AJMAN // Despite a national shortage of male Emirati social workers, one university has enrolled 130 in just one year.
Ajman University became only the third university in the country to offer a social work degree when it launched a bachelors in sociology and social work last year.
Since then, the number of registered students on the course has rocketed from 35 to 320, with interest apparently fuelled by word of mouth as the university has not until now advertised the course.
But with 130 men among the 320 students, who are nearly all Emirati, it has found the course to be an unexpected success.
Dr Khalid Al Khaja, the dean of the department of mass communications and humanities, attributes part of this success to it being run in Arabic.
"Most of the students we have come from public high schools, so do not have a good grasp of English," he said, adding that this was especially so for males who were consistently outperformed by females in their final year of high school.
"This course is for them to work in Arabic in the local community so they must learn the terminology in Arabic or it will not help their career," said Dr Al Khaja.
The course fills a gap in the market, as social work studies are otherwise offered only at two government universities, UAE University in Al Ain and at Sharjah Women's College, which is part of the Higher Colleges of Technology. Both of these courses are free for Emiratis, but taught in English.
At UAEU just seven of the 300 students are male, while no males take the HCT course. Dr Al Khaja attributes this to the courses being delivered in English.
"We've already had calls from students in UAEU who want to transfer now," he said.
Anoud Al Kendi, 24, from Umm Al Quwain, was last year among the first batch of students to take Ajman University's social work degree. Despite fees of Dh120,000 for the four years, she decided to study at the private university, rather than at one of the federal, free, alternatives.
"My friend did social work at UAEU, but here we get to do field work every year, not just in the final year, so I decided this was better for me. Plus it's a double major with sociology which is more useful."
Her husband supported her choice of degree, telling her there would be many job opportunities awaiting her. "People still assume this job is about working in schools."
Ms Al Kendi said the course has already transformed her life. "This has totally changed our mindsets about so many things, about solving problems ourselves, in our personal lives and for our friends and family."
Most of the men enrolled on the Ajman University course are already working in professions such as the police, while some of the females have jobs in government departments including the Ministry of Social Affairs. It's hoped that when the males graduate they can fill gaps in careers as diverse as the prison service to special needs care.
The country's longest established social work degree is taught at UAE University. Since its launch 20 years ago the university's eight teaching staff, all qualified social workers, have developed the degree to appeal more to males, according to the department chairman Dr Robert Villa.
He said this was done by making it more relevant to male-dominated careers such as the police. He said when he came to the UAE five years ago all the graduates went on to work at schools, "so it's been a case of getting people out of the mindset that social workers only work in schools".
The social work degree at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, which launched in 2010, is also making progress, with enrolment increasing from 17 students in the first year to 24 this year. However, none of these are male.
Hassan Al Shazali, one of the course teachers and a qualified social worker, said: "There is a dearth of male social workers [here] and a real need for them to work with male clients such as those in the prison system, high schools, and family work.
"In the UAE, perhaps linking social work to traditional male professions such as work in the prisons, police force and military would encourage young men to join the social work profession."
Shurooq Al Sharhan, a 20-year-old student, said there was still much work to do to make society understand the role of social workers. "When I told my mum I wanted to study this, she didn't know what it really meant," she said.
But things are beginning to change, said Maryam Bintooq, 23, from Umm Al Quwain. "These days people understand social work better than they used to."
mswan@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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