| | 8 DECEMBER 2022HIGHERReviewFOCAL POINT GCC countries which include UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait are aiming to shift their focus from being fossil-fuel driven economies into knowledge-based economies. For this to happen, regional governments are prioritizing on improving the educational infrastructure of GCC countries. Another aspect that is driving the importance of higher education in the region is its increasing number of youth population which is estimated to reach 65 million by 2030. GCC countries view this as a great opportunity to increase the quality of their education and by doing so, nurture skilled talent who can contribute to their growth. Apart from this, GCC countries are also aiming for the internationalization of higher education which focuses on equipping the student with the needed skills required to thrive not just in the present but also in the future global labor market. With internationalization of higher education holding so much significance in the future aspirations of GCC countries, let's analyze how they are aiming to achieve the same. International Tie-ups to Improve Quality Over the last six decades, GCC countries have been able to clock in impressive economic growth backed by their oil wealth. And in the last decade or so, education in GCC countries have gone through multiple paradigm shifts with key emphasis on preparing students for the twenty-first century globalized world. In order to reform their higher education structure, GCC countries turned to the West encouraging international partnerships with foreign educational institutions. Apart from that, they have also been focusing on inviting branch campuses of international institutions into the region as well as opening the educational market for private players. Countries like Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are exploring the opportunities of creating educational partnerships with international educational institutions in western countries. At the same time, UAE and Qatar is focusing more on inviting foreign educational institutions to start their branch campuses in their countries. Also, many of the wealthy nationals in GCC countries have started their own private educational institutions that are based on US university models. Now most GCC countries have both public and private institutions that have well established international partnerships. And among the 167 universities that were taken as a sample group for a study, 70 of them have already established international educational partnerships or they were the affiliates of international educational institutions. Looking at Bahrain, the country's 2014-24 INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN GCC COUNTRIES
< Page 7 | Page 9 >