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    Dubai: New hot spot for higher education?

    Looks to capitalize on emergence of millions of international students

    Dale Kirby
    So says Dubai property developer Select Property:

    Dubai International Academic City is at the centre of the region’s efforts to make the emirate into a new global hot spot for higher education.

    Dubai is leading a rush of countries trying to erode the dominance of Harvard, Yale and a handful of other, mainly American or British, universities. As of 2005 there were about 138 million students’ worldwide seeking university degrees, up by 40 percent in seven years, with English speaking countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia finding it harder to meet the demand.

    According to the Washington based Association of International Educators, the market of post-secondary students studying outside their home countries grew 49 percent between 1999 and 2004. The Australian testing company IDP Education projects the number of students seeking education abroad to triple by 2025 to 7.2 million. Dubai will hope to attract a number of these students to its universities.