Whenever someone says Dubai, the first thing that pops into our mind is a vibrant, lively city, great place to visit, loads of things to enjoy. A city with its architectural marvels, stunning landscape is really a treat for you. Now, this is all fun but when it comes to something serious like higher education, the question is “how good is Dubai? Actually?”
Dubai a city-state of the United Arab Emirates is home to some of very renowned universities of the world. Notably, universities like Michigan, Rochester, Wollongong, Murdoch and Middlesex have their offshore campuses in Dubai. With these universities offering a wide range of courses, Dubai is being seriously considered by those seeking higher education.
Why Dubai?
The infrastrauctural supremacy of Dubai largely propels it to significance in the relevant context.
With its ever growing nature Dubai is becoming a place where things from different parts of the world are easily available. The vast variety is not only in terms of food or clothes or other things but also in terms of the teachers or professors who are being recruited from all over the world.
Given the fact that residents of Dubai are from all over the world, the locals here in Dubai are comfortable with English, so communication isn’t a problem.
The transport system of Dubai is excellent. Train services are considerably cheap, taxis and buses are easily available. Getting a place to stay is also not a problem. One can stay inside the campus or can rent a room easily without any hassle.
The career opportunities in Dubai are numerous. Geographically Dubai sits in a very good position at the edge of Arabian Desert where it meets the Persian Gulf. Also with its excellent infrastructure this city is quickly becoming the business hub of the Middle East. It’s home to some of the biggest corporations of the world.
All these factors combine to make Dubai an excellent prospect for higher education
On the other hand
But is this all? Is everything as good as it sounds?
Unfortunately NO! If you follow the university ranking systems like Times Higher Education, Academic Rankings of World Universities and Q.S Rankings, you will find that the universities in Dubai aren’t ranked well and in fact some of them are not ranked at all. The western universities that have opened campuses in Dubai are not same as what they offer in their actual campuses. For example, Wollongong Dubai is totally different from what you will find in Australia. Webometrics rank Wollongong Australia at 542 whereas the Wollongong Dubai is ranked at 7494.
What is the difference?
According to faculties of different universities, the foreign universities in Dubai are not research based; they basically work on what has already been done. Where in the original campus of these universities, they encourage research based education and also the faculty is very different.
Cost
The cost of studying in Dubai is more or less same as in the west and student loans and financial aids are hard to get. Also the degree acquired in Dubai is still not as attractive as one acquired in the like of UK or USA.
To summarise, bigger and beautiful campuses do not ensure good education. But Dubai is progressing, investment in this field is getting bigger and the authorities are trying to improve the existing facilities. So if you want to choose Dubai as your destination for higher education then it’s not at all a bad idea.
