Higher Education in the Middle East with Foreign Universities

The last few years has seen high interest in higher education with foreign universities in the oil rich Middle East. UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have invested substantially in creating higher education institutions medical colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada and Europe to set up local campuses. These foreign campuses offer Medical studies, International Law studies, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, various Engineering, Medicine Interdisciplinary among the most popular courses.

In the cases of foreign campuses, the assumption is that these institutions will have highest standards of quality and rigor that have enabled them, in their native lands, to become foremost places of learning and inquiry.

In the case of new universities, the goal is to create the crucibles of research studies that will attract top quality academics and students to the region. The global economic downturn, combined with increasing difficulty in attracting research funding in the U.S. and Europe has also benefited these institutions in recruiting quality faculty.

While the jury is still out on the success, largely because success in higher education can never be measured overnight, the experiment is nonetheless bold and the desire to improve higher education worthy of praise and encouragement. The university curriculum and research focus, of most institutions has centered around innovation and technological impact.

First of all, technological innovation does not mean following only the research areas that are popular in the U.S. and other developed countries. Realizing the opportunity to leapfrog in areas that are just coming on the horizon is a sign of visionary leadership. A new frontier at the interface of engineering and medicine in the U.S. and elsewhere is understanding the complexity of global health problems and coming up with unique solutions to address them.

This area of research is often hampered by lack of resources and the institutions in the gulf states have the financial wherewithal to close that funding gap and attract top quality researchers and students. Interest in this area is at an all time high among highly motivated and driven engineering students in the U.S.

It is important to note that one of the key challenges of institutions in the Middle East is attracting top quality students from all over the world. This emphasis on impact, social good, engineering and global health might just do the trick in attracting some of the most gifted students to these institutions.

Second, because of the geographic location of these institutions in the Middle East, they are close to populations in Asia and Africa where high impact global health research is being carried out and needs to be strengthened further. The proximity and the cultural, religious, linguistic and social ties to countries in the neighborhood where global health challenges are pervasive puts these institutions at a huge natural advantage that needs to be capitalized.