Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has released a Dubai Private Education Landscape 2017/18 report. According to the report titled ‘Doing Well, Being Well’, the private schools in Dubai collected revenue of Dhs 7.5 billion in 2017-18 academic year. The revenue is up by Dhs 700 million over the revenues generated in 2016-2017 academic year.
According to the report, the average annual fees paid in Dubai is Dhs 26,865 (without discounts) and 53 percent of students pay less than Dhs 20,000 in tuition fees per year.
There are 281,432 students studying in 194 private schools, 11 of which opened in 2017-2018. The enrolment of studentswent up by 2.9 percent this year, which clearly means that there are more students studying in Dubai this year in comparison to last year.
The report also revealed that 101,402 students are studying in 34 different UK curriculum schools followed by 79,705 students studying in 34 Indian curriculum schools.
There are students from 182 different nationalities studying in Dubai private schools. The demographic break-up is 95,368 Indians, 30,747 Emiratis, 22,603 Pakistani, 15,357 Egyptians and 12,329 British.
Abdullah Al Karam, KHDA director-general said, “ For the first time we have featured information about student wellbeing in our landscape report. This is a subject close to our heart as we collaborate with schools and families to highlight the importance of student wellbeing.”
As per report, 77 per cent students feel safe at school. 84 per cent students feel happy at most of the times and 87 per cent students are optimistic.
Higher Education
The report also highlighted developments in higher education. There are 32 universities in Dubai free zones where around 30,375 students are enrolled in. The academic years 2017-2018 saw an increase of 4.8 per cent in enrolments. The most popular choice of study remains business field, accounting for 59.3 per cent of enrolments followed by engineering and media & design with 14.8 percent and 6.7 per cent enrolments respectively. However, the fields of medicine and law saw negligible enrolments – 0.1 per cent & 1.2 percent respectively.
There are 26 international branch campuses in Dubai. The top 3 home countries of international branch campus are India, UK and Australia.
There are 1,150 training institutes offering 40,000 courses.
Abdullah Al Karam said, “ New branch campuses have opened in Dubai over the last two years and this is a positive trend. One in every four students at a university in Dubai is coming from outside the UAE. We are now positioned as an attractive education destination.”