A current report from Studyportals–British Council has recognized the MENA area as probably the most dynamic and evolving gamers in international training. Whereas outbound scholar curiosity stays excessive, there’s a clear enhance in college students exploring choices throughout the area.
The report measures “demand” utilizing scholar search and engagement exercise on the Studyportals platform. For 3 consecutive years, engagement with MENA packages has grown, suggesting a big regional shift in behaviour as international pressures affect the place and the way college students select to check; mirroring a wider worldwide pattern wherein affordability issues, fluctuating visa insurance policies, and capability constraints in conventional Western locations are encouraging college students to contemplate alternate options nearer to dwelling.
A robust alignment between program selections and regional financial priorities accompanies this rising sample. College students proceed to gravitate in direction of fields intently linked to native labour market demand, and most notably in laptop science and basic enterprise and administration. These preferences replicate the continuing digital and financial transformation shaping most of the MENA economies, additional reinforcing the area’s attraction as a aggressive research atmosphere.
Among the many area’s rising research locations, the United Arab Emirates stands out because the clear chief. Its ecosystem of worldwide department campuses, English language use, and numerous tutorial choices attracts considerably larger ranges of engagement than elsewhere in MENA.
“In Dubai, we’ve had a really deliberate method to constructing the upper training sector; this began over 20 years in the past. We have been the primary to create financial commerce zones for training, Dubai Information Park, and Dubai Nationwide Academy Metropolis. We labored through the years to create a really steady, regulatory atmosphere, to draw worldwide campuses,” stated Nitesh Sughnani, director of college rankings on the KHDA, throughout a panel dialogue hosted by Studyportals.
In Dubai, we’ve had a really deliberate method to constructing the upper training sector; this began over 20 years in the past
Nitesh Sughnani, KHDA
Saudi Arabia is just not far behind. Pushed by main nationwide funding in larger training infrastructure, scholarship packages, digital innovation, and abilities growth, Saudi is more and more gaining consideration from each regional and worldwide college students. The enlargement of versatile, blended and on-line studying choices has additionally helped place the county as a powerful vacation spot, aiming to reinforce accessibility and attraction to college students who maintain monetary or mobility issues.
Different MENA international locations (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar) are additionally exhibiting a gradual enhance in visibility, indicating a broader strengthening of the area’s total larger training panorama.
Whereas a lot of this development displays rising curiosity in finding out throughout the MENA area, the report additionally highlights how outbound scholar mobility from the area is evolving. For the needs of the report, MENA follows Studyportals’ regional classification, which incorporates Turkey.
In terms of outbound demand, on the bachelor’s stage, Turkey emerges because the main origin market, accounting for 20.6% of whole outbound demand from the MENA area and recording a 2.7% year-on-year enhance (July 2023 – June 2024). Iran, whereas nonetheless a significant supply market with a 13.2% share, skilled probably the most notable decline, with demand falling by 4.1%. This downturn could also be linked to the easing of the spiritual and political tensions that have been marked, driving outward mobility amongst Iranian college students.
Different vital undergraduate supply international locations throughout the area embody the UAE (12.0%), Morocco (10.6%), and Egypt (8.1%), all of which show relative stability or reasonable development.
Notably, Egypt recorded a 2% enhance, suggesting a rising curiosity amongst Egyptian college students in pursuing training overseas amid home pressures and an more and more saturated larger training panorama.
On the grasp’s stage, demand is extra concentrated with Iran and Turkey remaining dominant supply markets and collectively accounting for over 56% of regional demand.
Their trajectories diverge markedly as Turkey data a powerful 5.1% year-on-year enhance in demand to check overseas, whereas Iran skilled a pointy decline, reinforcing the downward pattern noticed on the bachelor’s stage. Moreover, Egypt continues to play a big function, holding an 8.0% share and posting a 2.9% enhance, pushed by a rising youth inhabitants and restricted home postgraduate capability.
The UAE (5.9%), Morocco (5.6%), and Tunisia (4.6%) additionally function as secondary supply markets, though with comparatively modest adjustments in demand.
Though the report confirms that outbound demand from MENA stays regular and resilient, what is especially notable, nevertheless, is the rising curiosity amongst college students finding out throughout the area itself.
One of the vital strategic drivers behind the area’s rising attraction is the excessive focus of transnational training (TNE) establishments working throughout the area. Though Asia nonetheless dominates the worldwide TNE market, the MENA area stands out for the density of overseas department campuses relative to its inhabitants. This density is rising as a big aggressive benefit.
TNE provision within the area is enjoying greater than a supplementary function, actively shaping the area’s worldwide attractiveness by offering college students with entry to globally recognised {qualifications} that facilitate relocation overseas.
The demand patterns highlighted within the report reveal a detailed alignment between what college students are exploring academically and the abilities MENA economies are prioritising. Pc science stays the highest space of curiosity throughout the area, supported by nationwide digital transformation plans and the robust push for AI, cybersecurity, and tech innovation.
Packages like engineering and expertise, together with enterprise and administration, proceed to draw substantial engagement as effectively, reflecting the area’s give attention to entrepreneurship, financial diversification, and personal sector enlargement. Collectively, these fields exhibit that college students are responding on to the employment panorama formed by nationwide reform agendas.
The report situates MENA inside a shifting international panorama wherein conventional vacation spot international locations face vital stress. Rising tuition charges, extra complicated visa regimes, and elevated capability limitations in Western universities have made finding out overseas tougher for a lot of college students. Consequently, the pattern towards regionalisation, college students selecting to stay nearer to dwelling, is accelerating.
“Shifting away from the massive 4, massive six, conventional markets, and all the visa and immigration challenges which might be occurring has actually pushed that demand; but in addition it’s the connections that a few of these governments must the employments to constructing these provisions and information hubs for college students that then leads onto constructing the economic system, contributing to the GDP and to essentially the type of regional pull and dominance that a few of these STEM fields, specifically, have” stated Megan Agnew, international partnerships supervisor at British Council.
This shift performs immediately into MENA’s strengths. With the UAE and Saudi Arabia main the cost and several other neighboring international locations constructing visibility, the area is more and more in a position to take up mobility that’s being redirected away from saturated international markets.
“We launched an training technique final yr, the Dubai 2033 agenda. This financial and social facet goals to double Dubai’s GDP over the subsequent ten years, and to be one of many prime three cities on the earth in numerous sectors,” defined Sughnani.
“We’re transferring away from the establishment laws to what the scholar is specializing in and the way we convey that to the centre of this journey,” he added.
