More international schools and pupils in the UAE than anywhere else, report says

DUBAI // The UAE has more international schools and pupils than any country in the world.

The business generates US$2.5 billion a year in fees, more than Dh9bn, and accounts for 7 per cent of global tuition-fee income.

China has substantially fewer international pupils but they bring in about the same amount in fees because schools there charge more than double the average in the UAE.

“The markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have grown rapidly during the past decade and further growth is inevitable,” says a new report by the International School Consultancy Group.

Of the seven emirates, Dubai has the highest proportion of expatriates and therefore the highest concentration of international schools, with 98,000 pupils per million population, the consultancy group’s report says.

The UAE has 439 international schools with 389,000 pupils, Saudi Arabia has 195 international schools and Qatar has 130.

Qatar has also approved the construction of a further 26 new private schools out of the 90 applications it received, says the report.

Kuwait has 80 international schools with 90,000 pupils, and Oman has 58 with 60,000 pupils.

The number of pupils attending schools in Dubai is expected to continue to increase, as is the number of schools, with six already opened in the first three months of this year.

“The Knowledge and Human Development Authority anticipates an increase of 7 per cent per annum in enrolment at international schools during the next five years,” says the report.

“It is planning for 90,000 additional school places in 60 new and expanded schools and it is thought to be evaluating a substantial number of applications for new schools.”

Many countries allow international schools to set tuition fees with little or no government control.

However, those in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar have fees regulated by government agencies, which control the amount by which schools are allowed to increase their fees.

“International schools in Dubai are not allowed to increase fees without approval by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, and fee increases are related to school performance,” says the report.

“The authorities’ powers to control fee increases has caused serious problems for some schools, pushing them to the brink of closure.”

In Qatar, the Supreme Education Council must approve fee increases before schools are allowed to implement them.

Growth of international education in the Arabian Gulf region is the second fastest in the world, with 982 schools and more than a million pupils paying a total of $6bn a year in fees.

And growth of international schools across Asia, including the Middle East, has been much higher compared with other regions.

There has been a 10.5 per cent a year rise in enrolments and a 15 per cent annual rise in tuition fee income since 2009.

“The strongest growth has been in Eastern, South-Eastern and Western Asia and these are the subregions which will drive further expansion of the global international schools market in the near future,” says the report.

The report defines international schools as those that deliver a curriculum to any combination of infant, primary or secondary school pupils, wholly or partly in English outside an English-speaking country.

nhanif@thenational.ae