift and seamless transition to online learning during

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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More About Dr Abdullatif AlShamsi Dr AlShamsi has more than thirty-five research publications in world-class scientific journals and international conferences. His latest publications are a series of books published in Arabic titled: The Make of Education. Dr AlShamsi is a winner of the Federal Personality Award in its fifth edition, which is granted by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Chairman of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR).

Dr AlShamsi is currently the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT), and also of the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy (ADMA). He is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE), as well as Board member of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Schools Establishment. These are in addition to his membership of several higher committees and educational advisory councils, such as the Higher Education Coordination Council, and the Higher Committee for Aqdar World Summit.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

the COVID-19 outbreak. They succeeded in keeping pace with the current transformation because technology is their language and passion. This is a generation naturally inclined towards professional learning, and this has never been clearer.

Today’s digitally-native students have seamlessly transitioned to distance learning.

The next step is to empower them to assess their capabilities and set personal goals, an essential step towards instilling a habit of lifelong learning. Education should not be restricted to static academic plans, and universities are no longer the sole source of knowledge. Professional learners can benefit from a wide range of learning activities that they are exposed to daily. To the professional learner, a degree is just one part of a lifelong journey and not a goal in and of itself. It is a tool used to build knowledge and advance their careers.

The second dimension of the ‘Person 4.0’ is the ‘Digital Persona’, where the key to the successful transition of most education providers to online learning lies within the intrinsic digital abilities of students, their level of acceptance of digital tools and platforms, and their abilities to deal with them. Some of these abilities can be gained through study, but most are a byproduct of their daily lives, including their research, curiosity, and interests. This ‘Digital Persona’, built through embracing these digital tools, empowers them with required skill sets to be globally competitive and educationally self-reliant. Reinforcing this persona’s traits will create a generation that is prepared to face future career challenges. As educators, it is our responsibility to prepare students for the future and help them to gain the skills they need to improve their wellbeing.

Instilling the ‘Digital Persona’ identity early on supports the development of the ‘Professional Persona’ in a way that helps them utilize digital tools to develop their skills and careers continuously. To avail this, education providers should strategize educational technologies embedding it throughout the student journey. Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and smart technologies have contributed significantly to

students’ wellbeing and academic progression.

Educational technologies investments have become inevitable for those education providers seeking to create a brighter and more prosperous future for us all.

The third dimension of the ‘Persona 4.0’ is the ‘Entrepreneurial Persona’, the risktaking creative-minded persona. Startups and SMEs contribute massively to the GDP of advanced economies. They directly contribute to the job market by providing strong demand for young and highly qualified professionals.

They increase economic activity, generating demand for product and services, which result in job creation in multiple sectors, providing a viable alternative to current job market offerings. In the knowledge-based society, education providers are increasingly challenged to become more socially and economically relevant organizations by contributing to socio-economic development through the generation and exploitation of knowledge converted into entrepreneurial opportunities.

The role of education providers is widening, moving beyond preparing graduates for employment to graduating companies and creating jobs. Educators need to nurture the ‘Entrepreneurial Persona’ in students by instilling in them entrepreneurial skills that allow them to innovate and create their opportunities. As evident by the emergence of entirely new industries since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, today’s generation has the skill to put forward innovative ideas.

Capturing these ideas and transforming them into successful business concepts is crucial to preparing our young people for jobs that did not exist before, yet the future demands them. Moreover, we need to empower them to navigate challenges not yet created.

The ‘Persona 4.0’ concept is an expansive vision that can be developed in line with future advancements and challenges. It is an educational paradigm shift that understands how today’s generation is different from previous ones, with unique abilities and inclinations, and produces professionals that can meet the evolving requirements of pressing societal and economic needs.

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

Creating Everlasting Societal and Economic Impact: HCT Today's Distinctions and Strategic Foresight for Tomorrow

By Dr Ahmed Samy, Executive Director of Strategy & Future, Higher Colleges of Technology

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

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he Higher Colleges of Technology, a brand that carries pride and revolves on creating everlasting impact. An organization that has groomed tens of thousands of Emirati professionals that have been and continue to be shapers of the past, present, and future of our beloved United Arab Emirates.

Over the past five years, HCT had reimagined and transformed itself twice to become the great organization it is today, building on a strong legacy of achievements since its inception, yet known for its forward-looking vision and future proof outlook.

In 1985, H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and the founding Chancellor of HCT committed to establishing a new national system post-secondary education aiming at educating nationals for the professional and technical careers necessary in a rapidly developing society. In fulfilment of this vision, HCT was established in 1988 as the first applied higher education provider in the UAE. It is now the largest higher education institution, having a well-respected reputation for innovative and applied workplace relevant education. More than 20,000 students attend HCT’s 16 modern, technology-enhanced men’s and women’s campuses in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, Fujairah, Madinat Zayed, Ras Al Khaimah, Ruwais, and Sharjah.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Over 85,500 academic credentials were awarded to over 61,000 graduates since 1991.

In the spring of 2015, HCT established new leadership.

Dr Abdullatif Al Shamsi was appointed as the ViceChancellor. He is currently the President & CEO of HCT. The year when HCT started its first transformation journey to establish its new generation known as HCT 2.0. A vision that came along with the new leadership to position HCT as the leading applied higher education institution in empowering generations to contribute to shaping the UAE’s future. A vision that redefined HCT’s identity and refocused the colleges on their original mandate to introduce sustained societal and economic relevance. Graduate employability became the ultimate strategic outcome for HCT. That

constituted a commitment from HCT to its students that each would be awarded an academic credential and availed a job offer by graduation. Both HCT 2.0 vision and its commitment to our students and the wider community had to be translated into strategic initiatives and performance measures establishing the first five-year (2017-2021) strategic plan for HCT with a change agenda addressing four priority areas: graduate employability, student success, innovative learning, and academic excellence.

This second generation of HCT launched 25 strategic initiatives, most of which have now become mainstream operations. It all started by creating a shared identity redefining what HCT is all about. We are not comprehensive, we are not into fundamental research, and we are not in the business of just transferring knowledge.

We care about our students’ wellbeing and that of our local communities; we are in the place of delivering applied skills-based education; we are about solving realworld problems through applied research and innovation.

This critical first step of establishing a shared, inclusive identity was vital in defining our new business model, the value proposition to all our beneficiaries, corporatelike governance reinforcing agile decision-making at all fronts, and a full organizational restructuring to build on synergies and introduce operational efficiencies.

Fast forward to late 2018, H.E. Nasser Bin Thani Juma Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratization, was appointed the new Chancellor of HCT, reinforcing the economic and societal mandate of HCT and its contribution to the development of national human capital. Later in March 2019, H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, visited our Fujairah Campus. His Highness announced HCT as the nation’s first approved university economic and creative free zone in line with article 6 of the Dubai 50-Year Charter that calls for all universities to establish themselves as such to graduate companies and support students to become entrepreneurs. HCT was ready for its second recreation with this economic and creative free zone announcement and newly established leadership. A pursuit that further developed HCT 2.0, where employability was the ultimate strategic outcome, gave birth to its fourth-generation HCT 4.0. While employability remains core, it goes beyond creating jobs through nurturing entrepreneurs and graduating companies.

As the fourth industrial revolution rapidly approaches, and previously stable jobs are replaced with a new range of employment, working Emirati professionals will need to be reskilled and up-skilled as Technical Leaders in existing and new employment sectors. The reskilling

will ensure that Emiratis are at the forefront, in futureproof jobs, of all industries that are key to the growth and ongoing diversification of the country’s economy. This will not happen unless institutions, such as HCT, change the emphasis of education programs from imparting knowledge to developing skills and competencies; from teaching students to empowering learners to be cocreators of their lifelong development journeys; from a focus on public sector jobs to the private sector; from students relying solely on being employees to becoming entrepreneurs. A challenge that the future presents and HCT 4.0 is our defined response to that challenge so that No Emirati is Left Behind, as we boldly enter this new world.

Here comes 2020, a year that brought tremendous challenges and, above all, a global pandemic that is affecting the entire human race. However, 2020 is a year of celebration for HCT. We celebrated our success stories developed and bolstered since the beginning of our transformation journey in 2015 with enormous institutional efforts and commitment to success accumulated over the years. We celebrated our successful transition to full online operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic and setting the stage for our newly adopted hybrid-in-space education model. Reflecting on the past few years and sharing five of our flagship stories of success to date.

Success Story #1: Our flagship Hybrid Education model –An Academic and a Professional Credential upon Graduation HCT’s focus on graduate employability led to the development and deployment of its Hybrid Education model. A model that introduced a significant reform

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to all HCT program offerings to ensure sustainable alignment with industry requirements while maintaining academic rigour. A model that centres on student success through timely career counselling and academic advising while blending traditional and innovative teaching and learning methods throughout the curriculum, including specialization-related compulsory internship for all study programs. A model that recognizes industry and job-specific professional certifications by ensuring alignment with its bodies of knowledge that have been recognized by the industry for credibility and improved performance.

Today, HCT has partnered with 20 professional certifications and qualifications awarding bodies who endorsed 98% of HCT study programs in five disciplines for alignment with their qualifications’ bodies of knowledge. 52% of HCT’s entire graduate cohort of Academic Year 18/19 year were awarded a professional certification or qualification upon graduation. Our graduates employed by the private sector have more than doubled, with 90% of our graduates’ employers satisfied with HCT’s programs’ industry relevance.

Success Story #2: InnCuVation Spaces – Innovate, Incubate, and Venture The concept and vision for our InnCuVation Spaces were outlined back in early 2016 as one of HCT2.0 strategic

Higher Education Digest October 2020

initiatives aiming at nurturing students’ innovation and entrepreneurship with the outcome of graduating entrepreneurs and hi-tech startups to broaden HCT’s contribution to the UAE’s knowledge economy. The word InnCuVation is an amalgamation of the underlying concepts of innovation, incubation, and venture. All of which constitute the essence of these spaces that synergistically coexist to drive impact.

Three InnCuVation Spaces were inaugurated in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, and Sharjah campuses in March 2019, all fully equipped with the latest technologies and hi-tech equipment. These spaces were designed to provide a fully integrated ecosystem of distinctive areas, namely: design and media, programming and computing, intelligence augmentation, fabrication and prototyping, early-stage startup workspace. In addition to a dedicated industry partner area as an optimal landing spot for those partners willing to cooperate with our faculty and students.

HCT, through the InnCuVation Spaces, has been instrumental and responsive to the demands of the continually changing needs of the community, not only of the education sector but also that of the healthcare industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic, and through the InnCuVation Spaces, HCT was able to develop and test 3D printed ventilator splitters in five hospitals in cooperation with various UAE healthcare authorities.

Additionally, HCT managed to create a low-cost emergency mechanical ventilator to support the healthcare systems of low GDP countries that are heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Both applied research projects stand to demonstrate HCT’s distinguished agile mindset with a focus and impact on the wellbeing of society.

HCT rolls out in its InnCuVation Spaces, a unique Startup Development Program with a massive support plan for students sparked startups. Annually, the program engages over 1,400 students, targeting more than 120 startup projects. The program offers entrepreneurship talks, hosting acclaimed successful entrepreneurs to share their stories and experiences. Along with these talks, the program provides around ten Inspire & Ideate sessions to further develop students’ abilities to create ideas and innovate solutions that can be launched through startup

projects. These startup projects are then advanced through structured Startup Bootcamps addressing the strategy, market, and operational dimensions. Successful completion of the Bootcamp requirements qualifies startup projects to get a seat in one of two ten-week intensive Startup Accelerator programs designed to accelerate their growth and establish reliable business operations. To date, HCT’s flagship Startup Development Program, running at our InnCuVation Spaces, has facilitated the launch of 45 startups involving more than 170 students. Out of these, 14 have acquired a trade license, and 8 have commercial activities and full operational teams in place.

Success Story #3: The Global Applied Education Network – Creating the Next Practice in Applied Education Inspired by the UAE’s transformational move towards developing its innovative knowledge economy, the Global Applied Education Network (GAEN), the first of its kind at such a global scale, came about as a strategic initiative in January 2018. The strategic aim is to establish a global platform for the global applied education sector to collaboratively address the workforce and employability

challenges posed by the fourth industrial revolution.

In addition, GAEN aims to exchange knowledge and expertise and advocate for applied education globally.

GAEN was established as a multilateral hub and spoke partnership model with peer-minded applied education institutions worldwide. The vision is to create a collaborative platform to boost collaboration among leading applied higher education institutions worldwide and give rise to an innovative workforce by offering internationally recognized joint degree programs. It seeks to develop innovative industry-partnerships in applied knowledge creation and production for a competitive knowledge economy. GAEN reinforces drivers for academic excellence, innovative learning, student success, graduate employability, and internationalization. It also creates exchange opportunities for students, faculty, and university administration.

GAEN was formally launched in Oct 2018 with nine founding partners from six countries from five continents and is well-positioned to grow in membership and capabilities. Since its establishment, members of GAEN have been actively participating in developing national initiatives like the recent launch of sector skills academies

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

targeting high economic growth sectors as identified in the UAE employment strategy and the most recent initiative to establish the UAE SkillsFuture framework.

GAEN was well received at the Annual Conference of the European Association for International Education held in Helsinki in 2019, where HCT signed a collaborative agreement with the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (ARENE).

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Success Story #4: Accreditation at the Core International quality principles embedded, and recognitions achieved HCT has an ongoing commitment to achieving international standards in the delivery of its applied programs. To ensure such standards are met, HCT has formed alliances with leading universities, educational associations, and professional accreditation bodies around the world to ensure its programs are at the cutting edge of technology and industry standards. The Commission of Academic Accreditation CAA is the Federal Government’s quality assurance agency charged with promoting educational excellence across diverse institutions of higher learning in the UAE. Before 2013, HCT was exempted from national accreditation requirements administered by the CAA, as was the case for all three federal universities in the UAE. In late 2013, HCT began its journey with CAA by applying for institutional licensure, resulting in a successful outcome.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About Dr Ahmed Samy Dr Samy is the Executive Director of Strategy & Future at the Higher Colleges of Technology and a member of two national In 2016, HCT applied for program accreditation for all of its programs and became the first federal institution to achieve full national accreditation of all its applied programs within a record timeframe.

At the international level, HCT has become one of the first six higher education institutions in the world to receive accreditation from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), UK’s independent body, and a global leader in quality assurance for higher education.

This global accreditation is awarded to institutions that have passed the QAA’s rigorous International Quality Review, an independent peer-review measuring global institutions against the European Standards and Guidelines. Besides, HCT has all its eligible programs internationally accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology - Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission, the Information System Technology Accreditation Commission, the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, and finally, the Health Information Management Association of Australia.

agenda executive teams overseeing international accreditation and graduation rates of the Higher Education sector in the UAE. He has served four consecutive years on the National Board of Directors of the Association for Strategic Planning in the USA and was their elected Vice President.

Dr Samy co-chaired the World Strategy Summit held in Abu Dhabi in 2015 and serves as the current Chairman of the Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award. He holds professional credentials in strategic management, strategic foresight, project and change management, and Organizational Excellence. His doctorate is in business forecasting and holds two master degrees in business administration and software engineering from the USA.

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HCT has been awarded the prestigious CHEA International Quality Group’s Quality Award by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) at the 2020 CHEA-CIQG Conference in Washington DC, making it the first higher education institution in the Australasia, EU, and the MENA region to receive this award. With only three educational institutions selected worldwide to receive this award annually, HCT was recognized for meeting their international quality principles, described by the members of the award panel as excellent, inspiring, and innovation-driven. At the forefront of leading change, HCT has also been awarded the Leading Change Award at the Blackboard 2019 Catalyst Awards in recognition of its efforts in actively promoting widespread adoption of innovative strategies aimed at boosting learning outcomes and student success.

Success Story #5: Digi Campus Overnight Instructional and Business Continuity amid COVID-19 HCT’s transition to online, distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be an overwhelming success with over 16,500 HCT students participating in a wide range of e-activities and programs through HCT’s Digi Campus. Of that figure, 14,300 students participated in 700 online activities, including life skills courses, e-competitions, sports and fitness classes, e-reading, and remote volunteer work. In comparison, 2,324 students participated in the employability program offered through the Digi Campus’s e-Employability Hub. The Digi Campus initiative was launched in early 2018 to respond to developments of the fourth industrial revolution and develop and implement an innovative,

Higher Education Digest October 2020

transformative digital campus model. The global disruption ignited by the COVID-19 pandemic galvanized HCT to completely shift from in-person to online classes and online delivery of student services. At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, the whole institution was mobilized to ensure a seamless transition to the digital platforms. HCT’s readiness for business and instructional continuity was a result of orchestrating an ecosystem perspective on digital transformation, a forward-looking institutional strategy that has technology utilization as a central pillar, an education technology strategy, and a comprehensive set of intelligent learning tools.

HCT delivered 234,000 learning hours through 61,000 online classes during the fully online delivery model and had over 21,000 hours of online professional development sourced from HCT’s Learning Management System.

Over the same period, more than 1,900 employees were running the business as usual from home. Envisioning future scenarios and preparing the organization for them is a practice that should be deployed in parallel to business continuity. As such, HCT was amongst the first higher education institutions in the region to conduct a strategic foresight scenario planning exercise that investigated four scenarios for HCT considering two dimensions: (1) COVID-19 pandemic longevity and (2) the UAE economic and social resilience. An analysis of the opportunities and challenges of each of the resulting four scenarios was conducted, and a set of proactive strategies was devised and operationalized in preparation of the Academic Year 2020/2021.

A Vision for the Future We see a future that demands resilience, innovation, proactivity, and agility. Like many other sectors, education has been significantly disrupted and will continue to transform throughout the entire ecosystem. At HCT, we were ready and well prepared for this disruption with early investments in educational technologies, human capital development, and strategic foresight capabilities. At the start of this academic year, we were amongst the first to announce our full deployment of the hybrid-in-space education model, an added dimension to our flagship Hybrid Education framework, where online and classroom teaching and learning

are effortlessly integrated to deliver a fulfilling learning experience for our students. Depending on the applied nature of every course and specialization offered here at HCT, learning components are either delivered online, oncampus, or hybrid. Hybrid Education is not a remedial or transitional move, but rather a new revolutionary model that HCT is promoting to the world.

Our vision for the future of education is crystal clear. We envision a futuristic education system that will adopt four core strategies to build a human-centred learning ecosystem, focused on talent development and growth.

First, an ecosystem that provides means and tools for personalized learning experiences to develop talents and exploit human potential, the futuristic education system is one that recognizes that every human has a talent and, as such, requires personalized educational tools to best nurture and further develop such talent. The aim here is to develop each student’s independent learning capacity and capability to become lifelong learners.

Second, establish and maintain a credible digital badging and micro-credentialing system. The 4 to 5 yearlong credentials are no longer a feature of a futuristic education system but rather a micro or even nano credentialing system that is entirely driven by skills and competencies development. The strategy here is to establish a credentialing system that is on-demand and accessible at any stage of one’s career to upskill or reskill for better alignment with one’s career aspirations and potential moves.

Third, review programs and curricula and transform into skill-based to support economic sectors: The futuristic education system is one that operates in close partnership with industry and government to bridge the talent gap and win the talent war. Accordingly, this would entail that all offered programs and curricula are tailored to develop jobs’ skills requirements along the economic sector’s standardized career pathways.

Fourth, redesign campus space to enable applied learning: The current brick and mortar model of campuses will disappear in the futuristic education system. Campuses will be redesigned and re-engineered to facilitate applied learning in work simulated environments that are sectorspecific and job-driven. Classrooms will disappear and be replaced by open workspaces to encourage social interaction and promote entrepreneurial activities.

At HCT, we are on a quest to realize this futuristic vision.

We established our colleges as talent and skill incubators to deliver the national agenda. We will continue to do so, leveraging on our hybrid learning model and strategic partnerships, to recreating our campuses as immersive simulations of the world of work while sustaining a fulfilling learning journey for our students.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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MUST-WATCH EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Blackboard: Supporting Education Institutions Across the Globe with Technology and Best Practices 32 What has changed in the education sector as institutions aim to continue instruction during the pandemic?

Robert Speed: With our deep knowledge and experience in the MEA region, we have played a key role in helping our clients to develop teaching and learning strategies. Digital transformation in education was already happening, and COVID-19 has accelerated the shift that so many institutions were experiencing. Many of our clients were leading digital transformation on their campuses long before 2020 and the pandemic. The implementation of these stratigies were sped up as circumstances required it. We know that this is not a temporary shift. The use of digital technologies for learning is here to stay, both to enable fully virtual courses and complement face-toface programs.

As an EdTech company, what are the significant challenges Blackboard faced when educational institutions move to fully online courses?

Robert Speed: We immediately focused on supporting our clients across the globe with transitioning to fully-remote instruction. We worked with our strategic partner, Amazon Web Services, to leverage their leading cloud infrastructure and scale our platform by 50 times to support the unprecedented surge in users in MEA during this time from hundreds of institutions.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Blackboard is a leading education technology company supporting over 150 million learners, parents, educators and administrators in every region of the world

Robert Speed, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Blackboard

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Blackboard is a leading education technology (EdTech) company serving higher education, K-12, business and government clients around the world. The company connects a deep understanding of education with the power of technology to continuously push the boundaries of learning. The company witnessed a 3,600% increase in daily global users for its virtual classroom solution, Blackboard Collaborate, when educational institutions around the world closed their campuses during the pandemic. In an interaction with Higher Education Digest, Robert Speed, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Blackboard, talked about unique products and services Blackboard offers to educational institutions, the company’s long-term goals and much more.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Robert Speed

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Robert Speed joined Blackboard in May 2017.

Robert is an experienced global executive who is passionate about education, software and technology in education with over 15 years of experience. Before Blackboard Robert served as the Head of Middle East Region for Promethean, a global k-12 education company. Besides, Robert has served in progressive leadership and director roles in the technology manufacturing industry.

His business skills are steadily guiding the Middle East & Africa team at Blackboard to support and retain 110 key customers in the Higher Education with leading Institutions and to secure over 90% of the market share has certainly established the company’s name within the industry.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra saw an increase of nearly 3 million active users who clocked 2.3 billion virtual classroom minutes across the region during the period from March to May 2020.

How is your accessibility solution Blackboard Ally helping institutions to improve the quality of content in these challenging times?

Robert Speed: Blackboard Ally helps institutions build a more inclusive learning environment and improve the student experience by assisting them to take control of course content with usability, accessibility and quality in mind.

We expanded our accessibility tool’s functionality to work on our mobile app, so students can access the content they need no matter where they are learning. Blackboard has further invested in the Middle East. Ally is available in Arabic to serve educators, institutions and learners.

Tell us about the unique products and services Blackboard offers to educational institutions.

How does the company intend to stand out from the crowd?

Robert Speed: Blackboard is a leading education technology company supporting over 150 million learners, parents, educators and administrators in every region of the world. With our global footprint, powerful technologies, and education expertise, we are uniquely positioned to lead the industry to a personalized experience.

This journey to personalization is critically important because we believe that learner success at scale is achieved through personalized user experience. Our mission to advance learning is in service of learners, educators, and institutions.

We offer an integrated cloud EdTech platform which includes our leading LMS, Blackboard Learn, our virtual classroom solution, Blackboard Collaborate, our

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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accessibility solution, Blackboard Ally, and our data platform, Blackboard Data. In addition, we help to drive technical fluency and skills development through our Blackboard Digital Teaching and Learning Series, a global, solutionagnostic professional development offering.

Describe the team behind Blackboard and the experience that the team brings to the table.

Robert Speed: We have teams on the ground and work with partners in the region that know the local challenges. We work very closely on the ground with our partners and customers to advise them of the continuous investments we make in our software and technology.

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What are the critical trends in EdTech to follow in 2021? How is Blackboard planning to drive the innovation in this sector?

Robert Speed: Personalized learning and hybrid learning are here to stay. Blackboard has access to the data that is needed to bring this personalized, learner-success focused vision to life, It is not about highlighting grades, test scores and performance data in every interface. It is about creating products and services that leverage data from disparate sources in a way that identifies latent patterns, visualizes these patterns and insights for learners, educators and administrators. We leverage these insights into our own innovation. We pair these insights with the ability to take meaningful action inside our products and solutions.

We also believe that AI, machine learning, automated solutions, and partner integrations are critical components of innovation that deliver the personalized experience for learning. And this all comes to life through the user experience.

This experience takes a whole student approach, thinking about much more than academics.

For students to meet their goals, they need support inside and outside the classroom. They must be able to self-pace, access individualized instruction and content in a way that works for their unique needs. They need nudges, outreach, and access to solutions that help them stay on track. Younger students need parents not just to be informed but to be engaged.

We believe that this approach can help learners realized their goals at a new scale, and by focusing on a common goal of learner outcomes, educators and institutions are empowered to achieve their goals as well. We are the only EdTech company able to support this approach to personalization—gathering

Higher Education Digest October 2020

data insights from across the student journey and quickly delivering learner-success focused innovations.

Post-COVID-19, what are the opportunities Blackboard sees in the education market?

Robert Speed: Leveraging Data We bring this approach to the market in what we call a learning experience ecosystem. It is a holistic

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solution for driving a personalized experience fueled by data. And through the learning experience ecosystem, we enable educators, administrators, and learners to access personalization and improve learning outcomes. Data is the foundation of the ecosystem, informing functionality, features, and development. Our work is grounded in data in much more than a conceptual way – it is the backbone of our platform approach.

The data gathered through the personalized experience – like the 25 billion weekly interactions in our learning

management and virtual classroom systems that I mentioned earlier – feedback into our data foundation, informing what’s next in our capabilities. This continuous improvement approach is critical to driving learner success today and tomorrow.

Delivering Professional Development In these last four years, we shaped a different approach to educators’ professional development. We know educators need time and a safe space to explore and experiment with

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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teaching, as well as the opportunity for critical reflection, to produce innovation. That’s why our courses provide a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities with a cycle including practical tasks, individual reflection, interaction, feedback and application.

We have created Blackboard Academy. It is not sufficient to just train teachers with technological advancements and solutions but instil overall professional development. This begins with the development of the educators’ pedagogical and digital capabilities bringing about the creation of the best possible online learning experience for students.

Digital teaching and learning tools have evolved over the years to deliver a personalized, anywhereanytime, seamless and connected experience suited to the needs of today’s ‘digital natives’ than traditional classrooms.

Over the last year, our community has grown significantly. More than 12,000 participants from 38 countries have taken at least one of our courses.

Through the DTLS programme, we have issued over 1,900 certifications. We extended our courses to not just institutions, but individuals too. Educators, independent of their institutions, can now sign up for Blackboard’s courses or programmes.

Tell us about the plans for Blackboard. What are the short-term and long-term goals?

Robert Speed: The importance of distance education in an increasingly uncertain world of global pandemics and other dramatic disruptions is without a doubt.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Institutions will likely integrate virtual teaching and learning formats and practices into their infrastructures and harness it to develop a more robust system.

Our technologies are built for this very purpose, and we have quality solutions in place to accommodate the specific needs of each institution.

We are also proactively collaborating and engaging with our clients in the Middle East and around the world to anticipate their current and future user needs.

While COVID-19 has undoubtedly put an increased focus on online and distance learning and continuity of education, we believe that the future will include more blended learning and flipped classrooms. In this situation, cloud-based solutions will continue to grow in importance as they can rapidly scale to meet institution’s needs and we are working hard to ensure success is maintained to meet and exceed the aspirations of the 2030 vision What is your advice to the educational institutions who are looking for a technology partner?

Robert Speed: Universities can learn from the experiences of institutions that have in the past had to transition to online models in times of crises. We have created the Continuity of Education space on the Blackboard Community Site for institutions to learn from their peers and share resources and plans with each other aimed at maintaining the quality and continuity of education.

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

MUST-WATCH EDTECH SOLUTION PROVIDER OF THE YEAR

Ednex: Supporting Continuous Engineering and Vocational Education with Virtual, Remote Lab and Management System

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What has been the impact of technology on education during this pandemic?

The world currently is going through a crisis that is unprecedented due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For us, in the education sector, the challenge is humungous with the education of 300+ million students disrupted worldwide, leaving the universities and schools to deal with a situation that they were never prepared to handle.

However, thanks to the advancement in technology, today we can ensure that education continues despite wide-spread and uncertain lockdowns on educational institutions, and have positive learning experiences and outcomes, including technical education, which is so strongly dependent on hands-on learning. How to extend the traditional hands-on laboratory settings over the online virtual and remote labs remains as a major challenge.

Access to the laboratories to get hands-on experience has been a significant roadblock during the pandemic. How can we overcome this challenge faced by technical and vocational education system?

Traditionally, hands-on laboratories have been an essential part of undergraduate engineering and vocational programs. Concepts taught through lectures are often complemented with laboratory experimentations. Hands-on education allows students to experience the concepts and practising skills, conducting experiments, observing dynamic phenomena, testing hypotheses, learning from their mistakes, and reaching their own conclusions.

With the rapid progress of the controls and communication technologies like IOT, more and more lab can be conducted with Online Virtual Lab that can be reconfigured and controlled remotely. These new functionalities have been making remote hands-on training via Internet

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Beyond the pandemic, the virtual and remote labs have great potential and need to be adopted across the universities and vocational schools

Senthil Kugan

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Based in Dubai, EdNex is the brainchild of Senthil Kugan, a tech-entrepreneur and a visionary with an endless passion for education and innovative technology solutions for learning. A futuristic experiential learning and training consultant and solutions provider for K-12, Higher Education and Vocational & Industrial organisations, EdNex ensures that educational institutions do not have to play catch up. Adopting a consultative approach and partners, the company seeks to meet the training and learning needs of institutions with their world-class products and innovative solution. In an interaction with Higher Education Digest, Senthil Kugan talks about the importance of virtual and remote lab in technical education, solutions offered by EdNex and many more.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Senthil Kugan

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Senthil Kugan’s unwavering commitment to improve the classroom and shaping the path in which students learn in the future has set new benchmarks in the industry.

He has been instrumental in pioneering many

pathbreaking

initiatives

such

as

Integrated STEM Labs, Innovation Labs, Fab Labs, Makerspaces, etc. and prestigious competitions such as the Robotics Olympiad, 3D Printing Olympiad, First Lego League, etc.

Senthil has presented at many prestigious events and conducted several technical workshops in STEM, Robotics, Coding, etc. EdNex is his brainchild, founded with the vision of bringing futuristic experiential learning solutions to the new generation of learners and educators.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

possible. New possibilities in the way lab exercises are performed include the simulation lab environment online without the license issued to students’ computers and student can accesses this lab through Virtual Lab management system of the university/vocational school.

Currently, there are two approaches to conducting labs online, virtual and remote labs.

There is a lack of awareness in the educational community who either do not know many details about them or do not know them at all. What are its benefits?

Which examples of virtual and remote labs for Engineering & Vocational education can be found in Virtual lab and remote and how spread and popular are they? What are the current trends and issues in the implementation and deployment of these tools? And the future ones?

What are Virtual Lab and Remote lab? Why are they important now?

The Virtual lab is based on the software Java applet, Flash, Matlab /Simulink, Labview and other software to simulate the Labs like Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Electrical & Electronics, Manufacturing, Control. Virtual lab simulations are in use along with the hardware in laboratories traditionally. Now these virtual Simulations are available through cloud-based online portals, which enable the institution to allow the students to access this virtual lab without issuing a license to the students’ devices where they can access this virtual lab from the virtual lab and management portal.

Remote lab, by definition, is an experiment conducted and controlled on the lab hardware remotely through the Internet with the web interface software. The experiment conducted to use the real hardware in the lab or different location. This remote lab can be equipped with the features based on the lab requirement and safety requirement of the hardware. Students can be allowed only to collect the data,

or they are allowed to control the parameters remotely.

This is based on the hardware control features for the web interface. With new IoT enabled controls made the digital twins possible in the future labs, already leading educational lab manufactures like Quanser and Intelitek adopted the remote lab control and digital twins features in their lab equipment.

What are the benefits of Online Virtual and Remote labs?

Beyond the pandemic, the virtual and remote labs have great potential and need to be adopted across the universities and vocational schools. It enables the student to access the lab 24x7. Universities can adopt virtual lab along with hardware for expensive labs like CNC, CIM, Robotics, Automation and other control labs to extend the hands-on learning to the student any time.

Virtual labs allow student to repeat an experiment multiple times, giving them the opportunity to test the experiments with various parameters and outcomes. The most important benefit of a virtual lab is to let student learn from failures without causing any real damages, which is also objective of engineering education laboratories.

Student can gain more skill by allowing them to work on the virtual lab.

What are currently available options in the virtual lab for engineering and vocational education?

Most of the Mechanical, Mechatronics, Electrical & Electronics, Robotics & Control labs are currently available in popular Virtual lab portals like Learnmate and Qlab. The options include Engineering Foundation labs, Electrical and Electronics E-learning with Virtual lab, Material Testing, CNC/CAD/CAM/CIM, Pneumatics/ Hydraulics/Sensor/PLC, Robotics/Vision, Control lab, Instrumentation and Process Control.

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Tell us about the challenges in the implementation and deployment of a virtual lab.

In spite the virtual labs are in existence for more than a decade, the importance of online virtual lab is widely discussed during this pandemic where it became essential for universities and vocational schools to continue to deliver the technical education with standards.

The main challenge is lack of awareness and training for existing lab engineers and faculties to adopt this virtual lab as a part of their education systems. Universities and vocational Schools has to adopt the virtual lab management tools, as a part of their learning management system. The institutes need to train lab engineers and faculties on virtual lab to deliver, manage and lab assessment report.

Migration from an existing lab management tool to the online assessment tool for labs is another challenge.

Institutions would need IT infrastructure and resources for deploying the cloud-based virtual lab.

As a company that creates futuristic learning experiences for the next-generation learners and professionals, what are the solutions offered by Ednex?

Being a futuristic experiential learning solution provider, we create awareness on virtual lab management platforms

Higher Education Digest October 2020

in partnership with leading virtual lab solution providers like Intelitek Learnmate and Quanser Qlabs. We have created a virtual lab management packages for various labs. We deliver the platform with the lab management systems to interface with the existing LMS in the institute, or they can also manage the lab with the management system provide by Ednex.

We also provide the virtual lab management certificate training for lab Engineers to get them certified in labs including Mechanical and Mechatronics, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical and Electronics, Instrumentation and Process Control.

What is your advice to the educational institution on building virtual labs?

There are various studies conducted about the effectiveness of virtual and physical labs, and both labs offer significant experience, skills, and knowledge.

Hence, virtual labs are a great supplement to a physical lab rather than an alternative. Therefore, the focus of modern universities should be on designing hybrid laboratories and also altering the curriculum accordingly to combine the positive aspects of the physical and virtual lab to ensure that all the learning objectives of engineering laboratories are achieved in full.

Want to Sell or find Investor for your Business?

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

ACADEMIC VIEW

In the Mission of Developing Job Creators – A Multipronged Approach from Middle East Higher Education System Prof. A M Sakkthivel, Professor of Marketing, Skyline University College

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M

iddle East collegiate education has come a long way over a period which focused on developing job seekers in different fields which were pertinent to different countries from time to time. The higher education systems primarily focused and adopted to the system of developing human resources to help building the countries and ready for the different industries each country focused on to develop with. However, the scenario took a big shift during the middle 2000s, which primarily focused on developing job creators. The higher education system in different countries adopted to introduce courses like entrepreneurship and innovation in collegiate curriculum irrespective of different disciplines. It has become a part of the college requirement that the students should study these courses in bachelor and even master level. The whole intention is to create an interest in the minds of the students to embark on a journey to become job creators. Simultaneously, the universities were busy setting up appropriate ecosystems to do so.

Pedagogy The universities and colleges have developed an integrated pedagogy to inculcate the aspects related to entrepreneurship and innovation.

The pedagogy consists of different aspects, encouraging and nurturing the entrepreneurial and innovative intentions among the students. The pedagogy focuses on embedding different aspects among the students such as creativity, analytical thinking, design thinking, problem-solving skills, communication skills, business acumen, teamwork, etc. to name a few. Each course offered at bachelor and master level ensures the aspects

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Making the students become job creators has become a prominent agenda of the universities and colleges from the Middle East

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Prof. Dr. A M Sakkthivel

Higher Education Digest October 2020

described above to be inculcated through the course delivery. Besides, the faculty members are encouraged to use new innovative teaching methodologies and integrating the same with the technology during the course delivery (physical and digital). These methodologies focus on providing a holistic understanding of the course through real-life scenarios and applications. Moreover, the smart integration of technologies offers hands-on experience to the students related to business aspects through running business simulation exercises. These exercises provide an in-depth understanding of the operational and strategic aspects of business and enhance the decision-making skills of the students. Overall, the pedagogy has been designed to make the students ready to embark on a journey to become job creators the moment they wish to become so.

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Curriculum focused ecosystem Making the students become job creators has become a prominent agenda of the universities and colleges from the Middle East.

It is a conscious and concerted effort from the governments to guide and encourage the higher education system to set up an inclusive mechanism that enables the universities and colleges to create an inherent ecosystem for the students to become the job creators. Thus, the introduction of the college-level courses such as entrepreneurship and innovation that should be taught across the different disciplines in bachelor and master level programmes. Notwithstanding, the universities and colleges are encouraged to develop specialized programmes related to entrepreneurship and innovation for the students who are serious to consider becoming job creators from the moment they graduate.

These programmes consist of courses dedicated to inculcating the multi-faced aspects of creating and operating new business ventures.

This concerted effort provides ample avenues to the students those who are serious about commencing new business ventures rather looking to gain employment upon graduation.

This effort helps the universities and colleges to produce a considerable number of students who intend to become job creators. These programmes enable the students to be equipped with necessary knowledge, skills and expertise

Higher Education Digest October 2020

to commence the new business ventures the moment they graduate. It is imperative to notice that the students across the different disciplines are encouraged to become job creators, which was previously meant only for the business students.

External body support system It is vital to understand that the mission of creating job creators has been a well thoughtabout and concerted effort of the governments of Middle Eastern countries. To achieve the goal, the governments developed a multi-faced ecosystem to make the goal possible and a reality. The ecosystem has well-guided policies and procedures which helps the stakeholders to understand and implement the process. The ecosystem consists of players represent the government and private entities who help the universities and colleges in developing job creators. These entities provide a multitude of support such as providing intellectual capital, organizing awareness workshops, skill-based workshops, competitions, acting as nodal agencies, providing funding avenues, to name a few. Such synchronization of efforts from these entities ensures the effective implementation of the process and smooth attainment of the set goals, i.e. development of job creators. The governments set up an effective monitoring system to coordinate with all the stakeholders to ensure the goals to be achieved. The credit points are provided to the private entities those who involve in this process. It is a highly pro-active approach from the governments to ensure the involvement of the private entities in developing the job creators.

University-College based entrepreneurial development ecosystem Apart from all the necessary support from the government and private entities to develop the job creators, the universities and colleges have registered a concerted effort to provide continuous and goal-based support to the students those who are serious about becoming the entrepreneurs. Besides, the curriculum support, the universities and colleges ensure that the students involve in co-curricular activities related to entrepreneurship and innovation.

About

Prof. Dr. A M Sakkthivel Prof. Dr. A M Sakkthivel holds a PhD in Business Administration (Marketing) from Utkal University (Equalized under MOE, UAE), Bhubaneswar, India. He also has done certification of EEC (Entrepreneurship Educator Course) with Honors from Stanford University, USA, IIM Bangalore and National Entrepreneurship Network, India, MBA

It is imperative to mention that the universities and colleges created the in-house entrepreneurial development centres to support the endeavours of the students to become the job creators. These centres primarily identify, nurture and develop the entrepreneurial skills of the intended students who wish to become entrepreneurs. These centres provide the multi-level activity-oriented support such as finding the entrepreneurial aptitude and attitude of the students, provide self-awareness workshops to decide on the domain areas and expertise, skill development workshops, workshops related to gain expertise in the selected domain areas, internal competitions related to business plans, and operations and finally providing even the funding opportunities to commence new business ventures. Besides, faculty members are encouraged to act as mentors to the selected students and to commence the new business ventures partnering with the students. It provides a much-needed impetus to the students to engage in these ventures with the support of the faculty members who act as mentors and partners as well. It provides courage among the students to try and experiment because of the continuous support and hand holding from the faculty members who act as the partners. It clearly shows the effective internal support system that endeavours to help the students to become the job creators.

in Marketing and Finance and BBM in Marketing and Finance from Bharathiar University, India. Dr. Sakkthivel has 24 years of academic, industry, research, consulting and training experience.

Dr. Sakkthivel is a recipient of Best Professor in Marketing Management Award by CMO Asia at Singapore in 2010 along with other awards of contributing quality research works. He has authored a Book on “Role of Cyber-Marketing in Influencing Consumer Buying Behavior.� He has published numerous articles in leading international (SSCI, ABDC and Scopus indexed), paper presentations in leading international and national conferences in different countries, and contributed book chapters and practitioneroriented articles and many more.

Conclusion and the Way Forward In a nutshell, the article walks through the different aspects and ecosystems that are in place to ensure the development of the job creators in the Middle Eastern Countries. It clearly shows the active involvement of the governments and private entities to support such an endeavour which would provide and ensure present and future sustainable economic growth. It is imperative to state that the efforts are paying off, and more incumbents are ready to become the job creators, a major welcoming shift from the job seekers. It is evident from the article that the multipronged approach immensely helped the governments of the Middle Eastern countries to realize the goals of developing more job creators. And, the numbers should increase in the years to come to make these countries become selfreliant and growing economies with the support of all the stakeholders including the strong encouragement from the parents and society to encourage the students to embark on a journey to become the job creators those who could immensely contribute to the economic and social growth of the respective countries.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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STUDENT SPEAKS

Football, Biotechnology and Psychology: The Perks of Dreaming Big and Pursuing Passions

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Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Aidha Faisal, I am 20 years old doing my final year at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus. I studied in GEMS Our Own Indian school till grade 10 and then did years 11 and 12 in GEMS Modern Academy. I have always been an average student at school; however, in grade 11, I started showing a particular interest in psychology. By the end of two years, what began as a simple curiosity developed into a full-scale passion. I topped my school in the ISC board exams scoring a 98 on 100, and this got me thinking about pursuing my further studies in a psychology field.

My teacher used to tell me stories of how she had to study a particular community, and she had to interview them, and all this really excited me.

I consider myself to be a people person, so I would love to work in this field in the future. Apart from that, I also love sports. I play football and am a black belt in karate, and I hold these two sports close to my heart as I’ve been playing since I was 6 or 7. It is a great way to relieve stress, and I’m glad to have all the training.

What made you pursue Biotechnology Engineering at BITS Pilani Dubai?

Initially, I wanted to become a psychiatrist, but after grade 12, my plans changed. I wanted to take up psychology and biology together, and I feel biotechnology is a perfect choice. Not a lot of people know about the role of psychology in biotechnology because nobody would think about studying the human mind in an engineering field. From assessing the mental health of patients in hospitals for data analysis to forensics, psychology is a widely used branch in biotechnology. I have also been fascinated by sequencing genomes and genetic engineering, which is another reason why I was drawn to biotechnology engineering.

What are the career opportunities available for Biotechnology Engineers today?

The health sector is always developing, and new positions are created every day. Biotechnology is in between health and management, which is a perfect match for the following careers:

Higher Education Digest October 2020

I wish to give back to the community with my research and help in any way I can

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Aidha Faisal

20-year-old, Aidha Faisal is a final year Biotechnology student at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus. A black belt in karate, Aidha loves playing football. After her undergraduate degree, Aidha wishes to work in a research facility in the UAE or in a pharmaceutical company developing new drugs for a couple of years.

Psychology is another area of her interest and wishes to study Forensic Criminology in future. In an interaction with Higher Education Digest, Aidha talks about her dreams, passions, and life as a student in the UAE.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

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• The current trend in the field of biotechnology is specializing in food technology and working with the food industry. This field is always in demand and is a good career choice for those interested in food marketing, distribution, processing and quality management.

• Another good option is the agricultural engineering aspect and animal research, which are more researchoriented. It focuses on food production, animal genetics, diseases and nutrition.

• An underestimated career option is epidemiology, which studies the distribution, health factors and other risk factors in a population. In the present case, an epidemiologist has scope where public health is of great concern and recovery from the pandemic would take time.

• Forensic studies is another excellent choice after biotechnology as most of the laboratory tests are taught in the universities, so the base is strong when one starts a career in forensics. Under forensics, you can deviate further and specialize in specifics such as criminology, toxicology, pathology, ballistics, narcotics etc.

• Microbiology which is studying the biology of microbes and assessing their properties, if they are hazardous or if they can be used in combination with other living organisms for creating something useful.

• Biomedical engineering and genetic engineering.

Psychology is one of your areas of interest. How does expertise in Psychology boost your career?

We are always in search of explanations as to why humans behave they do and what causes them to take part in various actions. As a student of psychology, I can say that it is used in almost every single job because of the importance of mental health and its awareness. Mental health was a subject that was neglected for many years as job satisfaction did not matter in the capitalist business world. For the past few years, many companies have started focusing on the mental health of employees and checking up on them regularly. Studies show that improved mental health is increased productivity and efficiency. Similarly, even in health sectors psychology plays an important role in regulating the patients and helping them cope. Studying psychology at university or after really helps one with understanding the world around them and gives insights on how to work with people.

Despite being a Biotechnology Engineering student, you wish to study Forensic Criminology.

What is the reason behind this shift?

As mentioned earlier, I have always had a knack for understanding the subject and applying it everywhere I go.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

I believe my skill could be used at a more sophisticated level and hence the choice of criminology because here we are dealing with criminals. Most psychology graduates study humans and get epidemiologic results in relation to normal humans. Still, I want to be involved in studying the minds of offenders and publish my theories on why they did what they did. There is a TV show called Mind hunter, which is about a detective who goes around interviewing the most dangerous criminals. This also inspired me to change course because I believe I am talented enough to be part of risky projects like understanding the minds of criminals. I agree it is rather an unconventional path, but I will try to utilize the opportunity well if given one. The reason I did not do a bachelors in psychology despite being good at the subject is that Biotechnology gives me a vast area for diverting and specializing in forensic criminology, which is a combination of both.

What are the courses available in Forensic Criminology in UAE? What are your favourite colleges?

In the UAE, forensic colleges are very few, and the degree to which specialization can be done is also limited. I wish to do my masters abroad in UK, Germany or Netherlands because of the exposure and wide variety of choices in a foreign university. In Dubai, Amity university offers a masters in forensic sciences, which is general whereas I want to my masters in criminology which is currently not in UAE. My dream university is Maastricht University in the Netherlands which offers a forensic criminology and law programme for 2 years and includes a 6-month internship.

If not there then I’d want to go to Keele University in the UK which offers a programme called Analytical science for the industry which includes laboratory applications used in a forensic lab. More than that, I wish to give back to the community with my research and help in any way I can.

What are your hobbies? How did you utilize the recent lockdown time?

I love playing football, but since I could not leave the house, I didn’t really play much. I read a lot, so I spent most of my time reading and doing various courses on Coursera.

We have membership in a public library in Dubai, so I would read about two to three novels in a week. I used to read voraciously when I was in school, but since I started university, I had held off reading for more than three years.

This lockdown helped me reduce my screen time as I would spend hours reading at a stretch. On Coursera, I did courses on sustainability, environmental law and without

Aidha Faisal

I want to work in a research facility in the UAE after my bachelors or in a pharmaceutical company developing new drugs for a couple of years

a doubt- an introductory course on forensic psychology.

I also utilized this time to learn three new languages, and it was only then I realized that language is another strong point for me. I learned Emarati Arabic, which is the Arabic dialect used in the UAE, and Spanish and I am still learning German. I decided to continue with German and Spanish because learning new languages is fun. Its similarity to English makes it amusing.

What are your short-term and long-term goals?

These are my last two semesters in university, and I wish to work straight after my bachelors because I

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think work experience is essential before doing my masters. Speaking of short-term goals, I want to work in a research facility in the UAE after my bachelors or in a pharmaceutical company developing new drugs for a couple of years. If I really do enjoy my job, I would try doing masters along with my work. I did talk about criminology, but that is way ahead in the future. Long term goals are doing my masters abroad and settling somewhere in Europe. Compared to the rest of the world, most European countries practice sustainable measures, and I want to migrate to an eco-friendly place.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

GCC Student Mobility in Higher Education and the Unique Opportunities in UAE Dr Ajay Shukla, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Higher Education UAE

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U

AE sends approximately 15,000 students abroad per year, a number that has been increasing at around 3-4% per year.

By international standards, the UAE has a high outbound student mobility ratio: The percentage of Emirati nationals studying in tertiary degree programs abroad was 7.1 in 2016, compared with only 1.9 in China and 0.9 in India, the world’s two top-sending countries of international students in terms of volume, according to UNESCO. The total number of Emirati students enrolled in degree programs abroad more than doubled between 2004 and 2016, from 4,835 to 11,249.

Between 2012 and 2016 alone, the number of outbound students increased by 31 per cent.

The most popular destination countries among Emirati degreeseeking students are the U.K. and the U.S.: In 2016, enrollments in these two countries accounted for fully 30 per cent and 27.5 per cent, respectively. India was a distant third with 13 per cent, followed by Australia, Oman, and Germany.

Data from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors show that the number of Emirati students in the U.S. has fluctuated over the past 15 years, while generally trending upward. There were 2,753 Emirati students in the U.S. in the 2016/17 academic year, compared with only 1,653 in 2009/10. However, these numbers have most recently dropped again: After solid growth throughout the first half of the 2010s, the number of Emirati students declined by 5.7 per cent between 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Current student visa data provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security show that students from the Emirates are almost exclusively male (90.6 per cent). The overwhelming majority (74.2 per cent) study at the undergraduate level with 45 per cent of students enrolled in STEM fields.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Inbound student mobility to the UAE is enormous and growing at high velocity

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Dr Ajay Shukla

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The growing outbound mobility in the UAE is likely driven by rising tertiary enrollment rates and an increasing student population, as well as by mounting interest in pursuing a top-quality foreign education as a means of improving employment prospects. Emirati employers reportedly prefer international graduates over graduates of local private institutions. Some employers also sponsor students’ overseas study in fields like engineering with funds and job offers upon graduation. Government bodies and academic institutions similarly facilitate students’ outbound mobility with a wide range of scholarship programs, many of them granted to students at public universities heading to countries like the U.S. and Canada.

The growing interest in foreign education is also reflected in the increased demand for international elementary and secondary schools in the Emirates.

Remarkably, the UAE currently has the highest number of international schools worldwide after China, most of them teaching British and U.S. curricula in English. There were 624 international schools with 627,800 enrolled students in the UAE as of January 2018 (up from 548 schools with 545,074 students in 2016). The vast majority of these schools are located in urban centres like Dubai, but international schools are spreading elsewhere as well.

While these schools mostly cater to the UAE’s surging expatriate population, the number of Emirati nationals enrolling in them is rising and made up 17 per cent of all enrollments in 2014/15. By some accounts, more than 90 per cent of students at international schools intend to study overseas after graduation, so this trend will most likely accelerate tertiary mobility.

The outlook for outbound mobility, thus, is favourable and underpinned by the growing demand for education overall. The UAE is currently riding the tail end of a youth bulge phase with more than 30 per cent of the native population still under the age of 25. The country’s tertiary,

Higher Education Digest October 2020

gross enrollment ratio (GER) jumped from 17.4 per cent in 2007 to 36.8 per cent in 2016, while the total number of tertiary students grew from 113,648 in 2011 to 159,553 in 2016, according to UNESCO. Although almost half of these students are foreign nationals, further increases in enrollments among the native-born population are likely in the years ahead. By some estimates, the number of students at all levels of education in the UAE will rise at an annual growth rate of more than 4 per cent until 2020 alone.

In addition to the Emirati students the large expatriate population, which is 89& of the total residents in UAE, adds to the outward mobility with an estimated 12,000 students going abroad for higher education.

U.S. and U.K. are the most popular study abroad destination, but recently Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Australia have emerged as high growth destinations.

The reasons are visa ‘friendliness’ for Arab students and affordability plus work-study pattern for other nationalities Nonetheless, the U.K. and U.S. top the wish-list of most UAE study abroad segment, with the cost being the biggest inhibitor.

Inbound Student Mobility: One of the Highest Mobility Ratios in the World Inbound student mobility to the UAE is enormous and growing at high velocity. As a small country, the UAE has lower total international student numbers than major international study destinations like the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia. But its inbound mobility ratio of 48.6 per cent is easily one of the highest in the world and dwarfs that of all major destinations. The number of international degree-seeking students in the UAE recently spiked from 48,653 in 2011 to 77,463 in 2016, according to data from UNESCO. Illustrative of this development, the American University of Sharjah, a reputable UAE institution, is now said to be the university with the largest share of foreign students in the entire world: 84 per cent of its student body consists of international students.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given current trends in labour migration, India is by far the largest country of origin of foreign degree-seeking students in the UAE: The number

of Indians enrolled in degree programs in the Emirates has increased by 50 per cent since 2011. As per UNESCO, Indians now make up 17 per cent (13,370 students in 2016) of all international students. Other top-sending countries are Middle Eastern, like Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Oman (all sending more than 5,000 students), followed by Pakistan.

UAE is anything but a low-cost study destination.

Mindful of this barrier, the government seeks to attract students by offering generous visa policies. Since 2016, foreign students have been allowed to work part-time for designated employers. In 2018, the government also drastically extended its one-year residency visa for foreign university graduates: Exceptionally talented students will now “be eligible for a 10-year residency, while other students can get a five-year visa, and dependents [of guest workers] will receive a visa extension to help them get started on their career after graduating.� Universities and government institutions also offer an increasing variety of scholarships for international students.

About

Dr Ajay Shukla

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Dr Ajay has the unique distinction of bringing several global universities and institutions to the UAE such as University of Birmingham (U.K.), Babson College (Boston US), Inscape Education Group (South Africa) etc. through his efforts in building the market landscape knowledge, business case and supporting the local licensing, accreditation, institutional set-up and operations.

He supported the establishment and growth of international student enrollments at several universities in UAE including SP Jain Institute of Business Management, Manipal Institute, UAE University, American University of Sharjah, Heriot Watts University, Hult International Business School, Ajman University, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Middlesex University Dubai to name a few.

Dr Ajay has built his credentials with regulators and education investors through his high quality authoritative and ethically sound work and understanding of transnational higher education deeply.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

In Summary UAE is both a ‘source’ and ‘host’ market, with approx.

58,000 local and 80,000 international student enrolment, respectively (60% of these are UAE based residents).

Some of the characteristics are:

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A. Market Attractiveness ● UAE, specifically Dubai, has emerged as a “knowledge hub” for GCC and the broader MENASA region. As one of the world’s leading global cities, it offers a topclass infrastructure and services to enable education and training institutions. ● Consistent growth in K-12– UAE has over 1219 schools, 1,008,000 students and 70,016 teachers. Overall private K-12 revenue base in UAE is US$ 4.4 Bn (2017) and growing at 3-4% p.a. and reach US$ 7.1 Bn by 2023. Private Schools are driving growth – 580 schools, 780,000 students. ● University enrollments in UAE stand at 139,600 students within 105 public and private universities and are growing at a CAGR of 4%. There are 35 international or internationally accredited campuses located in Dubai (Enrollment: 37602) and 78 are locally licensed and accredited by the Council of Academic Accreditation (Ministry of Education). Note: Totals differ due to dual accreditation by some universities.

B. Strategic Opportunity Demographically, population growth is expected to peak at 1-2% range however for the Higher Education sector this will lead to (and is leading to) universities allocating resources to international student recruitment as the domestic market will not be as lucrative as before (2010-2017).

Economically, while the inflation rate is just 1% in UAE the wage/salary increases are also indexed to inflation hence there is a demand for a cost-effective admission process as well as a move towards affordable higher education including scholarships, financial aid, bursaries.

Politically, UAE offers a ‘safe haven’ for students from regionally troubled countries like Iraq, Egypt, Syria who are facing challenges not only within their home countries but also ‘western’ HE hubs where securing visas and cost of education are daunting. In this context, UAE is positioned well to boost HE enrolments from these markets due to more affordable study options, liberal student visa regime and a relatively thriving employability market coupled with liberal work visas.

As a ‘source country’ UAE’s and GCC’s expatriate demand for a HE platform is significant.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

UAE is both a ‘source’ and ‘host’ market, with approx. 58,000 local and 80,000 international student enrolment, respectively (60% of these are UAE based residents)

Emirati/GCC students study abroad to • Get a great ‘western-style’ education (particularly the U.K. and the U.S.), • Return back with a foreign degree to get a lucrative UAE government or corporate job • Avail of the liberal scholarships offered by UAE and GCC government/select public sector corporates • Improve their English (and thus build a more lucrative career) Expat student study abroad trends • Western expats return home to get a betterquality education/college experience and ‘domicile’ student fees • ‘Eastern Eastbound’ expats return home for highly subsidized public university options or affordable private university degrees that are valid for employment in UAE after graduation.

• Some affluent ‘Eastern Westbound’ (approx. 40% of Eastern study abroad segment) expats also study abroad in ‘Western’ destinations especially U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands. For the same reasons as Western expats.

• There are two distinct segments for the ‘Eastern Westbound’ – those who are looking for the best HE money can buy (about 50% of the outbound population) and the rest who are looking for ‘low(er) cost of education’ destinations like Germany, Netherlands, France, Caucasian or even Russian universities.

Strategic recommendations UAE offers opportunities for international universities to set-up branch campuses in Dubai or UAE to get closer to their source markets, and this becomes even more important in the post-COVID world with travel, visa restrictions affecting international student enrolments in U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and other popular western higher education hubs.

There is also an opportunity for UAE based universities to attract and retain outbound (west or east) resident students by offering better value, leverage the world-class health and safety infrastructure and a more liberal visa and travel regime.

In fact, there should be a Study in UAE initiative to attract students from the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Central Asia and China to UAE based universities – an idea I have been advocating for the past 5 years or so. Even a non-English language instruction country like Russia has a very successful Study in Russia program that works in partnership with the tourism offices of the government and promotes the benefits of studying in the country.

In the post-COVID world, a travel and tourism destination like UAE must also think about Edu-tourism where the ‘student traveller’ has greater stickiness to study and live and hopefully later on work in the UAE thereby contributing to the local economy, society and leveraging education for greater competitiveness for the country with a supply of talent for a knowledge-based economy.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Higher Education - Challenges and Opportunities in the Middle East Prof Amitabh Upadhya, Provost & Vice President - Academic Affairs, American College of Dubai

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he enormous growth in the range and reach of information communication technologies across the globe has disrupted the traditional form of higher education practised in established and revered centres of learning that gained their reputation and prestige over centuries. The current wave of a global pandemic has only hastened the teaching and learning paradigm for online mode, which was anyways gaining strength and recognition, slowly but surely. The phenomenon of globalization fuelled by advancement in communication technologies has impacted higher education, leading to a need for universalization of curriculums and internationalization of campuses. Both these requirements presented great opportunities for countries that gained freedom from colonial rule in the decades, after the Second World War, for establishing quality indigenous institutions steeped in their own traditions with all ingredients of modern international scientific education. It is still work-in-progress in most of the countries of the Middle East.

Higher educational institutions (HEI) around the world, have over decades aspired and competed for recognition and reputation through the process of national and international accreditations. Authors like Kotler and Fox, believe that the reputation and image of an institution are not absolute, but relative to the images conveyed by other HEIs. It is a function of the strategies that HEIs use that result in building perceptions of their public. There are over twenty-five factors that have been identified by scholars that contribute to image building of an institution of higher learning. A few of these include the university social life atmosphere, programs on offer, employment opportunities, quality of faculty and instruction, location and cost of the program.

It is also interesting to note that there seems no correlation between bare accreditation of a higher educational institution and its image, which is built over years of successful operations and the visibility of its illustrious alumni in the society.

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The UAE has the potential for becoming a hub of higher education and usher in true internationalization of higher education

61 Prof Amitabh Upadhya

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Moving on to the Middle East, it is historically well known that the region has had its own and glorious share of educational traditions. However, the demands of modernization and economic competitiveness required the countries of the region to establish and encourage proven western models of education. Historically, the educational system of the Middle East had flourished under the Islamic Caliphate beginning with the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties (750-1250 CE) all the way to the Nineteenth century, following a system of Maqtabs & Madarsas dealing in elementary and higher education respectively.

The system continued in some form or the other until the First World War, which saw most of the region coming under the colonial rule of European powers. This resulted in the entry of French and British schooling to the region, which initially remained restricted only to the elite however spreading widely across the region within a few decades. The impact of the western education system was profound. However, its physical reach in the region remained sparse, and many a Prince and Princesses preferred to travel to North America or Europe to pursue higher education in their chosen fields.

Focusing on the entire Middle Eastern educational system, as it prevails today, would be beyond the scope of this article since the region is very large and varied. It has some established educational systems that continue to face challenges of political, economic and social nature, that have become common to the region for the past half a century of a troubled history.

There is a long and established University system inspired by the modern western education in countries like Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Iran besides some others that merits an entirely separate discourse. As such, the discussion here is being narrowed down to the Gulf countries in general and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular. The UAE is one of the six Gulf countries of the Middle Eastern region that include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain and have a comparatively shorter history of modern higher education. The Gulf region is the oil hub of the world, and the economies have grown many folds in the last fifty years bringing with it economic prosperity to the region.

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About

Amitabh Upadhya Amitabh Upadhya is a higher education scholar and administrator with a PhD in tourism studies; he is associated with several international institutions as visiting professor and member of institutional advisory boards.

Widely published in journals and periodicals, Amitabh sits on editorial boards of several prestigious academic journals and is a regular reviewer for many of them. With an experience of over thirty years, Amitabh has also been involved in consultancy projects and design, development & conduct of training programs.

His recent area of academic interest has been higher education administration and governance and

industry-academia

interface

besides

destination marketing & management. As an educationist, Amitabh has been the recipient of a few distinguished awards, including Academic Leadership & Education Leadership. Currently, he is Provost & Vice President Academic Affairs, at the American College of Dubai, UAE.

The UAE was formed in 1971 as a federation of seven Emirates (states) with dreams of its visionary founder Sheikh Zayed, the then ruler of Abu Dhabi along with the rulers of Dubai, Sharjah and other Emirates, to take the country on a path of prosperity and modernity and make it a model of peace and prosperity among the community of nations. It was understood quite early in the course of UAE history that education must be given priority for achieving a high level of economic and strategic competitiveness amongst growing globalization. The initial model adopted by some of the Emirates was to encourage foreign institutions to establish their systems or branch campuses both at the secondary and higher education level. This resulted in multiplicity and complexity of standards besides ambiguity in the certification of graduates!

The formation of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research that was later expanded and renamed the Ministry of Education (MOE) was a resolute step in the direction of streamlining higher education in the UAE that also established under the aegis of MOE the Commission of Academic Accreditation (CAA), for overseeing standardization of higher education as the authorized accreditation agency of the Federal Government of UAE. There are over a hundred MOE-CAA accredited institutions in the UAE, out of which about seventy-five are active. The establishment of the National Qualification Authority that formulated the UAE Qualifications Framework has further added credibility to the Ministry efforts. It must, however, be noted that despite the efforts of the Federal Government to streamline operations of higher education institutions in the country, many unaccredited institutions are operating under the provisions of state education departments.

With a population of just around nine million, of which over 80% are expatriates, the number and variety of higher education institutions operating in the UAE are relatively high which poses challenges of standardization as well as uniformity! The pandemic has restricted mobility of students across the globe presenting an opportunity to institutions in the region to consolidate their positions and a possible correction in the educational environment of the region in general and the UAE in particular.

Challenges and Opportunities The significant challenges that the region has witnessed, during the past couple of decades wherein rampant

expansion of institutions of all hues and colours were allowed to take place, revolves around two planes viz. (1) Standardization and Quality Control, and (2) Multiplicity of Educational Systems. It is necessary thus to encourage home-grown institutions steeped in the regional traditions and blended with modern educational systems.

The opportunities, on the other hand, are enormous and can initially be narrowed down to the following two aspects to make a case here. (1) A young and eager Emirati population hungry for global recognition, and (2) world-class infrastructure and a well-connected central location of UAE on the global map. The UAE has the potential for becoming a hub of higher education and usher in true internationalization of higher education.

It has been observed that most of the institutions operating in the UAE established in the last two to three decades, have opted for either a soft option of less capital intensive programs in areas of Business Management and Legal & Professional Training or Technical programs in Engineering and Medicine that of course required bigger investment. Most of these programs are conducted at a Diploma and or Undergraduate levels, and their focus has been on the oft-quoted term “job oriented� This leaves a large part of pure physical & social sciences completely neglected, exposing a big gap in the educational sector of the UAE. However, large public universities such as the UAE University and the American University of Sharjah, do offer a larger bouquet of programs but a majority of institutions do not.

The world recently has seen an emerging paradigm for education that is only for making populations job-worthy thus advocating and concentrating on skills rather than higher-order learning of conceptual and philosophical moorings that develop knowledge into wisdom. There will always be a need in the society for deep thinkers that fuel the fire of creativity, in conceiving ideas in designing and producing efficiency in economic activities besides and more importantly cultural and human values reflected in arts and literature. The issue of multiplicity of systems also needs special attention, and integrated indigenous value-added futuristic curricular design must be implemented across institutions that seek UAE accreditation. This will have an identity of its own comparable to the Australian and South-East Asian higher education systems that have, of late, gained respectful recognition and image.

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

INTERVIEW

UAE’s Higher Education Scenario Post-COVID Looks Very Bright Dr Christopher Abraham, CEO & Head, SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai

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How has been the impact of COVID-19 on the Middle East’s higher education sector so far? How will it affect the upcoming academic years?

COVID-19 has impacted the Middle East higher education sector just like other parts of the world. However, one major differentiator between this region and developing nations is that almost all the countries in the region were equipped technologically to address these challenges.

There has been an increase in the adoption of EdTech by higher education institutions across the world. How do you see this trend? What are efforts of SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai in this regard?

The adaptation process of the “the new normal” of learning has been challenging; however, the learning curve has kicked in and there is a broad acceptance for blended learning as an option to deliver learning content.

The initial assimilation had been slow and challenging, but over time, most institutions here have adopted various aspects of EdTech, initially trying different options and finally choosing a few appropriate ones. This trend will continue in the near future, with more institutions accepting and adopting these new technologies.

S P Jain School of Global Management with a legacy of disruptive innovation had always been ahead of the curve. The school had invested in cutting edge online technology, aptly named ELO which stands for Engaged Learning Online, which was started many months before the pandemic. ELO is a sophisticated online learning system that replicates a live classroom down to its last detail. The ELO studio is set up with a robotic tracking camera for the faculty that allows them to move freely, maintain eye contact and moderate discussions in real-time. It facilitates one-on-one conversations between the professor and students, enables the faculty to evaluate each student’s level of engagement, respond to them individually and keep them motivated – just like they would do in a conventional classroom. So, in a sense, the school was prepared for an uncertain challenge like the current one.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown formal educational systems into total disarray, opening new opportunities for other forms of learning delivery

67 Dr Christopher Abraham

Dr Christopher Abraham is the CEO & Head of Dubai Campus and Sr. Vice President – Institutional Development, Professor of Leadership, Design Thinking & Organizational Behavior, at SP Jain School of Global Management. He holds three postgraduate qualifications including Master of Business Administration from Regional Engineering College, India (1986), Masters in Human Resource Management from Bharathidasan University, India (1984) and Masters in Labour and Administrative Laws, Annamalai University, India (1984).

He is a Certified Design Thinker from IDEO/Stanford and has over 32 years of experience in management consulting, marketing, and management education in India, Canada, Singapore, and the UAE. In an interaction with Higher Education Digest, Dr Christopher Abraham talks about efforts and investments of SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai to create the best learning environment for students post-COVID.

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Do you think the gaining popularity of online learning will affect the demand for traditional educational institutions? How can universities in the Middle East utilize both conventional and online education for the benefits of students?

With the onset of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courseware) many years back, it was predicted that the trend would destroy brick and mortar institutions. The traditional institutions, however, resisted and online options became an expanding avenue to address the aspirations of other categories of students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to study. Interestingly, while MOOCs offered a plethora of learning choices, it did not have the unique charm of face to face human interactions offered by “old-style institutions.�

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown formal educational systems into total disarray, opening new opportunities for other forms of learning delivery.

Universities in the Middle East are now exploring how to capitalize on the emerging opportunities evolving from these circumstances.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

A few years back, based on the recommendation of His Highness, The Ruler of Dubai, the first fully-integrated Smart University using E-learning, was launched under the name Hamdan Bin Mohammad Smart University in 2009.

From then many other universities have opened online options as well. The current circumstance where there is a higher acceptance for online formats has allowed these universities to explore opportunities in various disciplines.

Students can benefit from these offerings from the comfort of their homes at reasonable prices.

What are the investments SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai making to create the best learning environment for students postCOVID? As mentioned earlier, SP Jain had already invested in world-class technology much ahead of the pandemic. The ELO sessions are delivered through an advanced high-tech studio in our Dubai campus. SP Jain has the distinction of being one of only five institutions in the entire world to have this technology. Due to the surge in demand for

our online programs, we are now building a second ELO studio to augment capacity. In addition, we have invested heavily on transforming conventional classrooms into ultra-modern smart classrooms with tablets embedded with sophisticated learning management systems. These in turn are connected to a mobile learning app where every student’s learning is monitored, and students are guided through continuous inputs to enhance their competencies in a particular subject. These technical enhancements combined with Socratic questioning methodologies and Gamified Simulations truly enhance the learning experience for the student.

SP Jain has been in the UAE for the past 16 years and has been one of the pioneering institutions to establish an international branch campus starting with just two programs (one full time MBA and one Executive MBA). Today, we are the largest business school in the region offering a range of business programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate, executive and doctoral levels. From our Dubai campus, we run programs for students from 34 different countries, by offering our programs in both online and face to face platforms. SP Jain Dubai is also a leading provider of numerous executive education programs for corporates in the region.

In the coming years, what are the chances of the UAE to become one of the leading global education hubs? What would be the role of SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai in this progress?

Post the 9/11 attacks, UAE has emerged as an extremely attractive higher education destination for thousands of aspirants from the MENA and South Asia regions. Today, the UAE is home to more than 50,000+ international students making it an emerging global education hub.

There are dedicated Higher Education Communities like the Dubai International Academic City and The University City in Sharjah. In addition, Dubai holds an interesting world record by hosting the largest number of international branch campuses in a single city.

Post-COVID, due to expected restrictions on immigration delay in the international admission process, can we expect more local students opting to stay back and study in UAE? What is your take on it?

Two interesting trends have emerged in the post-COVID-19 scenario in the UAE. Due to the vast array of choices for local students, and the fact that UAE has emerged as a safe and healthy destination, many local and expatriate parents and students are seriously considering staying back and studying in the UAE. Addressing this trend, SP Jain too has introduced flexible study options for students, wherein they can start their undergrad programs in Dubai (rather than in Singapore or Mumbai) and then continue the next three years in other destinations. A contrarian trend among international and Indian students is to choose Dubai because of the safety and health reasons mentioned and also because the Immigration Department in UAE has started issuing student visas.

What are the opportunities for Institutions in UAE post-COVID? How is SP Jain School of Global Management, Dubai planning to utilize these opportunities?

UAE being a regional hub and a leader in many sectors like aviation, tourism, hospitality, retail, healthcare, financial services and education, the post COVID scenario looks very bright. With the postponement of the EXPO 2020 to the next year, it has again opened a whole world of opportunities for various sectors, including education.

From our inception in 2004, SP Jain has played a crucial role in providing top talent for local organizations. While our students are engaged in live projects, volunteering, internships and placements, our faculty members are actively engaged in research, consulting and corporate education. SP Jain is a key strategic partner in the developmental initiatives of the UAE and will continue to play a crucial role in transforming the higher education and economic landscape in this region.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

The Future of Higher Education in the UAE Daniel Adkins, CEO of Transnational Academic Group Education Management Services Provider of Curtin University Dubai

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he Middle East has really developed into the premier hub for higher education. Nowhere else can one find so many excellent universities from all over the world within such close proximity.

In the UAE, a student can pick from some of the top institutions from Australia, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, not to mention the excellent UAE-based universities. With Dubai as a world-leading hub for passenger transport, cargo logistics, tourism, and finance, it is not only easy for students and their families to get to the UAE but also to enjoy their time here and find employment.

Recent developments such as the UAE’s Council for Academic Accreditation signing mutual recognition agreements with both the Australian and UK accreditation agencies and UAE universities moving into the top 400 in the world on the Times Higher Education Rankings show that the UAE is becoming an educational force worthy of worldwide notice. The UAE is one of the most innovative places in the world as evidenced by the incredible architecture like the Burj Khalifa, the incredible feats of engineering like the Palm, the incredible business successes like Emirates Airlines, and the embrace of the future like Expo 2020 and the UAE spaceport. This level of innovation and success is well represented in education within the UAE. Whether it be the great research that is being done at UAE, Abu Dhabi, and Khalifa Universities, the innovate methods of education delivery at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, or the robust and welcoming higher education regulatory environment provided by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific research and the Dubai Knowledge and Human Development Authority, the UAE demonstrates innovation in all aspects of higher education.

As we look towards the future, it is clear that we can expect great things in the field of higher education in the UAE. Given the rapid rise in the league tables of UAE and Khalifa Universities, it is quite likely that within a generation, we will see a UAE based university in

Higher Education Digest October 2020

As success begets success, more highly ranked universities will choose to either locate a campus in the UAE or to enter into a deep partnership with universities in the UAE

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the Top 100 and many in the Top 400. The great research that is already coming from UAE universities will, given the UAE’s appetite for innovation and risk-taking, fuel a disruptive revolution in many industries over the next few decades resulting in the UAE being a leading technology hub, not unlike Silicon Valley is today. As success begets success, more highly ranked universities will choose to either locate a campus in the UAE or to enter into a deep partnership with universities in the UAE. This, combined with the other great attributes of the UAE, will lead to students from around the world travelling to the UAE in great numbers to pursue their tertiary education.

The models of higher education will also be changing rapidly over the short and medium-term. The need to move to fully online delivery brought about by the COVID19 pandemic has accelerated the recognition of the need for change in tertiary education. While there will always be careers which rightfully require a university education such as medicine, law, engineering, and the sciences, there will be many more careers that will realise that specific certification is a better value than a full degree such as most careers in IT and business. Over the next few years, we will see universities adding specific certifications, likely in partnership with industry, that will address the needs of those students and businesses that are best served by that type of education. Universities will also evolve away from being a place primarily for secondary school leavers completing their first degree to being a place where mid-career professionals will go to upskill through intensive courses. Most universities will liberalise their degree structures to allow for stackable credentials leading to a degree, with credit being given for work done at other educational institutes, credit for industry certifications, and even credit for learning gained on the job or through other life experiences. Students will be able to craft their own degrees specific to their own desires and industry needs without being locked into a small set of pre-defined majors.

Similarly, there will always be students who really want to get a broad liberal arts education and who value learning for learning’s sake. These students will continue to go to universities to immerse themselves in an academic environment, and many will likely become researchers of faculty. The demand for degrees that don’t have a highly certain, positive return on investment will likely decrease significantly as many people will come out of this pandemic induced global economic downturn with a strong focus on saving for future crises and maximising their return on their personal investment. This decrease in demand will likely result in a similar decrease in supply with the supply being concentrated at older universities that are already deeply engaged in research in these disciplines.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Daniel Adkins Dan Adkins is the CEO of Transnational Academic Group – Education Management Services Provider of Curtin University Dubai. He joined the Group in 2009, prior to which he was in the information technology industry providing services for companies including IBM, Dell, Clorox, Philips, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Merck, and VISA.

The future of higher education will be more evolutionary than revolutionary, and the changes that will come about in the next decade will largely set the direction for many generations to come While the experiences during this pandemic have certainly opened people’s eyes to both the good and the bad of online or distance education, it has also fundamentally changed many people’s level of acceptance of online and distance education. While there have always been autodidacts who would learn regardless of the method of teaching or even without anyone teaching them, this has been and always will be a fairly small proportion of the population, likely not more than about twenty per cent.

About sixty per cent of students can be successful in a blended learning model where some of the delivery is online or self-study. However, there remains a teacher that ensures that students are progressing through the learning outcomes in accordance with a schedule, to overcome the procrastination that is such a part of human nature. The remaining twenty per cent very strongly need a teacher who is teaching them face-to-face and ensuring that they remain engaged and progressing. Given that these three types of learners will always exist, universities will, over the next few years, develop streamed programs, likely with differential pricing, for these groups of students. Those who are autodidactic can be provided with the materials in a pre-recorded form or in other asynchronous ways and will simply study on their own and complete the required assessments. Those who are suited to blended learning will study through face-to-face classes supported with various forms of asynchronous delivery such as pre-recorded lessons and textbooks. For those students who will only be successful with face-to-face instructor lead learning, those options will be made available, but possibly not at all universities.

While teaching the next generation is hugely important to the advancement of humankind, it is only one half of the mandate of universities. The research done in universities has significantly advanced the knowledge of humankind

and has made possible the world in which we now live.

Over the coming decades, university research will focus on three equally important areas. Universities, unlike any other type of organisation in the world, are ideally suited to do the basic research that has no known practical application. It is that type of basic research that led to the technology and medical revolutions that we now enjoy. Governments, through taxation, will need to continue to fund this type of research and then enforce mandatory licensing to ensure that the public benefits from these uses of public funds. Universities will also serve as resource hubs for industry-linked research that is directed towards immediate application and problemsolving. The cost of leading-edge research in many fields is getting so prohibitively expensive that industry groups will have to cooperatively fund the research to the benefit of all of the members of that group instead of individual companies duplicating efforts by attempting to do or fund the research individually. Individual academics will also continue to have their personal research focus and will generally conduct smaller pieces of research that will fill in gaps in the literature or slowly push the boundaries of their discipline.

However, it must never be forgotten that some of the most revolutionary research in history has been done by individual researchers such as Newton, Einstein, and Hawking.

The future of higher education will be more evolutionary than revolutionary, and the changes that will come about in the next decade will largely set the direction for many generations to come. Given the drive, innovation, and fearlessness demonstrated by the leaders of the UAE, the UAE will become a worldrenowned centre for higher education, research, and the application of lead edge research.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Adapting to the ‘New Normal’ of Higher Education Dr Fazal Malik, Dean of Humanities, Arts and Applied Sciences, Amity University, Dubai

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he higher education in the UAE is limping back to normalcy.

However, this is not pre-COVID-19 normalcy, but a new normal that we hardly imagined or were prepared for. Nonetheless, universities are opening doors to the freshmen and returning students in a staggered manner, adopting blended learning approaches and following strict protocols to ensure safety and wellbeing of all. This new educational reality, nevertheless, has given the educational leaders a lifetime opportunity to embrace and invest in the change to transform learning and teaching. But, not all universities understood the gravity of the situation.

The problems faced by the universities have been more or less identical, but the responses to these problems have been quite eclectic.

Globally, the reactions by the institutions of higher education to the COVID-19 crisis can be summarized into three categories: • The universities which embedded their heads in the sand and behaved as if, ‘nothing was wrong’ • The universities which waited for ‘Godot’ who never arrived to take them out of the trouble • The universities that proactively engaged with the new reality Amity University in Dubai, known for its innovative approach, engaged with all stakeholders from day one to develop strategies to provide an uninterrupted learning experience to the students. The

Higher Education Digest October 2020

We are in a new phase, where new pedagogies are finding a way to replace age-old methods of teaching and learning

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About

Dr Fazal Malik 76

A seasoned academic, practitioner and technology enthusiast, Dr. Fazal Malik is Professor of Media Studies and Dean of Humanities, Arts and Applied Sciences at Amity University in Dubai. Before joining Amity University, he served as Associate Dean in the Division of Applied Communication at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. He has PhD in Media Studies from Nottingham Trent University (UK) and holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from City University, London. With over two decades of international experience in educational management, media entrepreneurship and lifelong learning. Dr. Fazal is passionate about the use of technology in education and writes regular columns on knowledge economy and technology-enabled learning for the local newspapers in the UAE. Before making a transition into academia, he worked as a Broadcast journalist for the BBC and established a number of learning platforms, including community broadcasting stations in the UK. Dr Fazal successfully launched the flipped learning project at Amity University in Dubai in 2019 which enabled students to access learning anytime, anywhere during the current Covid-19 pandemic. He developed innovative assessment strategies to map learning outcomes in both synchronous and asynchronous online learning environments.

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last eight months of gruelling experience of developing, delivering and assessing learning in an awe-inspiring situation gave us the confidence not only to provide seamless learning online but an assurance to open our campus for the new academic year. On the 16th of September, 2020, after months of preparation, we opened our gates to the new and existing students to offer blended learning on and off-campus.

With the face masks on and body temperature monitored, maintaining social distance and adhering strictly to the health and safety protocols announced by various government agencies and regulators in the UAE, students are back on campus in a staggered manner. Life is returning to campus. This would have not been possible without the coordinated efforts of various stakeholders, especially the government of the UAE. In fact, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority which regulates all educational institutions in Dubai developed a comprehensive list of 117 standard operating procedures covering 16 critical areas to be followed to qualify for reopening the schools, colleges and universities. Similarly, the Ministry of Higher education in the UAE came out with 78 pages comprehensive document instructing educational institutions on how to ensure health and safety of all. This did not stop there, but every institution has been visited ample times to make sure that schools and universities are ready. This has been followed up by surprise visits and fines in case protocols are violated.

This cautious and structured approach is the hallmark of the governance in the UAE and has given the students, parents and the teachers the confidence that to reopen campuses.

Way back in February 2020, when the educational institutions were closed due to the spread of COVID-19 infection, Amity University Dubai delivered all classes online in both synchronous and asynchronous mode, providing students with the real-time learning experience from the safety of their homes. Ensuring quality in assessing student learning, Amity University became the first institution in the Middle East to conduct exams for all semester using the innovative open-book cases study approach. In a mammoth online initiative, Amity University conducted exams for nearly 2000 students from 38 different programmes in Engineering,

Sciences, Business, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in nearly 400 courses using MS Teams platform. Now, the results are out, and the success of this project is inspiring other universities to conduct exams similar way if the pandemic does not allow the proctored face to face exams on university campuses.

Looking back at the last 9 months, the change has been dramatic. We are in a new phase, where new pedagogies are finding a way to replace ageold methods of teaching and learning. Studentcentric learning approaches, increased use of technology and integration of eclectic delivery platforms have created a new ecosystem of education. The physical embodiment of classroom like a proscenium arch of a theatre is giving way to a wall-less, omnipresent, space where the students engage in learning anytime, anywhere, removing the Spatio-temporal constraints that held back learning.

It was not an easy task. While the technologysavvy students quickly embraced the new way of learning, there were many bottlenecks, both institutional and human. There was chaos in the beginning as many universities were shopping for platforms without realizing the importance of the content to be delivered in the confusion of delivering online learning. In this mayhem, people were trying everything to find the best platform, and this disproportionate focus on the medium rather on the message proved Marshal McLuhan’s prophecy of ‘medium is the message’ true in an ironic way. Fortunately, at Amity University in Dubai, we had started the Flipped Learning Project from the mid-2019 and had created nearly 400 hours of curriculumcentric rich content in high-definition videos using our media studies studio. These videos were streamed for students to access anytime, anywhere, that proved to be an advantage to the students who could watch the videos in their own time and discuss the issues raised in the online class with their peers and teachers. This approach also provided the students with an opportunity to engage in learning activities rather than listening passively to lectures from the teachers. The teachers, in turn, developed creative assessment like role plays, online quizzes and simulations to assess learning. The Flipped Learning experience has further improved our ways to engage with the new educational ecosystem, and

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The institutions of education in the UAE, like anywhere else in the world, have not been immune to the pandemic of coronavirus

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the project has now been further diversified to get 1000 hours of educational content ready by the end of 2020.

From a global perspective, the coronavirus crisis hit at a time when the higher education sector was a going through a challenging time. But in the UAE, with its liberal laws, supportive government and focus on the knowledge economy, the higher education sector has been flourishing.

Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) and Dubai Knowledge Park (DKP) with its mandate to develop human capital in the region, hosts 24 global academic institutions which offer around 450 different certificate, diploma, undergraduate, and post-graduate programmes to more than 25,000 students from 149 nationalities.

Similarly, University City in Sharjah has around 20,000 students studying at 15 universities. Private universities in Abu Dhabi, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah also have the potential to host students from the Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia. The UAE is relatively a new entrant in the global higher education market, but the geographic, economic and cultural proximity of South Asian countries to the Gulf region has made it a natural choice for students from neighbouring areas to pursue higher education here.

The interest of the International students in studying to study in the UAE is further enhanced by the announcement of UAE government to allow international students to pursue work-based learning and an opportunity to apply for jobs and work along with ease of travel.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

At the same time, tighter immigration policies, the rise of far-right and post-Brexit fears along with the abolition of post-study work visas has been affecting the flow of students to the US and the UK universities. This opened up opportunities for UAE institutions to attract more students. Now, the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic has made many parents, especially from Asia, wary of sending their children to far off places. The UAE being 3-4 hours flight is seen as an attractive alternative.

Nevertheless, the institutions of education in the UAE, like anywhere else in the world, have not been immune to the pandemic of coronavirus.

However, the response of the leadership of the UAE, governmental agencies and the educational managers has been exemplary to continue delivering education through challenging times and now make sure the schools, colleges and universities open in a safe and secure environment.

Now, in 4th week of opening of our campus for 2020-21 academic year, as the fresh admissions are picking up and the registrations of returning students peaking, there is growing confidence that the ‘new normal’ will be a continuation of the path of innovation and modernization that will redefine the way we engage our students in learning and acquiring skills that prepare them to deal with the uncertainties of life and the unpredictabilities of changing job market.

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

ACADEMIC VIEW

Student-Centred Reform of Higher Education in the Middle East Region: The Importance of Promoting Engaged Teaching and Fostering an Entrepreneurial Mindset Prof Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, President & Prof Stephen C. Wilhite, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Success (Provost), American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK)

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igher education in the Middle East Region is key to continued economic progress as the region transitions to knowledge-based and service-based economies. Governments in the region place great emphasis on the international rankings of universities in their countries in the ever-increasing competition for students. These rankings are, of course, heavily influenced by the academic reputation of the university, which, in turn, is strongly associated with the research profile of faculty at the institution. For this reason, many universities in the region have increased research productivity and expanded international research collaboration as strategic objectives. Our own university, the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK), is no exception. In large part because of the university’s research strategy, AURAK’s QS ranking in the UAE has risen to 10th in the UAE and top 50 in the Arab world.

However, in this focus on knowledge generation through research, universities in the region mustn’t lose focus on the centrality of student learning to the mission of higher education. Increased access to higher education in the region and the world must continue to be a high priority because higher educational attainment is key to employability and economic and social mobility. Even as universities in the region increasingly focus on research, most will remain first and foremost teaching institutions. Therefore, even as they seek new faculty with the potential to be world-class researchers, they must also be committed to ensuring that the faculty who are hired, retained, and promoted can effectively teach students. For only a small percentage of faculty will research be their primary university responsibility. The majority of faculty members’ time will be devoted to teaching and administrative tasks related to the assessment of student learning and other accreditationrelated quality assurance measures.

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Making increased involvement of undergraduate students in research an institutional priority, as we are doing at AURAK, can be a winwin situation

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Prof Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim

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Prof Stephen C. Wilhite

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Increased access for students brings to universities a great diversity of students – diversity not just in nationality, ethnicity, and cultural background, but also diversity in academic preparation and motivation needed for success at university studies. Many of these students are first-generation college students. Therefore, to ignore the commitment of faculty to teach is to ignore a fundamental part of their professional responsibility. A focus on teaching excellence is essential because: • Many students are pursuing university studies in a language that is not their primary language. They are being taught by faculty for whom the language of instruction is not their primary language.

• Most faculty were not explicitly prepared in their graduate studies for university-level teaching, especially the implementation of high-impact educational practices that promote active, engaged learning by students.

• Institutions will increasingly be held accountable for student learning outcomes, especially the employment of graduates and the satisfaction of employers with those graduates.

• Successful graduates require faculty who are excellent in teaching.

Popularized by organizations such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities, high-impact educational practices include pedagogical approaches such as writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, community-based learning, undergraduate research, internships, capstone projects, and e-portfolios.

To be confident in incorporating these practices in their teaching, faculty often require professional development programming to compensate for their lack of preparation for teaching in their doctoral program of studies. With the recent move to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the likely increased reliance on online learning even once the pandemic has passed, the need to encourage faculty to employ a multiplicity of instructional techniques that go beyond the traditional lecture and passive learning by students has become even more important.

Such a focus on teaching excellence is not incompatible with pursuing improved international rankings of the university. Teaching excellence and engagement with students can positively impact the institution’s academic reputation and employer reputation so important to QS rankings and those of other international ranking organizations. Branding of the institution can involve more than research productivity of faculty – it can also involve a commitment to teaching excellence and engagement with students to promote active learning.

To ensure that this is true, universities must ensure their

faculty and administrators establish connections in the international academic community through which the university’s student-centred focus, its focus on effective teaching and student engagement can be promoted. It is important to remember that international partnerships can involve more than research. For example, AURAK’s partnerships with US institutions such as the University of Texas at Arlington and Wayne State University include in addition to research collaboration a range of studentfocused international learning opportunities that include

At AURAK, we have gone further to make the development of an entrepreneurial mindset a focus of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

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Prof Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim

high-impact educational experiences such as internships and capstone projects collaboratively developed and executed by AURAK and its American partner.

For employers, teaching excellence is reflected in on-the-job performance by graduates. The preparation of graduates is importantly determined by the relevance of the curriculum, which, in turn, is shaped by the responsiveness of faculty and administrators to industry needs. At the recent QS Maple Conference, results of

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the QS Employer Survey were presented. This survey revealed that characteristics most highly desired in new graduates include flexibility and skills in communication and problem-solving.

Furthermore, the survey found that employers are least satisfied with recent graduates’ leadership skills, commercial awareness, creativity, and resilience. All of these skills and abilities are ones that high-impact educational practices such as small group collaborative projects, writing-intensive courses, communitybased learning, and capstone projects.

As universities in the region continue their focus on high-quality collaborative research, it is important to remember that involving undergraduates in collaborative research with faculty is also a high-impact educational practice.

Making increased involvement of undergraduate students in research an institutional priority, as we are doing at AURAK, can be a winwin situation. Such research collaboration promotes deep learning by students, including not only in-depth disciplinary knowledge and problem-solving and research skills, but also “soft” skills such as flexibility, communication, and teamwork. Such student-faculty research collaboration, especially in institutions that do not yet offer doctoral-level programs and in which the teaching load remains high, can also contribute importantly to faculty research productivity.

As countries in the region shift to knowledge-based and service-based economies, they are also promoting employment in the private sector and a movement away from public sector employment. With this shift comes a focus on entrepreneurship. In the UAE, entrepreneurship is a national priority that is reflected in higher education expectations, including a required course for all university students in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

At AURAK, we have gone further to make the development of an entrepreneurial mindset a focus of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). This is a university-wide plan to enhance the student learning experience, required as a part of the university’s application for continued accreditation by our US regional accreditor, SACSCOC.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Prof Hassan Al Alkim Prof Hassan holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Exeter in the UK.

He has served as President of

AURAK since 2011 and during this time has led the university to become one of the top 10 universities in the UAE and top 50 in the QS Arab Rankings. Prof Hassan has over 30 years’ experience in Higher Education, and prior to joining AURAK he served as a Department Chair at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and represented the university on many academic committees becoming known as an agent of change.

About

Prof Stephen Wilhite Prof Stephen Wilhite assumed the position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Student Success at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) in August 2017.

Previously, he

served as Dean, Provost, and Interim President at Widener University in the USA, where he also held the rank of Professor of Psychology. Prof Wilhite has led strategic planning processes focused on the use of high-impact educational practices to encourage student engagement with their subject matter both inside and outside the classroom. He has also led efforts to reform faculty evaluation in ways that encourage faculty to become reflective teachers.

Our QEP is called DREAMS – Developing Reflective, Entrepreneurial, Articulate, Motivated Students. The first component of the plan is DREAMS Preparation – focused on improving first-year students’ Math & English Language Skills through real-world problem-solving. The second component of the plan, DREAMS Orientation, is designed to assist students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset through curricular, cocurricular, and extra-curricular experiences. Central to the curricular emphasis on entrepreneurship is the course, University 200 – Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability, required of all AURAK students. With its focus on design thinking, the importance of entrepreneurship to the GCC, and creative confidence in translating ideas for innovation into sustainable initiatives, this course helps lay the foundation for student capstone experiences that reflect an entrepreneurial mindset. In the third component of the plan, DREAMS Development, students take an elective course on entrepreneurship, University 400, that encourages further development and application of entrepreneurial skills to student projects, internship placements, and preparation for employment. In the context of this course, the plan is to develop entrepreneurship competitions as a signature element of an AURAK education. To assess the impact of the QEP, we measure the extent to which the implementation of the plan positively impact the general education competencies of communication and teamwork, as well as the broader-based measures of student achievement in terms of improved employability of AURAK graduates and increased satisfaction of employers with AURAK graduates.

The focus on teaching excellence and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset that we have highlighted is part of what we see as studentcentred reform of higher education in the region. As universities in the region strive to achieve regional and global visibility and recognition through leadingedge research, they must also provide to their students’ transformational experiences that equip them with knowledge, skills, and dispositions that empower them to change the world for the better. A university’s alumni will always be a metric by which the quality of the institution is judged. Putting students first is critical to ensuring that universities are drivers of positive scientific, technological, political, and social change throughout the world.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Future-Proofing the University Campus Hugh Martin, Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer, The British University in Dubai

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hirty years from now, the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won’t survive.’

The legendary management guru Peter Drucker made those comments in an interview with Forbes magazine in 1997.

The thirty years in which he predicted the death of the traditional university have not quite elapsed. However, unless something quite dramatic happens in the next six, his prediction will be proved baseless. And many of us who run universities or work and study in higher education will breathe a huge sigh of relief about that.

It is unsurprising both that someone like Drucker would have predicted the demise of universities and that as it turns out, he got it wrong.

At the end of the 1990s online and distance learning were increasing exponentially, thanks to rapid developments in technology. When he was interviewed, I had just left my career in business to take up postgraduate study and to lecture – within a few years I was teaching almost entirely online to students based in some of the remotest and least accessible highlands and islands of Scotland. The opportunities afforded to my students and my colleagues, through the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) the university I worked for had developed, were huge. It was genuinely exciting – you felt like the tech you were using actually meant you were doing something worthwhile and cutting edge.

Yet simultaneously I had the same experience in the traditional academic office and classrooms where I was giving tutorials, seminars and lectures – and the optimism and excitement of teaching in those places were added to by the benefits that only face-to-face engagement with students can bring.

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Face-to-face on-campus engagement is still a vital part of the student experience

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Hugh Martin

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Hugh Martin Hugh graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA (Hons) and an MA (Hons) in English Language and Literature. This was followed by an MLitt in Creative Writing (with Distinction) from the University of St Andrews. His PhD research is in rhetoric and writing.

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Hugh has worked in Higher Education senior management for over 20 years, including as the University Secretary at the University of Bedfordshire, the Chief of Staff at the London School of Economics, the Head of Governance at the University of Bristol, and the Executive Officer at the University of St Andrews. His most recent post is Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer at The British University in Dubai.

As an academic, Hugh held the post of Associate Lecturer at The Open University for 15 years.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

So this is the conundrum: balancing the sense of a university’s physical place with a sense of its purpose while understanding that not only are both mutable but both adapt at a different pace and to a different agenda.

In fact, Drucker does hone in on this issue, which is as important today as it was in 1997: the suitability or otherwise of the university campus.

In the same interview, he went on to say ‘Today’s [university] buildings are hopelessly unsuited and totally unneeded.’

The role of the university campus – and especially the wild assertion that campuses will disappear in the future – is still a hot topic and one which predates the current pandemic (although COVID-19 certainly focuses the minds of those of us who lead in higher education, on what our future campuses could and should look like).

My own institution, The British University in Dubai, has started admitting undergraduates for the first time in its distinguished fifteen-year history (until 2018 we were postgraduate only) – thus the need for us to move to our own dedicated and purpose-built campus is now really pressing.

And that has given my colleagues and me the fantastic opportunity – one which arises perhaps once in most of our university careers – to start from scratch. The particularly supportive educational environment in the UAE affords us real possibilities: we are encouraged to be creative and to think “blue sky”.

But we also need to harness the wealth of thinking and research, not to mention the significant developments in materials and construction, that have burgeoned in the higher education sector with regard to designing, planning and realising new campuses.

This can be overwhelming: in our own case we must bring together a research-intensive environment which is our USP, alongside modern teaching and learning areas, with information commons, event spaces, and facilities for all manner of activities some of which we don’t even know exist yet. All of which must be fit-forpurpose at the point when we move in but must also sustain us for at least another fifteen years if not more.

There isn’t room in a short piece like this to rehearse much of the significant and useful debate

on the university of the future. But we can address some of the important factors we know will be the pillars – both literally and figuratively – of the campuses we are building now.

Face-to-face on-campus engagement is still a vital part of the student experience. It’s a truism but one which bears repeated underlining in today’s world where cash is king and knowledge appears to be disposable: a university education is about more than just a degree.

There are many reasons why students come to campus, and why they will continue to need and want to come to campus: to meet and mix; to challenge and debate; to encounter people from different cultures, backgrounds, genders, faiths, sexualities, and behaviours; to fall in and out of love with learning, each other, and themselves— all the non-verbal cues which are so hard to interpret online.

Then there is the communal entity of a university, not just within itself but in and as a vital part of the locality and community in which it works and thrives. Education institutions serve as hubs for a plethora of functions each of which enrich and nourish the people around them: public lectures; continuous/lifelong learning; training courses; sports facilities; theatre, music and dance; language labs; evening classes; external event hosting; even crèches and car parks.

Advanced technology can replace a large amount of the monotony of administration, it can reinvigorate staff and free them up to engage with students and colleagues more, and it can make our jobs both more proactive and effective through big data, statistical analysis and forecasting trends, all of which will revolutionise the way we can keep our universities at the forefront of knowledge.

Technology offers slicker, more efficient methods to a model that has lasted for over a millennium; it doesn’t offer an alternative. For example, artificial intelligence hasn’t yet produced the white heat that had been predicted; it is still more of a slow burn. And the benefits of AI will be seen in the back offices of administration rather than in the clumsy and frankly embarrassing attempts at robot lecturers we see trotted out at conferences and conventions intent on persuading us they are the educators of the future!

There are plenty of reasons universities have been in existence for more than a thousand years;

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Hugh Martin

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all those which have survived and thrived have done so because they have adapted to and grown with society around them, often leading and informing the very change that they have witnessed.

We should be extremely wary of the EdTech vendor or the commercial carpetbagger who pops up with an online solution to miraculously transform the university into an entirely digital enterprise; it smacks of opportunism and short-term gain with little or no regard for the real, long-term future of higher education, or indeed of the needs and desires of students themselves.

Instead, we need to work with technologies: as far as possible future-proofing both our pedagogic methodology and the physical presence of education.

I write ‘as far as possible’ because of course, this is a problem any cutting edge industry faces: what is top of the line, trailblazing now, is old hat tomorrow.

That is a cliché of a cliché itself.

Given that we know many of the jobs our future graduates will take don’t yet exist, how then do we future-proof our teaching spaces to take account of purposes not even thought of at this time? One obvious way is to embrace the interdisciplinarity of the modern university, where subjects intersect, and the traditional definitions of student and teacher/ academic become blurred. The physical infrastructure which supports and nurtures this new way of interacting requires multipurpose, multifunctional, and dynamic architecture.

This already happens in the contemporary education sphere – for example, university libraries have changed out of all recognition even in the thirty years since I was an undergraduate student.

Libraries are still the beating hearts of our education communities, but rather than stack upon stack of dusty books they are now learning commons, group study pods, IT helpdesks, cafés, meeting spaces, event venues, and many more creatively purposed uses besides.

So it is essential that we continue to plan, design, build, and inhabit campuses, however they morph and adapt to future developments.

Physical campuses, rather than – or as I would say, alongside – online environments, enable us to do what we do best. And that is helping students become independent learners, and providing us all, students and staff alike, with space(s) to continue our development into well-rounded human beings alive with the possibilities of knowledge.

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

ACADEMIC VIEW

Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST): A Higher Education Space Sciences Oasis in the Middle East Dr Ilias Fernini, Deputy General Director for Research Laboratories, Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST)

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y announcing the institution of a space agency in 2014, the United Arab Emirates has entered a new age of excellence and uniqueness in the Arab world: the space exploration race. Its 2020 mission to Mars, the Emirates Mars Hope Mission, has opened the door and given a chance to hundreds of young Emiratis to excel in the field of space engineering as well as space sciences. To ensure that the UAE new space program is not just an advertisement program, the UAE Space Agency has set four main objectives: (1) to organize and develop the UAE space sector; (2) to promote and support the efforts of scientific research and innovation; (3) to attract and prepare national cadres to become pioneers in the field of space science; and (4) to focus on ensuring that all the Agency’s services are following worldwide quality, efficiency and transparency standards. These objectives are helping both the educational and the industrial sector in the UAE to set their priorities to be an integral part of the space program and to fulfil the UAE Space Agency goals.

The United Arab Emirates is home to tens of government and private universities, as well as several research centres that form the higher educational core. The Emirate of Sharjah is one of the seven Emirates of the UAE, and Sharjah city is known as the cultural capital of the UAE. Besides its various cultural centres, the University of Sharjah (UoS) and the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) represent the main centres of education in Sharjah. UoS is one the largest university in the UAE, with more than 16,000 students spread all over its many branches across the Emirate.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

SAASST is now one of the leading research and higher education in the MENA world

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Hundreds of degrees in various fields are offered, and both astronomy and space sciences represent an integral part of the university program. A Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics and Astronomy is offered, and an MSc program in Astronomy and Space Sciences is now proposed as a unique program of its kind in the UAE. UoS is also offering an MSc in Space Law, and an MSc in Aerospace Engineering will soon be offered.

SAASST is now one of the leading research and higher education in the MENA world. It was established in 2015 to reinforce the university’s new space sciences program.

Its vision is to be a national centre working in the areas of astronomy and space sciences. One of its main aims is to develop and promote education about these fields in the Arab world in general and the UAE in particular. It is striving to be an academy dedicated to education, science, research, Islamic heritage, and open to educators, school students, university students, researchers, and families of all ages. The academy organizes tens of workshops for students as well as for professionals at all levels the whole

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year long. It had the privilege to receive the visit of many dignitaries, presidents, ambassadors, famous scientists, astronauts, and paramount space agencies directors.

Students from high schools and universities now have a unique opportunity to see the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in all space sciences fields through several research laboratories and centres available at SAASST. The academy is becoming the favourite hub for tens of students willing to conduct their university end-of-program internships.

Since 2018, SAASST has trained more than 60 students coming from several UAE educational institutions like the Khalifa University, the Higher Colleges of Technology, the American University of Sharjah, and the University of Sharjah. Hundreds of other students were able to attend workshops related to CubeSat design, space tools simulations, and space sciences research seminars. In addition to students, the academy has organized several specialized astronomy teachers workshops where teachers from the Gulf area were exposed to the latest tools in

teaching astronomy to non-science majors students. In 2019, SAASST organized a special “Astronomy Education Research Workshop.” This workshop was under the theme of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission C1 Astronomy Education and Development. The aim was to further the development and improvement of astronomical education at all levels throughout the world through various projects developed to disseminate information concerning astronomy education. Space educators from Brazil, Australia, UAE, and Turkey attended the workshop. It is right to say that SAASST is becoming a space sciences oasis with its research and educational capabilities, unique in the MENA world.

Presently, SAASST is operating six laboratories/ centres. First, the “Meteorite Center” hosts the UAE Meteor Monitoring Network (UAEMMN), sponsored by the UAE Space Agency, and a machine learning unit to search for meteorites. Second, the “Radio Astronomy Laboratory” is operating a 20.1 MHz Decametric Radio Array for Sun and Jupiter’s observations. It has recently installed a 40-meter radio interferometer to observe the universe at 1.4 GHz.

Students from high schools and universities now have a unique opportunity to see the importance of STEM in all space sciences fields through several research laboratories and centres available at SAASST

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Dr Ilias Fernini A PhD holder in Physics (Major: Astrophysics) from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (USA), Dr Ilias Fernini has been working as the Deputy General Director for Research Laboratories, Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) since 2016. Before SAASST, he has worked as an Associate Professor in the United Arab Emirates University. He holds MS in Astrophysics from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (USA) and BS in Solid State Physics from University of Science and Technology, Algiers (Algeria). In his illustrious career, Dr Ilias Fernini has received serval awards including Merit Award for World Top 1% Journal Publications for 2014 (Astrophysical

Journal

Supplement

Series)

–

United Arab Emirates University, December 2015,

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Merit Award for Best Faculty Member – College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, June 2006, and Best Non-Funded Research, 6th UAEU Research Conference, April 24-26, 2005.

Third, the centre hosts a “GIS and RS Center” as part of a close collaboration between the University of Sharjah and SAASST. The fourth laboratory is the “Space Weather and Ionospheric Laboratory” with two central systems: a GNSS and a CADI Ionosonde system to study the upper Earth’s ionosphere. The fifth laboratory is the “CubeSat Laboratory,” where students are developing the SHARJAH-SAT-1, an X-ray CubeSat to observe the Sun and stars in the X-ray domain. Last, a “HighEnergy Astrophysics Laboratory” dedicated to compact stellar objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Also, SAASST has an “Astronomical Optical Observatory” equipped with a 45 cm telescope for deep-sky observations, an 18 cm telescope for planets and Moon observations, and a 10 cm solar telescope.

Another new observatory is SLIO (Sharjah Lunar Impact Observatory), dedicated to observing impacts on the Moon surface.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Four other facilities are under establishment: a “Data Center,” an “Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,” a “Rocket Propulsion Center,” and a “Space Robotic Exploration Center.” Since 2017, several multidisciplinary research projects were started with the Colleges of Engineering and Sciences to promote space sciences and build the space technological capabilities of the University of Sharjah and SAASST. Several projects were funded by the UAE Space Agency and the Mohamed bin Rashed Space Center.

However, the bulk of the research activities fund comes from the University of Sharjah. This has allowed us to hire excellent researchers with various backgrounds in engineering and sciences.

SAASST is getting a great reputation in the field of space sciences in the MENA world. The variety of research, the number of publications (more than 42 publications in peer-reviewed journals), and the high demand of students to work in its laboratories are proof of such a value.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

UAE - A New Sunshine in International Higher Education?

Dr Indranil Bose, Dean-School of Business, University of Bolton, Ras Al Khaimah

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or the last three decades, UAE has emerged as one of the most attractive destinations to all the stakeholders of the international higher education. Be it business management, engineering, social science, earth science, computing; many international universities and higher education institutions from across the globe have set up their campuses in UAE. With the very supportive and cordial socio-political environment, UAE has been able to attract more than forty foreign universities or higher education institutions from more than ten countries of Europe, Asia and America to start and operate their campuses. Some of the nations, from where such foreign universities or institutions of higher learning have progressively invested in UAE are USA, UK, India, Lebanon etc. apart from many public and private run local universities operating here. As per the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, a significant number of 77463 foreign students were studying with different local and foreign universities or institutions of higher learning in UAE in 2016.

This number has definitely increased since then. It has been reported that the majority of the foreign students come to take admission in UAE based universities and institutions of higher learning in the disciplines like business, hospitality, tourism, engineering etc. Though the cost of higher education in UAE is still considered as significantly higher than in many countries, most of the foreign students consider this as the premium investment in their career as UAE is regarded as an excellent destination for starting an international career and to settle to millions of expatriates. However, the challenges of the real job market in UAE are becoming growingly complex over time. Because the students pursuing these courses are found to be significantly lacking certain essential qualities, the new age professions are increasingly demanding in this part of the world.

Corporations and multinationals operating in UAE are fast adopting new-age work practices based on certain principles, those are considered at par with some of the best practices of the western world. For example, a growing emphasis on diversity and inclusion has emerged as one of the most essential cornerstones of the success of many international organisations operating here. Though many other neighbouring gulf

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset among students pursuing any program in UAE has become one of the most critical requirements

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nations such as Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and many more are also working on promoting this fundamental principle of corporate excellence, UAE has clearly emerged the champion of this cause in the entire middle east despite the growing emphasis on localisation and other practices.

Therefore the skills like cultural sensitivity have become one of the most essential requirements for the graduating foreign students in the UAE. It is well known that community-oriented universities and institutions of higher learning are doing quite well in attracting students from the respective communities and nationalities in UAE. For example, many western students pursuing their degrees in western universities, many Indians are studying with Indian universities, and all are somehow creating a social learning system based on silo practices. In such cases, cultural sensitisation might become a significant challenge for many. Universities and institutions of higher learning in UAE should have incorporated this most essential aspect in their curriculum or campus practices. More and more international student exchange programs and cross-cultural learning experience should be encouraged at the policy levels. These universities and institutions should also promote more diverse cultural calendars and practices at the campuses.

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset among students pursuing any program in UAE has become one of the most critical requirements. A recent study has shown that many of the international campuses operating in UAE lack behind the global practices of entrepreneurial incubation and entrepreneurial culture. This is quite a significant deficiency as UAE has emerged as one of the most attractive destinations of foreign and domestic investments due to very robust support mechanisms promoted by the federal government and the authorities of the respective emirates. Some of the biggest free zones of the entire MENA region are located in UAE and still, the participation of the foreign students pursuing their professional education in UAE in the process of setting up startups in UAE is still far behind than many other developing countries. Universities and institutions admitting the foreign students should collaborate with the local government and private authorities and must rigorously create such an environment in the campus itself. Many of the foreign students choose UAE as their higher education destinations as the country offers them the opportunity to settle here and to pursue their dreams.

Any such practice to develop an entrepreneurial mindset among them can definitely encourage more foreign students to opt for this country. Already high global standing of this beautiful, friendly nation will definitely increase many folds with such measures.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Dr Indranil Bose Indranil Bose is a PhD in management from India and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK. He is engaged in higher and professional education in UAE under several international UK based university and vocational education system for the last seven years. He is a committed academic and researcher in different areas of business management of contemporary significance such as teaching and learning practices in international higher education and crosscultural learning, peripheral work practice, strategic workforce modelling, open-source knowledge management, employee relations etc. He is looking after academic quality assurance, teaching and learning in the university and vocational learning, designing and introduction of new courses at his present engagement with the University of Bolton, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE as the Dean, School of Business. In India, he has taught with many universities and institutions offering postgraduate and undergraduate management education. He is the recipient of many international awards like Turn-itin Global Innovation Award (Honourable Mention) for writing with integrity, Dewang Mehta Best Professor Award etc.

Many of the foreign students choose UAE as their higher education destinations as the country offers them the opportunity to settle here and to pursue their dreams

Many new areas of research trends are fast catching up in high education across the globe. Courses on analytics and data science, artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering management, liberal arts and social media, fin-tech, Blockchain, hospitality etc. have emerged as some of the most sought after disciplines and will remain so for next few decades. More and more universities and institutions of higher learning based at UAE operating in both public and private domains can work seriously to offer such programs and courses for their students. A recent study by the Curriculum Research in MENA (2019) has shown that less than 20% of the universities and institutions of higher learning operating in UAE are seriously working on these areas. A vast number of universities and institutions of higher education operating in UAE are still concentrating on the basic program offering. Definitely, changing this prerogative will attract more foreign students to the UAE shortly. UAE government and respective authorities of the different emirates have already incorporated all these practices in the governance systems. However, the massive skill gap between managing and safeguarding these practices require a large number of human capital skilled in these areas. Hospitality is a significant revenue earner for this nation. However, only a few institutions are offering well-regarded hospitality and tourism-related educations in UAE. Following the model practised in Switzerland, UAE based universities can also encourage

setting up world-class hospitality educations to create a more sustainable eco-system for the industry. On the areas of engineering and technology, the country should emphasise on developing some of the world’s best learning and knowledge building experiences by combining earth science with engineering. The country already has some of the globally regarded centres of research in mining and petroleum-related engineering and research such as the Petroleum Research Institute of Abu Dhabi etc. However, more such institutions can be created with the existing expertise available with the country, and such endeavours can attract more international students.

UAE offers some of the best opportunities in the modern world. It has shown the world that within a short span of four decades, a nation can emerge as one of the most practical, growth-oriented and progressive countries. Higher education is the pillar of sustaining any such progressive endeavour. World’s leading destinations of higher education are still dominated by the western countries from North America and Europe and few from Asia. UAE has all the possibilities to emerge and to be part of this elite league in the near future. As a very young nation, the country has indeed achieved phenomenal progress to emerge as one of the most attractive destinations of higher education. However, many new adoptions can create positive boosts in this speeding process.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Learning by Doing: An Ancient Formula to Meaningful Education Dr Jacinta Dsilva, Assistant Professor – Marketing, Business School, Modul University, Dubai

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“L

earning is an active process. We learn by doing. Only know that is used sticks in your mind,” Dale Carnegie.

The traditional style of education or conventional teaching was delivered through recitation and memorisation techniques. Several higher education institutions still focus much on theoretical underpinning, which is excellent. However, when students complete their studies and enter the job market, they face challenges due to lack of practical knowledge since they are not fully trained to channelise their education to the workplace.

The company has to make additional effort to provide work-ready training to make the employee understand the work requirements and make them productive. This is challenging for both the employee and the organisation since even in the 21st-century collaboration between higher education and industry is a path yet to be further explored and therefore, a gap exists.

The concept of ‘learning by doing’ is not a new pedagogy, it is a tried and tested formula and has been used in ancient times. Learning by doing means learning from experiences resulting directly from his/her actions, in comparison to learning from watching others perform, reading others’ instructions or descriptions, or listening to others’ instructions or lectures. This model can be embraced by primary and higher education to make learning more meaningful and useful in our daily lives. During the times we meet our alumni, one discussion is always prominent that, ‘half the things we learn during our studies do not help us in our work or life’. Therefore, educational institutions must work around the existing education system and make learning more experiential. Every student will immensely benefit from learning by doing model; notably, these changes will help them gain better job opportunities, and the employer will not

Higher Education Digest October 2020

The concept of ‘learning by doing’ is not a new pedagogy, it is a tried and tested formula and has been used in ancient times

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need additional training to make them productive and efficient. There have been noticeable improvements in higher education institutions in embracing the learning by doing model. However, there is a lot that can be done to reduce the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge development.

We, as institutions, must work in the directions that will facilitate to make learning more hands-on and experiential by changing the way we design classwork or assessments. This will support learners to take responsibility for their learning and will make them proactive thinkers. They will also benefit from reflecting on their learning style, gain conceptual insights as well as practical expertise. Let’s further discuss some of the areas that will support learning by doing, if included in the curriculum.

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1. Financial Literacy Financial literacy is a skill which supports an individuals’ conscious and effective financial decisions making. In today’s world, many people struggle to make sound financial decisions and therefore, suffer from colossal debt and other related issues. In the present condition, it is crucial to teach the younger generation well early in their life about making sound financial decisions. Even though students may study any stream such as engineering, humanities or business, they must have a course on financial literacy. The lesson could cover knowledge related to opening a bank account, strategies to save for the future as well as the importance of investing in the right opportunities. It is constantly noticed that student’s though in their final year of graduation have not entered a bank and therefore, have no or very little knowledge about how banks function.

These students further enter the workforce but with very little knowledge about managing their finances, therefore, make several wrong decisions in life. I have often come across friends and family members who are in their late 30’s or 40’s and are still struggling with budgeting their income which leads to higher expenses than their salaries (one of the reasons for divorce and other devastating problems).

About

Dr Jacinta Dsilva Dr Jacinta Dsilva is an Assistant Professor Marketing at Business School, Modul University, Dubai UAE, as well as a Visiting Professor at several other universities such as S.P. Jain College in Dubai and in China. She has also worked at several other prestigious UAE Universities in the past such as Emirates Aviation University, Higher Colleges of Technology and the University of Wollongong in Dubai. Dr Jacinta has also worked as Lecturer at the prestigious St. Agnes College Mangalore, India for five years. She has pursued Masters in Commerce from Mumbai University and MBA from Karnataka State University and was awarded PhD in Marketing from Coventry University, UK for her work on ‘Service quality in Low-Cost Carrier’ in 2017. Recently, Dr Jacinta has been awarded the Best Reviewer Award 2020 by Elsevier SSRN for the journal IJIEMR and Best Women Researcher award as well. She has also published two books, namely Business Communication

2. Communication These days it is prevalent to find tech-savvy students who are great at virtual communication using social media but, what about face to face communication? These days students’ find it hard to communicate with each other, they may have thousands of friends online. However, not many have the privilege to have real friends and

Higher Education Digest October 2020

and

Surviving

COVID-19:

Stay Home Stay Safe. Dr Jacinta is known to work with her students and provide them with opportunities of presenting at conferences and publishing their papers.

therefore, many students suffer from loneliness. This will remain a major hurdle for the future generation who will be expert in using their fingers to type messages, but, would be unable to frame sentences to speak to their family and friends, in person. Here, we can create tasks during class activity, where students can communicate with each other to improve their communication skills through conducting interviews, focus group discussions and challenge-based team activities which will lead the students to communicate with each other with a healthy mindset.

We, as institutions, must work in the directions that will facilitate to make learning more handson and experiential by changing the way we design classwork or assessments

3. Basic life skills Another important lesson that can be part of any curriculum would be to teach basic skills or survival techniques for day to day life. These could be supportive skills such as changing a car tyre, changing a bulb or repairing small appliances for urgent needs. These skills will make the younger generation self-reliant and less dependent on others to do basic tasks. Research would be another necessary skill which would be relevant and much needed in professional life.

4. Critical thinking Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally as well to understand the logical connection between the ideas. This skill can be developed by regular practising critical thinking on various occasions. One way to develop critical thinking is to read regularly (not social media posts though), understand by evaluating and questioning the thought process of every decision made. This is another skill which can support better decision making concerning personal and professional life.

5. Sustainability The world is becoming a dangerous place to live due to the way we are treating nature, and therefore, if we continue in this fashion, the future generation may not enjoy a blissful life. Therefore, we need to adapt to sustainable living if we want our future generation to see a better planet and survive longer. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the United Nations are the blueprint and a signal that there is an urgent need to change our behaviour towards our mother nature. Therefore, planting more trees and nurturing them regularly, using public transport, reducing the unnecessary usage of electricity, water and plastic would be a contribution towards a better future.

We can achieve this by fostering collaboration between educational institutions and public and private industry as well as by designing innovative projects and pursuing the idea of reuse, reduce and recycle.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Not Only ‘Research Informed Teaching’ but ‘Teaching Informed Research’ in Enterprise Education Dr Naveed Yasin, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, Canadian University Dubai

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he inclusion of enterprise and entrepreneurship education is increasingly being recognised as a driver of students’ economic and academic success across Higher Education Institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

The primary goal of Universities remains to equip the next generation of professionals with contemporary skills, knowledge and abilities that are indemand by employers and the economy at large. For enterprise educators, this poses several opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning pedagogies that are applied as a vehicle for knowledge transfer and to disseminate their methods and practices into a published scholarly research output.

In this article, I will discuss the general notion of ‘research-based teaching’, and then present a more detailed explanation about the value of ‘teaching-informed research’, followed by 8 potential ideas for ‘teaching based research’ opportunities in enterprise education. Lastly, the article will conclude with a summary of the article.

Research Informed Teaching Although there has been a strong emphasis on ‘research-informed teaching’ in enterprise education globally, which generally denotes that empirical research should be used to teach students the research findings of their specialist field, nevertheless there is very little scholarly attention attributed to its counterpart, which is ‘teaching informed research’. Often many enterprise educators seek inspiration from empirical research for fresh learning content that is used to disseminate contemporary knowledge in the classroom. Still, often educators overlook and to some extent, unintentionally dismiss the

Higher Education Digest October 2020

The importance of engaging students in experiential learning has been strongly advocated by enterprise educators

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valuable scholarly efforts that could inform the future of teaching and learning pedagogies in entrepreneurship.

Here are 8 ‘Teaching Informed Research’ Ideas.

1. Gamification and Simulations The importance of engaging students in experiential learning (i.e. learning by doing) has been strongly advocated by enterprise educators (See, Yasin and Hafeez, 2018). There is a wide range of options when it comes to simulation and gamification of digital technologies such as SimVenture, Edumundo, and VentureBlocks. Students can engage with enterprise in a digitally simulated learning environment. They can exercise their decision making in entrepreneurship by putting their learning into action – by making decisions individually or in groups.

Enterprise educators can act as mentors and develop a detailed narrative of their own and/or students experiences throughout their learning journey and share these insights with their academic community through publications in teaching and learning journals.

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2. Digital Technology and Quizzes The delivery of academic content should not be limited to simply delivering ‘PowerPoint to death’ slides. Enterprise educators must demonstrate creativity and innovation in their teaching and learning practices. This is even more important in the field of enterprise education, where the purpose is to engage and inspire students in developing

Higher Education Digest October 2020

creative insights to solve real-life problems. The enterprise educator can reinforce this learning by including a technology-based quiz for students to use their smartphones as a learning tool. For example, Kahoot! Quizzes are deemed to be effective and can be designed and utilised to create a fun and competitive learning environment with the potential to engage the students inside the classroom. The automated data collection through the web-based platform can help to diagnose and monitor students’ engagement whilst also serving as a topic of research.

3. Measuring the effectiveness of enterprise education How do you know that your students have actually benefited from your course in terms of enterprise and entrepreneurial learning? As academics, we often rely on the ‘end of term’ student evaluations for students to selfproclaim their learning achievements and experiences.

However, how about measuring the students’ enterprising characteristics on a longitudinal basis to provide evidence to the effectiveness of the applied teaching and learning pedagogy? Yasin et al’s (2020) study on measuring the need for achievement, independence, and internal locus of control, among other enterprise measures, provides empirical insights post course surveys. This could generate empirical insights that start from the first day of the students’ learning journey on your course. The valuable effort enterprise educators put into their teaching can be

rewarded with research outcomes by converting the associated data and experiences into high quality ‘teaching informed research’ scholarly research outputs.

4. Reflective practices What is the point of the students merely developing an attractive business plan and presenting projected returns on investment? Does this really explain what students have learnt about enterprise and entrepreneurship? Enterprise educators increasingly recognise the importance of students’ reflective practices regarding how they have developed their business ideas, what have they learnt about their skills and abilities, and what they will do to strengthen these abilities. Enterprise educators could include an assessed component for reflective practices or the development of a portfolio where students demonstrate the achievement of their learning outcomes throughout their learning journey. This can also help academics to develop qualitative insights into their students’ learning experiences and be able to develop meaningful scholarly output based on reflective practices.

5. No ‘Closed Book’ Examinations Formal examinations are perhaps the most common method of assessment in business and management education. However, should enterprise and entrepreneurship students need to be assessed by methods that have no external validity within the reality of industry or enterprise? For example, in their professional lives and careers, will they ever be asked to explain whether entrepreneurs were ‘born or made’ and to support their answers with academic references? Of course not!

Enterprise educators may use the Harvard Teaching Case Method and retrieve real-life cases from case study journals such as the Asian Journal of Management Cases and the European Case Clearing House. This could help students to engage with new learning content and develop strategies for a struggling business as entrepreneurship business consultants. Students should be able to debate their ideas with other groups to develop the best solution for the enterprise. This can create a dynamic environment for student learning. As an academic enterprise educator, you may develop your own case study from your research and engage your students in the case method. You may also require your students to develop an original case

About

Dr Naveed Yasin Dr Naveed Yasin is an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Interdisciplinary Enterprise Education Coordinator at the Canadian University

Dubai.

A

highly

experienced

Senior

Academic in Entrepreneurship with over 10 years of experience and a demonstrated history of delivering excellence in the education management industry internationally (UK, Oman, and now the UAE). The 2015 prestigious Award winner for the ‘Outstanding All Round Academic Award’ from the Teaching & Learning Institute, UK. Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), International Keynote speaker, holder of Chartered Manager and Fellow status from the Chartered Management Institute (UK), Fellow of the National Council of Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE), Certified CMBE accreditation from the Chartered Association of Business Schools, and CIM Chartered Manager’s Canada (C.MGR.). Dr Yasin has published extensively in internationally renowned ABS, and Scopus indexed journals and textbooks in the field of enterprise education, education management and cross-border migrant entrepreneurship.

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study with local businesses and potentially publish this in textbooks, case journals, or teaching and learning journals.

6. Collaborative Interdisciplinary Enterprise Education Both students and academics can benefit from working in interdisciplinary teams with other faculties such as design, engineering, communication, computing, and business management. This can help to enrich the quality of building practical value propositions with diverse members in a venture team. This would subsequently allow students to develop practical business models that have a better chance of developing solutions that solve real-life problems. Such efforts can also help students to envisage an entrepreneurial career with heightened confidence to secure external investment from venture capitalists, banks, and other funding bodies. This effort can help support the University’s own business incubator with researchbased spin-offs, commercial patents, and solutions for contemporary social and business ideas.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

7. Gearing up for the ‘real world’ of enterprise and entrepreneurship Instead of leading students through the laborious process of reinventing the wheel by developing replicative solutions to problems such as another parking app for Dubai, enterprise educators should encourage their students to focus on reallife issues and problems by defining a context for their innovation (e.g. enriching people’s lives under COVID-19 and lockdown lifestyles, gender empowerment, mobility issues, etc.) and to develop effective solutions that solve an actual problem. The courses offered by institutions should encourage creativity and innovation for both social and commercial business ideas as this can provide students with the confidence to engage with enterprise and entrepreneurship in the future under various learning contexts. For enterprise educators, this could also serve as a starting point for research in areas where their creative ideas can be shared among a wide range of academic communities and could also support copyright and patents for their prototypes.

8. Knowledge Co-creation Enterprise educators could potentially collaborate as co-authors with their students to develop their research outputs. This can provide the educator with the assistance and help required to materialise their projects, whereas, for the students, it could be a unique opportunity to work on a ‘live project’ and therefore, advance their research and writing skills.

Overall, this would not only benefit the students’ learning experience but also provide a unique addition to their Curriculum Vitae (CV).

Dubai is undoubtedly one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the world with remarkable opportunities for business start-ups in the region

Summary Undoubtedly, enterprise educators should use research-informed teaching but should also not undermine the valuable efforts they put into their teaching practices, and share ‘teaching informed research’ outputs with the wider community of enterprise and entrepreneurship educators. This article provides eight teaching informed research ideas, which are underpinned by contemporary approaches to teaching and learning pedagogy in enterprise education. Last but not least, the purpose of this article is to encourage enterprise educators to engage in a dialogue across all three dimensions of what works, what could work, and what doesn’t work when delivering and assessing enterprise education.

Dubai is undoubtedly one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the world with remarkable opportunities for business start-ups in the region.

The vibrancy of Dubai’s booming economy and its transformation from a small shipping village to a thriving, iconic luxury tourism hotspot has dwarfed many internationally renowned cities as it aggressively secures an exceptional reputation for commerce, innovation, and enterprise. This vibrancy creates numerous and diverse opportunities for Higher Education Institutions and for its academic enterprise educators in the UAE.

References Yasin, N. and Hafeez, K. (2018) Effective Practices in Enterprise Simulation Gaming in Enterprise Education by Palgrave in Title: Experiential Learning in Entrepreneurship in Experiential Entrepreneurship published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Yasin, N., Khansari, Z. and Sharif, T. (2020) Assessing the Enterprising Tendencies of Arab Female Undergraduate Engineering Students in the Sultanate of Oman. Industry and Higher Education (forthcoming)

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Learning Transformation: The Future of Middle East Business learning is Blended and Personalised Randa Bessiso, Founder and Director - Middle East, The University of Manchester, and Chair of the UAE-UK Business Council’s Higher Education Sub Group

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ubai – and the UAE– has a global profile that helps attract talented individuals to live, work and study in the emirate. The growing number of international universities and institutes in Dubai, coupled with the high standard of living, education and services, will continue to draw students to the country.

In the Middle East and beyond, Dubai and the UAE have set the benchmark not just for the region but for other education centres globally, and the emirate’s higher education sector is continuing to expand and mature. Capacity is increasing due to Dubai’s ability to attract highquality institutions from around the world, as well as offer a diversified range of programme options and learning formats for students.

Supported by the world’s largest free zone dedicated to higher education, Dubai is attracting global talent and education providers. This growing number of branch campuses of overseas universities is providing more choice to local and regional students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. However, this trend is less about programme offerings and more about flexibility, personalisation and delivery formats. The key is to maintain high-quality teaching and learning experiences and to support graduates as they embark on their careers. Dubai is committed to this, and we believe that the higher education sector will continue to flourish not just in terms of student numbers but also in terms of choice and consistent quality.

Dubai has become a global destination that attracts talent from around the world. The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2019, in which the UAE and Dubai both performed well, shows that cities rather than countries are developing stronger roles as talent hubs and will be crucial to reshaping the global talent landscape. This is because cities have greater flexibility in adapting to new trends and patterns, making them especially attractive for entrepreneurial talent.

We see this very clearly in Dubai. There is no doubt that recent developments in the UAE – including the introduction of new visa regulations – will help make studying in the UAE even more appealing

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Supported by the world’s largest free zone dedicated to higher education, Dubai is attracting global talent and education providers

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Randa Bessiso

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Randa Bessiso 114

Randa Bessiso has spent much of her career working on market entry strategies, company startups and channel development programmes, and building profitable regional businesses and brands. Randa was instrumental in planning and establishing the Middle East Centre, which opened in Dubai in 2006.

She is responsible for the overall management, operations, strategic planning and business development of The University of Manchester in the Middle East. Initially, Randa led the successful launch of the Alliance Manchester Business School Middle East Centre. This success was recognised by the wider University, which led to the re-naming of the centre and broadening of its role representing the academic interests of the entire University in the region.

Randa has overseen the development of the Middle East team and the launch of a range of educational products, services and initiatives including a careers service, the Manchester Innovation Award for Emiratis, a range of CSR and research projects, and a portfolio of new part-time specialist master’s programmes from the wider University. Among the regional recognitions is the ‘Best MBA Program’ award for the Global Part-time MBA at the inaugural Forbes Middle East Higher Education Awards 2019. On a personal basis, Randa has been recognised annually among the 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen and the Middle East 100 Most Influential Women by Forbes Middle East, from 2014 to 2018. She was also named among the 30 most influential women in the Arab World by Arabian Business, in 2019.

Randa is currently the Chair of the UAE-UK Business Council’s Higher Education Sub Group, and she is a regular media commentator and speaker at executive forums in the UAE and region on her special area of interest - ‘women in business’.

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to talented young people. The aim is to encourage these students to remain in the country to work and contribute to the emerging ‘knowledge society’ here. At the institutional level, education providers are being supported in developing their campuses as incubators of entrepreneurship and innovation, and to develop their capabilities as international research centres.

There is no doubt that the regional economy presents unique career opportunities as it undergoes rapid economic diversification and digital transformation. There is an increasing need to align business education programmes with indemand workplace skills to improve and sustain the employability of students. This vital aspect is being supported by new student visa regulations, improved guidance on securing internships, classifying educational campuses as free zones, focusing on entrepreneurship and incubating innovative startups.

While Dubai is one of the world’s most dynamic cities, and the speed of change and transformation through creativity and innovation creates exciting opportunities, it also presents education providers with the challenge of keeping pace. In higher education particularly, curricula need to be updated to reflect these rapid technological, social and workplace changes.

The internet of things, artificial intelligence and blockchain are all part of the increasing emphasis on technology in education – especially within the business disciplines. While industry relevance is an important component of business programmes, there is no doubt that soft skills, such as leadership and creativity, are also increasingly valued by businesses.

These skills are easily transferable across industries and not easily automated.

Different students have different learning preferences, but two key trends in business education are shorter and more intensive programmes, and the ability to personalise the learning experience in terms of programme content and learning format.

For example, The University of Manchester offers part-time, blended learning master’s programmes for working professionals and so all our students have the flexibility and convenience of combining online self-study and group studies, along with regular face to face workshops; they also continue to work, earn and with the opportunity to apply their learning immediately. We believe this format offers significant advantages to working professionals who may not have the time or opportunity to undertake a full-time

programme but are looking for the same learning and career impact and benefits, beyond a pure online learning experience.

This part-time, blended learning approach has proved to be very effective and popular, as students get as much face to face time as many full-time programmes, through intensive workshops. Full-time study may not be a realistic option for mid-career professionals, and this blended learning approach is the most flexible and manageable option, and still actively encourages collaborative learning and helps students build their networks of professional contacts, which is one of the major benefits of undertaking an MBA. We believe there is also growing interest among some working professionals for pure online business programmes, as the online space matures and technology becomes increasingly immersive and multimedia in nature.

Digital transformation is changing the way people work, live and communicate, and this includes the classroom and business education. As the workplace and work itself changes, so does business education, driven increasingly by the demands of student learners to access learning content in self-study or in collaboration with fellow students, when and how they prefer.

Global virtual classrooms Fortunately, as many of us have found recently, while there may be no real substitute for eye to eye contact, a handshake, or a hug – whatever is appropriate - the virtual social and learning experience is improving dramatically, thanks to developments in the workplace. From necessity, we have now embarked on a global experiment as more of life, business and education move online, and social distancing becomes a requirement.

Virtualising social contact (friends, family, colleagues, teachers and students) is a new experience for many, but the experiment is likely to leave its mark.

We will appreciate even more the value and utility of technology in the absence of direct social contact, but also appreciate even more the irreplaceable value of physical, social contact and interaction.

Learning has always been a social process between students, teachers, schools and parents.

Still, for working professionals who are committed to lifelong learning the options have evolved from correspondence courses to distance learning and now the blended learning format that combines online selfstudy and group-study with face to face workshops

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with teaching faculty and fellow students. The mix of the blended format may vary (depending on the number of hours of face to face time), but it seems to offer the optimal solution for busy working people who need to juggle family, social, work and study time.

Both elements of the blended mix – online and face to face – are moving in lock-step and converging online with social lives, entertainment, education and work.

Distance learning is growing, and the global classroom (open and accessible for learning opportunities everywhere, any time, any device) is becoming more of a reality.

In the Middle East, from our regional centre in Dubai Knowledge Park, we have supported and

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graduated thousands of part-time master’s students.

It’s clear from our experience that students place a very high value on the face to face contact, because it accelerates learning from faculty and peers, and provides the crucial relationship-building and important networking opportunity.

Virtual student workshops can be tailored to regional time zones and designed to provide a facultyled, content-rich interactive experience to ensure the continuity of learning and maintain individual student progress. We have been using all the experience we have gained over many years of delivering blended learning programmes, which includes online self-study components, across the region.

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Business was already ahead of the game. Blended learning is also gaining traction in business education as the corporate world goes deeper into digital business transformation, with technologies such as AI, chatbots, Cloud, blockchain and the Internet of Things being adopted rapidly - business education is increasingly mirroring the workplace.

Employees now commonly work flexibly, remotely, and collaborate and communicate with colleagues and third parties using corporate networks and communications tools, their own devices and apps. Technology really is becoming second-nature as work (and the wider social lives of younger people) is managed online, offline and in a blended format.

With a new generation of digital natives now launching their careers in the workplace, executive learning across all formats and disciplines is increasingly being remixed and going online, as learners look to take the greatest possible control and convenience from the increasing learning and development opportunities open to them. We see this very clearly in Dubai, and a wider region with its young, well-educated and ambitious population of innovative digital natives.

But we are not all digital natives, which makes the current experiment even more challenging and interesting, as it represents a mass learning opportunity for the entire community including across generations, a truly global online learning classroom and workshop for us all - and a glimpse into the future of blended learning.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

The Middle East Needs a World-Class Blended Learning University Dr Senthil Nathan, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi

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here has been a small silver lining in these dark clouds of pandemic across the world. Most of the 2 billion+ students, faculty and administrators – in the developed world, emerging economies and even poor nations – have gone thru the first-hand experience of online education.

Many educators would readily admit that these unexpectedly and abruptly imposed virtual teaching-learning experiences do not constitute authentic online education. However, in one stroke in March – April 2020, this experience has helped eradicate a general ignorance of technology-enabled learning from many regions and countries. This experience has also helped allay many concerns, fears and scepticism that many educators held for decades about the efficacy, relevance and usefulness of online learning. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the GCC region adapted very quickly to the fast-evolving situation in March – April 2020.

The Middle East region has had an interesting relationship with technology-enabled education. In particular, the GCC region has developed very strong technology networks, Internet penetration exceeding 90% and wide use of the Internet of Things in personal and commercial fronts. Countries such as the UAE are in the top echelons of the world in terms of Internet usage and technology adaptation. Despite such fast and dynamic evolution, the adaptation of online learning has been slow thus far in the Middle East. A primary constraint has been the challenge of accreditation agencies in the region that had taken with regard to approving degrees earned online.

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The Middle East region has had an interesting relationship with technologyenabled education

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Dr Senthil Nathan

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Dr Senthil Nathan Dr Senthil Nathan co-founded and heads

Edu

management

Alliance

Ltd,

consultancy

a

boutique

specializing

in education in the UAE and the USA. In the past 6 years, he has consulted for over 25 universities and investors and helped establish new universities. He is a professional engineer and an experienced academic leader with over 30 years of experience in university academic and administrative leadership, engineering and planning. He has been working in the UAE for three decades, prior to that for 7 years

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in the USA. In the USA, he designed the 3rd tallest concrete building in the USA as a structural design engineer for Walter P. Moore & Associates, Houston.

Dr Senthi has a PhD in Civil Engineering from Rice University-Houston; Leadership development teacher

from Harvard

certification

from

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MIT;

Cambridge

University, UK; Masters from India’s #1 university Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and BE (Honors) from NIT – Trichy.

He was inducted into Rice Civil

Engineering Honor Society; was awarded the Tata Gold Medal for the best graduate in I.I.Sc. and received Distinguished Alumni Award of NIT-Trichy from former President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam in 2014.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

For example, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education “Certificates of Equivalency” process clearly excludes any credential obtained thru distance education; the UAE Ministry of Education equivalency requirements of distance – learning education includes a limited number of approved universities and programs and excludes any scientific programs that require labs and practical applications or other equipment. The main concerns behind such restrictions against online credentials are the authenticity of students doing the work, the quality of instruction, and rigour of assessments of online degree programs. These concerns are understandable given the hundreds of fake online universities that managed to sell hundreds of thousands of fake degrees in the Gulf countries.

However, there are many compelling reasons why the Middle East must not throw the proverbial “throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

At the beginning of the last century, university education was meant for a privileged few. Mass access to higher education became a global trend – with a four-fold increase in tertiary gross enrollment in the world between 1970 and 2020, as seen from UNESCO data. During the last fifty years, in addition to increase in participation, increasing population in many regions and countries – such as China, India, the Middle East and Africa – with MENA region experiencing the highest rate of population growth of any region in the world over the past century. Considering the world’s fastestgrowing populations between 2000-2015 in terms of percentage growth, the top five countries are in the Middle East (Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Kuwait and Jordan).

In the area of MEA (the Middle East and Africa), spanning Africa’s Atlantic Coast in the west to Central Asia in the current population of 2.2 billion people is already double its population forty years ago. But by 2050, this region will be home to 3.4 billion people, more than China and India put together at that time. With such a young population, there are many imperatives for the policymakers and the governments to consider and plan for. Increasing access to tertiary education is one major aspect to meet this challenge. Expanding existing HEIs and building new brick and mortar HEIs would not be sufficient to meet these demands. Besides, many ongoing conflicts in the region adversely impact youth in these zones from accessing higher education, thus accentuating an already tragic situation.

It is worthwhile for the policymakers in the Middle East to consider the recent trends in countries that have faced similar access problems.

India is a very young country – with the average age of the population is at 29 – with associated challenges in access to higher education and youth employment. It is no coincidence that the world’s largest university is based in India, and it is also no coincidence that it is an open / primarily online or distance education HEI. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has an enrollment of over 3.5 million students. Over 20% of students enrolled in higher education in India are enrolled with IGNOU. It has 21 schools, a network of 2667 study centres, 67 regional centres, and 29 overseas centres in 15 countries. IGNOU offers 226 academic programs at the certificate, diploma, and degree levels. Aside from its enormous size and access, the policymakers in the Middle East may also note two other important aspects: it is fully government-owned – with no profit motive. In spite of open access, its modest pass percentage shows that IGNOU does not compromise on quality.

In other countries with similar tertiary education access challenges similar mega universities, with a distance education focus, have been established: the Open University of China – established recently in 2012 - enrols over 2.7 million students. Anadolu University in Turkey enrols over 2.9 million students, of which less than 1% (about 22,000 students) are on campus. Allama Iqbal Open University enrols 1.4 million students in 2000+ programs, 9 regional campuses, 33 regional centres, 41 approved study centres (for face-to-face programs) and 138 parttime regional coordinating offices and 1172 Study Centers established throughout Pakistan. An incredible 38% of Iran’s 3.4 million university students study in one open university “Islamic Azad University”- the unique aspect of this university is that it is not government-owned – but a private, notfor-profit university with a large endowment. 20% of Nigeria’s 2m tertiary students are enrolled at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

There are similar examples in the developed world, including the Open University, UK; a number of open universities in Europe and Japan; the top five institutions with the highest enrollment in the USA are also distance education universities.

However, the rationale for the existence of these universities may be different from the rationale for similar universities in Asia and Africa.

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Any forward-looking nation in this region could see this more of an opportunity to help build nations and youth, thus establishing a long term investment for regional collaboration and peaceful co-existence

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What would a Middle East Open University look like: • Owned or subsidized by one or more governments.

Not for profit.

• Accredited by Ministries of Education across the region.

• A large chain of study centres across the region – that also serve as registration and exam centers.

• Modest fees • Education provided by Online portals and supplemented by lessons provided on youtubeetc.

• Strong and independent quality assurance processes.

• Evolving fast by providing a large range of employment-focused degrees and diplomas.

Where should it be located? Considering all the advantages and market-access issues, Dubai may be one ideal location for this university to be headquartered in, though the regional centres may be established in every population centre in the Gulf countries. This could be set up with multi-government collaboration.

Would it impact existing universities? This would be a natural concern from the owners of the existing brick and mortar universities in Dubai, UAE and the region at large – about the impact of this new mega university on their business. However, it is important to realize that in the case of all the large open universities mentioned earlier, none of them really compete for the same pool of students that traditional universities typically recruit from.

This will be the case in the Middle East. Prime candidates for the new Open university would be young school leavers as well as mature students who cannot afford to

Higher Education Digest October 2020

pay the typical fees charged by traditional universities.

And students who may not meet the high admission requirements of traditional universities may also be able to gain admission in this open university. Hence, it is the author’s strong view that such an open university would be complementary – not competitive - to the current group of good universities in the region.

How about the infrastructure? This university could start with countries where technology infrastructure is already present to offer such programs and then gradually (or quickly) expand to regions where such infrastructure may need to be developed. Study Centers in such regions could help provide local students with reliable Internet access.

Building bridges: Higher education has been proved to be a long-term bridge-builder between nations, regions and cultures. Any forward-looking nation in this region could see this more of an opportunity to help build nations and youth, thus establishing a long term investment for regional collaboration and peaceful co-existence.

Adapting Best Practices: Every country and region need to develop an open university model that best fits their specific requirements and constraints. However, the author believes that there are already a wide variety of open university models from which lessons could be learnt and quickly adapted to the Middle East context.

Even a five-year projection could show that the tertiary enrollment in a country like UAE could easily be doubled with an effective establishment of such an open university.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Myself, Yourself, iSelf: University Leadership in a Post-COVID World Dr Simon Jones, Vice-Chancellor at the National University, Oman

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OVID is a reality. We acknowledge its profound effects. We have mitigation strategies. Let’s think about the Post-COVID future as well. The challenge is to plan a new vision for our institutions and to adapt the style of leadership accordingly.

There are only 4 duties of a university leader: 1. To frame, deliver and repeat a coherent message about the purpose of the institution that resonates with stakeholders.

2. Have the acumen not to jump down every hole that is put in front of you.

3. To oversee a team that plans and implements the necessary changes.

4. Through your everyday interactions, embody the values of the institution.

Seen through this lens, the challenge post-COVID is to reinterpret these duties in a landscape where students, agencies and governments are questioning their own needs and relevance and setting new requirements.

In this article, I make a case for a distinctive style of leadership in the coming decade.

National University of Science and Technology The National University of Science and Technology (NU) was formed in 2018 as a merger of three existing colleges with histories dating back to 1996. NU operates under a licence from the Ministry of Higher Education, Sultanate of Oman. It is a private non-profit university.

It has degree awarding powers and where relevant, degrees also receive international program accreditation. We work closely with 3 academic affiliates: 2 in the United States (Universities of West Virginia and South Carolina), 1 in the United Kingdom (Glasgow)).

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Access to higher education is no longer a privilege but a choice

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Dr Simon Jones

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About

Dr Simon Jones Dr Simon Jones is Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Science and Technology. He is a UK citizen born in Llanelli, Wales. He holds Bachelor’s Master’s and 2 Doctoral degrees in the fields of Microelectronics and Computer Engineering. He held the ARM/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Embedded Microelectronic Systems at Loughborough University. He was Senior Research Fellow at MIT and CEO of MIT Media Lab Europe.

Prior to his current post, he was founding Provost of Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, an initiative of 6 of the top 30 universities in the world to create a research university for Central Asia.

He has been an advisor to governments on the exploitation of academic research for commercial purposes and the creation of innovation centres across the globe.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

In 2020 NU has close to 4000 students and delivers MD, Masters and Bachelors programs in Medicine, Pharmacy and Engineering. The majority of students take a preliminary year at our School of Foundation Studies which eases the transition between an Arabic-language school system and an English-language university.

The majority of students speak English as a second language. The students are primarily (80%) Omani with the remainder coming from the region. Iraqi, Egyptian, Iranian and Bahraini students account for around 50% of our international cohorts. The faculty originates mostly from Oman and South Asia, again with English as a second language.

The Message “The principle of being as prudent in success as steady in adversity cannot be forgotten,” Fidel Castro, Retirement Speech, 2008.

Access to higher education is no longer a privilege but a choice. Indeed, it is often approached as a consumer choice. People are sophisticated and nuanced consumers in 2020. They understand Brand and Symbol, and they expect a university to embrace it. Brand consultants will tell you that at the core of the brand is authenticity and the challenge of contemporary leadership is to be able to take the underpinning authenticity of the institution and convey it in a way which engages with your stakeholders.

A vision and mission statement sounds very old-fashioned in that context. Authenticity in 2020 is more a continued negotiation with constituencies than a settled statement of purpose.

Given this constantly evolving understanding of authenticity, the challenge of leadership is to simplify to its ousia (essence) what the institution stands for while recognising the need to vary its delivery. Syncopation varies, but the melody persists.

In our institution, the ousia is: 1. Career acceleration - a National University degree provides the skills and knowledge to make fast progress.

2. Purposeful research - the research we do is defined by the social and economic needs of Oman.

3. Shared Journey - we travel together, and everyone has a part to play in our success.

For students, this is articulated through examples of successful alumni, spinout companies and the sustained engagement of senior members of the university with students.

For industry and government, this is articulated through well-prepared graduates, research that can be directly applied and a sense that if you are a partner of the university, the whole university is there for you.

These three values are emphasised in engagements with our stakeholders. It is sometimes reflected in unexpected ways (for example the proficiency of our engineering students in English is often remarked upon).

Instagram and Twitter are our major social media routes, and we engage with these stakeholders using the same 3 elements but in an appropriate tone and register.

University Presidents must no longer be distant figures.

Influence is obtained by participation, not authority. Get off the podium and join the debate.

Acumen “If you are facing the right way, all you have to do is keep on walking,” Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight, 1976.

Mistakes are highlighted particularly in Higher Education because each constituency judges institutional leadership idiosyncratically, considers its position as principled and sees its right to opine publicly on the performance of campus leaders as sacrosanct. That is unlikely to change. It is also a special challenge for expatriate leaders in this region. The expatriate leader needs counsel. Specifically, counsel that is prepared to speak truth to power.

Expatriate leadership in the region is usually savvy when it comes to avoiding mistakes within the university, after all, that’s why they hired you. Responding to the legitimate concerns of external stakeholders in a way which balances local culture and institutional mission is far more likely to be the cause of problems. The most effective way of doing this is by having a deputy who comes from the region.

Furthermore, you may well need to cede more influence and decision making power to your deputy than you would at home. I’ve seen universities where they have a government relations department to handle this. It helps but is not optimal as it can separate the leader from the community. Preferable is a competent Deputy who can act as your guide and advisor in these matters. The Arabic word Takatuf means to stand by each other. You and he (it’s almost always He) need to takatuf. Creating a close and trustful link with your local deputy will take time, but it’s not just the best investment you’ll make, it’s the most effective way of avoiding those holes your previous experience did not prepare you for.

Planning and Doing “The strategy is not the plan, the plan is not the implementation, and the implementation is not the outcome.

So don’t be surprised when your strategy and what’s happening on the ground look different,” Rollo Tomasi, Los Angeles, 1952.

If you are an engineer like me, you’d think this is an understood part of the job. You’ve managed programmes,

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are used to dealing with large budgets and the many, many ways that projects can go wrong. Think again.

Pre-COVID universities managed change in an idiosyncratic way. Elsewhere, you have a change management team who are responsible for defining, organising and implementing the necessary change processes.

Universities, uniquely in my experience, genuinely believe the people subject to the changes can handle the change management process themselves. It is little like believing doctors, nurses and physiotherapists are best placed to design a hospital. In universities, there’s a tacit assumption that they are. Of course, for any substantial change, this spells failures of the outcome, timescale and finance. We’ve all lived through this, let’s put it behind us.

I hope that the experience of instigating significant change as a consequence of COVID will have prompted us to drop this model. A change management unit staffed with change management professionals and project managers is perhaps the single most important thing a university leadership can do post-COVID. HE culture might struggle with giving up authority and autonomy, but you need to be the change, not just the idea of change.

Being “Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem - Maintain a calm mind with difficult tasks,” Horace Flaccus, nOde Ode 2.3, 23BCE. As a University leader, you hopefully see a successful future for your institution, you may well be able to articulate the future, but it remains a dream unless you have the trust of your staff, faculty and students. Trust is not won with a single speech nor a clever idea, trust takes time. Trust is won through people observing what

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you say, what you do and the way you go about things.

They observe it as much in the small things as they do in the big things. As much in the moment as they do over the long-term.

Constantly being on display can be a form of discomfort. A short-tempered remark at the end of a hard day is conveyed through social media as a profound insight into your character. A 5-minute snooze in the car is proof of indolence and a helping of Ummali gluttony and profligacy in one.

The always-on nature of modern communications is unavoidable and won’t go away. For many leaders, it can be exhausting. Shutting yourself away is worse than the problem. People only believe in you if they know you.

There are two elements where executive-level training can assist here. Firstly, modern media training, not the traditional ones that teach you how to interview but those that teach you how to build and manage your social network identity. Secondly, techniques in dealing with real-time psychological pressure (typically of the Breakpoint: Breath, Focus, Re-commit form) allows the sometimes-uncomfortable level of scrutiny to be handled more smoothly. We are, after all, the first generation of university leaders to be recorded wherever we go and so understandably, training is helpful and humility essential.

The above, however, are only coping techniques, at the heart of contemporary university leadership is understanding the sort of person you are, your instinctual responses and what you do well and badly. Belief in the mission of higher education is essential, as is confidence in your own good agency in it. If you have this, your other problems won’t matter much, and if you don’t have them, well your other problems won’t matter at all.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Higher Education Opportunities, Reform, and Best Practices in the Middle East Dr Tahani Aldosemani, Associate Professor of Educational Technology, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

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ducation and lifelong learning are considered as the foundation for economic sustainability, social growth, and upon which nations’ strategies, policies, and directions are based. Building a knowledgeable society is essential for creating jobs, improving standards of living, and becoming more competitive as a nation. The impact and contribution of the wealth of knowledge were perceived and appreciated in various sectors and disciplines and recognised in all regions around the world including Middle Eastern and North Africa (MENA) countries’ were investments have been allocated to sectors such as education, research development, and innovation.

This resulted in increased attention being paid to these sectors compared to past decades, and more concrete achievements have been realised in recent years. Furthermore, with a globalised economy and an increasingly internationalised labour market, the need for an educated and skilled workforce in the MENA region is arguably greater than ever before. Due to the perceived benefits of higher education in leveraging knowledge ecosystem, economic development, and societal growth, the MENA region carried out various initiatives that played a significant role and led to substantial changes, creativity, innovation, and progress. However, the futuristic demands of the 21st century, geopolitical factors, along with COVID-19 pandemic impact all put their imprint on all facets of life and triggered radical change and disruption in higher education sector both domestically and internationally.

Therefore, reform opportunities can be advanced to ensure the quality of higher education, which include internal inputs into the educational process and other key factors which require synergies with the local community, labour market, and other stakeholders.

Higher education institutions in the MENA region can recreate long-term vision to support reacting skillfully and strategically to global changes and challenges. The vision of the institution reinforced with its mission and the planned route to realising the vision should align with the overall national goals to ensure their relevance and impact in promoting educational and societal outcomes. Additionally, institutions can reconsider their business

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Higher education institutions in the MENA region can recreate long-term vision to support reacting skillfully and strategically to global changes and challenges

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Dr Tahani Aldosemani

Higher Education Digest October 2020

About

Dr Tahani I. Aldosemani

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Dr Tahani I. Aldosemani is an associate professor of Educational Technology at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University and a former vice dean of Information Technology and Distance Education at the same university. She has a PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Wyoming, USA, and she is a member of multiple educational technology associations such as AECT and ICEM. Dr Tahani was a member of multiple educational national and international professional associations.

Dr Tahani has received several international awards and recognitions in E-learning and educational research and has many publications in Educational Technology. She implemented many successful initiatives in education, presented at many conferences and seminars, trained in many webinars and workshops on technical and soft skills. Dr Tahani designed a curriculum for autodidactic learning of soft skills through Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs. She also contributed as a reviewer for prestigious international journals and conferences and works as a Senior Consultant at the Saudi Ministry of Education and Education and Training Evaluation Commission in Saudi Arabia.

Higher Education Digest October 2020

models to develop agile financial systems, flexible admission and registration procedures, improved students’ progression and graduation rates. Higher Education business models need to be developed according to sustainable funding strategies for their activities. They need to experiment with increases in cost-sharing and improvements in needs-based assistance. In the higher education environment, closer interactions between the education sector and the business sector are increasingly important. Universities should explore potential channels for expanding partnerships with the private sector in areas such as internships and co-op training opportunities.

Ensuring greater autonomy and independence for higher education institutions will enhance their effective responsiveness to the 21st-century job market demands.

It will ultimately foster innovation and strategic thinking, which will elevate higher education contribution to societies and economies. Furthermore, higher education institutions should focus future efforts on creating various specialisations and diversifying institutional services such, providing various vocational and technical training fields leveraging community colleges and research universities’ roles. Besides, higher education institutions should adopt effective institutional governance models that are based on transparency, accountability and established according to openness to data collection, evaluation, and assessment standards to facilitate monitoring institutional performance and progress.

Effective institutional governance can provide strategic vision for strengthening the partnership and cooperation between universities and will help to advance the linkage between market forces and higher education. Further, higher education institutions processes can be promoted through the implementation of internal structures for quality assurance and accreditation through the application of best practices of data and information collection on students’ admission, and entry and graduation rates, to assess their progress and benchmark results. Embracing a culture of evaluation and self-evaluation through the adoption of effective mechanisms and measurement systems for monitoring and evaluating tertiary education outcomes such as programs, faculty, and educational outcomes will inform decision making and leverage institutional transparency. Also, higher education institutions need to invest in teachers’ professional development programs to upskill and reskill in-service and preservice teachers and improve the quality of recruitment processes and enhance the perception of teaching as a profession.

Another opportunity for higher education institutions in the region to lead reform and infuse change is by reinventing the academic year by creating a year-long

academic programme combining the best of in-person and online learning. It is expected that COVID-19 may internationally accelerate the end of the traditional semesterbased system for collegiate registration, progression and graduation, because current and future students are used to being online all the time considering that remote learning is redefining the relationship between educators and students and students and their courses. Additionally, the academic year can be tailored to students’ needs providing them with the opportunity for personalised yearlong academic programme that will contribute in reducing attrition and transfer rates which will have financial return and investment for the institution.

Indeed, higher education enrollment and admissions systems should move toward a more flexible and studentdriven system where students can choose where and what they study, and institutions can begin to manage their academic and operational affairs. Higher education institutions need to enhance secondary school graduates’ preparedness for university through the development of admission procedures utilising specialised exams that assess language abilities and reasoning and thinking skills.

Moreover, the linkage between education and employment needs to be strengthened. This can be achieved through exposing students to real-world situations, internship programs, opportunities and advisory councils for business and industry and consider private sector’s input in the discussion of curriculum design, educational planning and degree requirements including the quality of teaching and curriculum in vocational training schools. These linkages are critical to the task of supporting broader societal goals and needs, fueling the creation of knowledge, advancing research, and educating a new generation of leaders able to engage in the global knowledge economy.

In sum, universities have a critical role to play in society as a producer of human capital and a creator of knowledge for broader dissemination into society. The university’s role in society has become more crucial as regional economies have moved away from staterun models, and as the global shift to a knowledgebased economy has put higher premiums on tertiary education and human capital. Supporting broader societal goals, fueling the creation of knowledge, advancing research, and educating a new generation of leaders able to engage in the global knowledge economy are among the most important building blocks of reform in higher education. Comprehensive reform of the higher education system is needed to address the skills gap, fuel economic development, and put the region on a distinguished position for advancement and competition in a technologically driven, knowledge-based world.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Current Trends in Higher Education: A UAE Perspective Velanand SR, Managing Director, University of Stirling, Ras Al Khaimah

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AE is rapidly transforming into a powerful and engaging knowledge-based economy. The number of educational institutions imparting various programs at all levels until tertiary has grown manifolds. We are witnessing more and more participation from local regulators, government agencies, communities, parents and students alike. And this is very encouraging. And this is rightly so for as far as I can remember and in this domain of passion every second count.

Every second can inspire a spark in the young minds of the students and nourish a dream of incalculable value and a deep fondness for education and its manifests. Thus far and to that farthest, we are the change agents in shaping students’ lives. Education is a sentiment and runs deep in people, and they are proud of it. Everybody is.

In UAE, what we see today is a sublimely matured educational ecosystem. And this is going to advance further, probably making UAE the hub of higher education in this region.

Steadily over the years, we have chosen to give equal importance to creativity as classroom literacy. We are passing through a phase of relatively uncertain future, and it is our endeavour to equip our students with multi-creative skill sets. We firmly believe that these have the power to even surpass the classroom literacy that we oftentimes lay heavy stress on. In times to come more people will be graduating worldwide and the most valuable skill set then will be creativity for the most part of the mundane skillset by then would have been taken over by technologies like artificial intelligence. We, as an institution, have always and consistently emphasized to impart creativity to our students

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UAE’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is very actively involved in evolving and sustaining the education ecosystem in this country in line with the best in the world

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Velanand SR

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About

Velanand SR Velanand has extensive experience in higher education, especially in the area of institutional building. His role has been to spearhead efforts to establish and develop the Centre of Excellence in UAE, and to partner with international professional

certification

programs.

Before this, he has worked with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and was instrumental in setting up the IIM at Shillong. Mr Velanand has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from

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the University of Madras and a Master’s in International Relations from Syracuse University’s prestigious Maxwell School.

either through structured programs or through informal events. This, we are convinced, will keep them in good stead when they graduate and face the real world. This will also make a holistic approach to endear life with all its subtleties, nuances, reasoning and flair for continuity.

UAE’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is very actively involved in evolving and sustaining the education ecosystem in this country in line with the best in the world. Since 2010, we already have a robust National Qualification Framework that mandates the design, plans and policies to develop a comprehensive and unified national strategy for qualifications provided in the UAE. This Framework emphasizes the key baseline that had catapulted the education system here in the UAE as one of the best in the region. The key baseline says – ‘to establish and continuously maintain standards and

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regulations for qualifications of higher education, general education and technical, vocational and professional education and training to keep pace with the scientific and technological progress, and to meet the requirements of economic and social developments’.

This is one of the most comprehensive educational framework philosophies I have ever come across. It just encompasses every facet of community empowerment through the dissemination of knowledge. The emphasis is also to keep pace with the scientific and technological progress at the minimum and to further from there at the same time. Notwithstanding these, the Frameworks also lays principles, guidance and directives with regard to the development of policies and procedures for access, transfer and progression of students within the higher education – general, professional, vocational and technical

inside and outside country. This Framework also aims to establish specialized committees to develop national occupational skills standards for all jobs in compliance with the National Qualification Framework levels.

So far, what we have seen is an unabating zest and a principled effort to develop the education ecosystem in the UAE. Since the initial days of the Framework, we have progressed in an exemplary manner to reach where we are today collectively.

From the first University in Al Ain in 1977 called the United Arab Emirates University, today we have more than 60 Institutes and Universities of repute in the UAE. Some of the local universities are even listed in world rankings like the United Arab Emirates Universities. Today UAE has both; some of the best private and public universities – both, local and international. Students who progress to these Universities are mainly from the schools in the UAE, which again are some of the best international and local private and public schools. There are lots of fully funded to partially funded scholarships for the deserving students to achieve a quality University higher education. We at the University of Stirling, RAK Campus also offer partial scholarships to the deserving students so that they also can take advantage of quality education right here in the UAE. COVID 19, the pandemic, had severe effects on every walk of life from the economy to the geopolitics, from cottage industries to the mega industrial complexes, from imports to exports and from certainty to uncertainty. COVID 19 almost attempted to foreclose all human aspirations, gaiety, hopes and happiness in as short a time as it could. Though mankind’s fight is still on with this pandemic and what we gather at the moment is that considerable progress has been made in this fight. Like other sectors, the educational sector is also severely affected. I appreciate the teaching community for being resilient during these times and coming back with new, imaginative and innovative ideas to impart teaching to the students. As we all know that education should be engaging and interactive. And one such thing to make interactions more meaningful and engaging is to make creativity the essence. A dose of creativity in everything we do will help us identify our strengths and the skill sets we are most suited for, while simultaneously seeking to develop those that we are mediocre at. This applies more to the students in their formative years and helps them to become more efficient and productive.

Immediately after world war II, importance was given to streams of science and applied sciences which we call nowadays as engineering. These were primarily to build or to run the already existing industrial complexes. So jobs were plenty for those who studied these streams. Humanities and Arts have relegated the bottom in the hierarchy and continue to be there in every part of the world. Now with science and technology having reached a certain level and artificial intelligence on the cusp of taking over most of the jobs performed by humans till lately, the focus will shift to the humanities and arts. This will enhance finer things like behavioural quotients, communication strategy and power, instilling virtues of happiness in workplace, society and community.

And these will be the skills people will seek for in coming years.

Most of the professional institutes have a ‘continuing professional development’ program, and this is to ensure that their members learn the current and potential development in their fields.

These programs make them adapt quickly to the new skill sets as are demanded by the industry or the profession, as these keep evolving. This should be replicated in the higher educational institutions and suitable skills enhancing programs should be tailor-made for the benefit of the employed and the employer and for that matter for anyone who wants to up-skill. Several online educational platforms, in partnership with various universities, have begun steps in this right direction. Still, a lot needs to be done further, especially in terms of their recognition and worth for the employers and the society in general.

Another most potent interface from the student employability perspective is the industry-academia interface. The role of this interface must be to strengthen the accumulated knowledge base of the student with the practical approach delivered by the industry experts and veterans. More often than not, their insights into a learned perspective by the student differs in its practical application in the real world. This skewness needs to be understood and corrected by encouraging more and more industryacademia symposiums, seminars, conferences or events as the title fits the scale of the interface.

This, in my view, would take UAE’s Higher Education to greater heights, and I wish all the UAE Higher Education policymakers all the very best in realizing this vision.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

The Significance of Research in Solving Real-World Problems Dr Yousef Al-Assaf, President, Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai

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lot think about research at a university as credit hours needed to complete the curriculum and graduate, while it should be considered as an opportunity to solve real-world local and global challenges. It is a significant way to comprehend better and develop knowledge and solutions.

Research is one of the pillars that identify who we are and is embedded in the fabric of what our students do from the moment they join us. Students are involved in research of real industrial cases and issues identified by local and regional partners. The aim is to develop individuals who are contributive to societies and have the ability to work on market-ready solutions, which in effect adds diversity to the economy. This requires universities to reach out and create industry alliances, and that together create a research ecosystem that is relevant, sustainable and of value.

Furthermore, when students at both, bachelor and master levels publish their work and represent RIT Dubai in numerous research-related competitions and symposiums, it will create the needed steps to make many be aware of the research ecosystem benefits and have other subscribe to it.

The research conducted by RIT students and faculty aims to address as many challenges as possible in diverse sectors.

To demonstrate this directive, two examples of the many topics our students are working on are reported. The first challenge was identified by physicians from Rashed Hospital in Dubai. The inability to accurately diagnose a patient condition in the urban metropolis because of the various dialects and languages used whilst explaining the case to the practitioner.

Given the diversity of languages, in the healthcare domain, there is a risk associated with an incorrect interpretation of a dialect, which can impact the

Higher Education Digest October 2020

The research conducted by RIT students and faculty aims to address as many challenges as possible in diverse sectors

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Dr Yousef Al-Assaf

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diagnosis or treatment. In this particular research, students and faculty worked on developing an approach to support medical practitioners by ensuring that the diagnosis of illness is not impeded based on the misinterpretation of a patient’s input. The study is based on analyzing data sets from audio samples and training machine learning models to take inputs from patients and interpret it to a language that the practitioner can understand. This significant study

Higher Education Digest October 2020

was conducted by our tigers Anan Hefny, Mohamed Dorra, Hana Abbas and Haneen Al Attar, under the expert and dynamic supervision of Dr Jinane Mounsef and Dr Ali Raza, Assistant Professors of Electrical Engineering and Networking and Computing Security.

Another research paper published by our faculty and students in MATERIALS MDPI Journal has an impact factor of 3 and was indexed in all major databases and

The students of the future should be able to analyze, criticize and challenge the obvious

archives, including Scopus and Web of Science. The work was part of a research internship over the summer. Our student Abhishek Subramaniam along with Dr Salman Pervaiz, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering co-authored a paper entitled “Optimization of Cutting Process Parameters in Inclined Drilling of Inconel 718 Using Finite Element Method and Taguchi Analysis�. As seen nowadays, drilling operation is one of the most widely

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used manufacturing operations in almost all industrial sectors. The research was done on Inconel 718, a high strength nickel-chromium material which is ideal for applications where high operating temperature is expected. The study provided insights about parameters for optimal performance when drilling this material at various angles; which consequently helps to shed light on the best usage methods, which increase efficiency. The study can benefit the industrial sectors such as aerospace in applications of jet engines, gas turbines, rocket technology, and space reentry vehicles, marine in applications of the

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propeller shaft and combustors etc., process industry and power plants etc.

These studies and various others highlighted the significance of research in solving real-life problems, beyond textbooks and searching for scholarly research to quote in their study. The students of the future should be able to analyze, criticize and challenge the obvious. The question of “why’ and “how” is what makes the distinction between individuals who wish to make a change. A hand on experience and involvement is how people learn, and this is what makes individuals reinforce their knowledge further.

About

Dr Yousef Al-Assaf Dr Al-Assaf had his PhD from Oxford University and leadership training from Cornell University. He is a widely published and academic and senior education management professional with extensive international experience. During his tenure at RIT Dubai, he has ensured that the university plays a major role in the ecosystem of Dubai Silicon Oasis and supporting the achievements of Dubai vision. Introduced several new programs, certifications and initiatives to meet the needs of public and technology partners including Smart City Sciences, Data Analytics, Emerging Technologies, Corporate and Customer Happiness, Future Shaping, Computing Security and Sustainability among others.

Dr Al-Assaf ’s research focuses on using soft computing to model and control various industrial, business and medical systems. Applications include materials modelling and classification, prostheses control, industrial quality control and optimization. His industrial experience is in the areas of adaptive and predictive control, soft computing and industrial instrumentation and control.

For university students, solely conducting research should not be the objective, the aspiration is to always bring change and provide solutions to improve society progressively. One of the things that we look forward to in a new campus is the Innovation Center. The Center, with an iconic figure in the centre of the campus, will be a hub for companies and partners to discuss real-world problems and discover innovative solutions. Without intensive

research, we will be unable to deliver breakthrough solutions that our partners are contemplating and assist in making a remarkable impact. We look at enhancing the skills of our students, hence making them resourceful for communities and countries.

Research is certainly a foundation for more knowledge, experience, and most importantly solving issues theoretically and practically simultaneously.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Bringing “Integrity” to Dinner Why Higher Education Institutions Should Focus on Academic Integrity and Build a Culture of Integrity

By Dr Zeenath Reza Khan, Head, Technology and Integrity in Academia and Beyond Research Group, University of Wollongong in Dubai

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cademic integrity is the absolute foundation upon which not only the education sector, but the entire society stands. Having values of honesty, truthfulness, courage, fairness, trustworthiness, respect and responsibility are crucial to a person’s character so that they are able to contribute to the greater community in a sustainable and constructive manner.

However, often, academic integrity does not make the cut into discussions about higher education. Why? It is downright uncomfortable.

It is always easy to look the other way and pretend there isn’t a problem to talk about. It is always easy to make outrageous claims of having curbed the problem so completely that it is a non-issue. Most often than not, academics think admitting that their students have engaged in some kind of academic misconduct reflects their teaching. Most often organizations steer clear of acknowledging there is a problem because somehow, they feel it taints their prestige, status and maims the value of their degrees.

That may have been true in the past and still for a select few.

Universities globally have woken up to the very real threat that is academic misconduct. From spending hundreds of dollars on research to setting up centres of excellence to rolling out man hours on training both faculty and students, universities around the world are acting.

The past decade alone has seen its share of incidents that have rocked university campuses from United States of America, to United

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It is crucial that universities value their policies, ensure they follow industry benchmarks and most importantly are educative, not punitive

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Dr Zeenath Reza Khan

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Committee of students and faculty stand proud after first International Conference on Academic Integrity in the region, 2016

Kingdom to Australia, forcing campuses to take notice.

Who can forget the video footage of parents scaling the walls of exam halls in Bihar, India when attempting to pass on exam answers to their wards? Or the recent admission scandal in the US that splashed the headlines globally?

While scandals act as the last push through the door, there is already tremendous focus and attention on academic integrity that enough action and initiatives have rolled out in classrooms, exam halls and executive board meetings everywhere.

Why is academic integrity so important and what role does it play in the higher education scene in the Middle East?

Knowledge without responsibility, courage and fairness is dangerous. Skills without respect, truthfulness and trustworthiness is life-threatening. As educators shaping young minds, it is imperative that faculty understand the role they play in instilling these values in their students. Universities are not merely “educating” students in a particular area of study. They are paving the way for individuals who are not only independent and able to pull off a successful career but innovate and sustain a

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career that benefits the society with their loyalty, courage, honesty and fairness.

Academic misconducts are not necessarily intentional or malicious. Some are, most are not. Some are simply unaware of the acceptable practice when using someone else’s work in an assignment, perhaps because they come from an education system that preaches rote learning and reproducing what has been taught. Students engage in misconducts for a variety of reasons such as poor time management, pressure from family to perform well, poor prior knowledge of the subject matter, peer pressure, and lots more.

In the absence of integrity, students may engage in a variety of actions that are deemed as academic misconduct. Cheating during an exam by looking over one’s shoulder, using prohibited material or paying someone to sit for the exam or complete an assignment are all cheating. When students try to impersonate others, or falsify data in research, that is cheating. If students take others’ work and try to pass of it in full or in part, that is cheating.

But this is all in the classroom. What happens when

students take these values into the real world and apply them to everyday decisions?

If unchecked, without intervention or rehabilitation, the consequences can be dire. When taking someone’s work and claiming to be theirs, students learn to “take” what belongs to others – not just words, but property, intellectual or otherwise, without permission. If students use unfair resources or methods during exams, they learn they can find “unfair short-cuts” to getting what they want, without having to work hard. When a student changes some numbers in a class experiment or interviews a brother and passes it as a field interview of a manager for a report, they learn how easy it is to manipulate data for personal or business gain.

Higher education institutions and faculty are in a unique position to address misconducts, rethink pedagogy and assessment design and raise awareness during a student’s learning journey with them and make integrity a part of the conversation explicitly.

I have been researching this area since 2005. My interests were sparked from my own experience as a student, having had a wonderful support system from my parents to my principal who guided me and taught me to value learning and knowledge rather than marks and ranks.

When I got to the other side of the classroom, as a teacher, it intrigued me so to see how technology was adding a whole

new dimension to an age-old dilemma, coining the term “e-cheating” during the course of my research.

Technology has reshaped education indeed - made it more accessible, brought about element of continuity in times of crises, changed how we see content and deliver it.

Technology has also given new faces to existing issues of misconduct. For instance, ghost writing, the act of paying someone to get an assignment or a report done has existed for over century in different forms. But with increase in connectivity, ease of doing business online and customer practice of buying online, ghost writing has taken the form of essay mills. Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clark coined the term contract cheating to denote this type of cheating more than a decade ago. The problem persists, with the proliferation of social media, with demand and supply across borders, making it very hard to trace at times.

Having researched this area for 15 years now, I have found that “thinking integrity” creates opportunity, helps reform practices and leads to best practices. Keeping integrity central to everything that a higher education campus does paves way for ensuring the right values are instilled in the students that graduate.

The foremost step towards building a culture of integrity is to review policies and update them. Policies are the backbone of a campus, shaping the rules and regulations,

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148 About

Dr Zeenath Reza Khan Dr Zeenath Reza Khan, is an Assistant Professor of Cyber Ethics and Head of the Technology and Integrity in Academia and Beyond Research & Learning Forum at Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong in Dubai. She has been teaching in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at the university since 2001.

Fellow of Wollongong Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence, with over 60 publications Dr Khan has won the Teaching Excellence Award from UOWD in 2014, Turnitin Global Innovation Award 2015, Vice Chancellor’s OCTAL award from UOW in 2016 among others. Recently she was named among UAE’s 10 most influential educational leaders 2019 and won the Digital Leader Award in Education category from Khaleej Times and MIT Sloan Mgt Review’s Digital Leaders Forum, 2019. This year she was featured as one of the 2020 Global Educational Influencers for her tremendous support of the greater academic and student communities.

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managing expectations. It is crucial that universities value their policies, ensure they follow industry benchmarks and most importantly are educative, not punitive.

Having a policy that is not implemented is obscure and ineffective.

It is vital the universities follow this with appropriate, proactive actions, rewards and recognition. This begins with training faculty on the policy, rules and regulations.

It includes ensuring faculty understand the role of innovative assessment design to weed out misconduct and ends with focus on students, training them when they enter university so that they are able to overcome any lack of prior practice, understand the rules, seriousness of the need for integrity and accept that they should strive to be ethical in their conduct.

Regular awareness programs, research colloquiums, funding for research are some ways to ensure integrity is a part of the conversation in classrooms, corridors, dorm rooms, at burger joints and board rooms.

Middle East has been the rising star for higher education in recent years, with

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more and more international campuses opening their doors to welcome students. Parents and students have been becoming more inclined to pursue higher degrees in the region, than abroad. With the rise in student numbers, degrees being conferred and graduate job market growing, it is important to ensure that any dialogue surrounding higher education involves academic integrity.

At University of Wollongong in Dubai, where I have been a faculty for 20 years, we have been driving the conversation across the region. The only campus to have produced maximum research publications, organized and hosted two international conferences, and an active member of the European Network for Academic Integrity, we are a campus that champions integrity for our own student community, our faculty and staff and the greater society. From hosting the Week of Actions for Academic Integrity, to marking the International Day of Actions against Contract Cheating our campus has remained an advocate for academic integrity. With diverse population of both students and faculty coming from different cultures and educational backgrounds, the university, with its campus of the future, designs and delivers courses that engage students, opens dialogues and partnerships with industries and ensures integrity of assessments and knowledge imparted, innovating and trail blazing integrity practices in the region.

Academic Integrity is not a catchphrase to use as a marketing gimmick. If a university can establish a good policy, clear procedures, and implement detection and penalty, with proper support for students, it is well on its way to building a culture of integrity. But this is only going to be possible if the university is ready to recognise that academic misconduct is real and needs attention.

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Upholding integrity adds tremendous value to the degrees conferred, increases prestige, and produces graduates with attributes that make them responsible, contributing members of the society.

In the end, it is up to campuses to take the initiative, break the glass barrier and become champions of integrity. Let’s take those small steps, and make integrity the central topic of conversation today.

If you are a higher education student, faculty, parent, or campus looking to become a champion, contact the author!

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NOVAK DJOKOVIC #CROCODILEINSIDE

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