The Middle East and North Africa have emerged rapidly as a dynamic education landscape, driven by governments pouring untold billions of dollars into educational development.
Current initiatives include the ambitious creation of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, the emerging wave of thousands of out-going Libyan scholarship holders, and the hunt for in-coming international students by Dubai.
But engaging in the region remains challenging and success is by no means assured. Rapid and sustained change dynamics challenge the involved parties organisationally, structurally, educationally, and especially culturally. More often than not, Western institutions and their local counterparts still need to learn from each other about how to collaborate successfully.
To this end, the session provides examples of sensible and sustainable engagement models for UK institutions. It also offers a broad and realistic picture of opportunities and challenges when engaging in the Middle East and North Africa. To present these examples, the session draws on the findings of a significant piece of research commissioned jointly by the British Council and UK Higher Education International Unit, which was conducted by Dr Daniel Guhr of The Illuminate Consulting Group (ICG).
