By: Kishor Pankan

GUIDE Dr.Vinod Kumar Singh DIBA,SCAS Ministry of Higher Education P.O.Box 726, PC 411 Sur, Sultanate of Oman. Office:+00968-25544248 -Extn-201 GSM:+00968-96940852 Home:00968-25542862 Co-Guide Dr.Gaurav Lodha DEAN, FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT, JODHPUR NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR. Mobile 9414301727 E Mail: gauravlodha1@rediffmail.com

Thesis Background
UAE has witnessed high growth of Private High Education

(PHE) Institutions and Universities. The UAE Government is very much committed to support these institutions and universities. The current PHEs comprise of local Institutions /Universities and the Branch Campuses of global Universities in the Dubai Knowledge Village. The local Emiratis students have access to special government sponsored schemes for admissions in the PHEs and even further education abroad. The UAE Government is running special preparatory schemes (like TANMIA) to ensure that the Emiratis students are able to avail the benefits of higher education in PHEs.
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Acknowledgements
Let me begin by thanking my guide and mentor Dr.Vinod Kumar Singh, for his continuous encouragement & support. He was always there to listen and to give me guidance & advice. It was his prompt & apt feedback with directions after every milestone submission that enabled me complete this Thesis report for presentation. I would also like to thank My Co-guide from Jodhpur National University, Dr.Gaurav Lodha for all his support extended to me while preparing the Thesis report and also for the knowledge extended to me while doing this Thesis. I am grateful to all the respondents that include the UAE Locals, University Heads, Employers and others who made the interaction comfortable. It is because of the data & information received from them that enriched the study. Also, to those who let me observe activities related for noting & recordings relevant to the study. With gratitude & indebtedness to all my Colleagues of ALHOSN University, In particular I would like to cite Prof. Abdul Rahim Sabouni Vice Chancellor and CEO of ALHOSN University, Dr. Hamdi Sheibani, PROVOST Academic Affairs of ALHOSN University and Prof. Ahmad Zohdi Provost Administration and Finance, for imparting their expertise, knowledge and experiences with me. I had an interesting & educative time during the past two years I thank Mr. Pradeep K Dev, the Registrar of Jodhpur National University, for all the timely answers to my queries and for his patience, and staff of Jodhpur National University for all the admin support extended to me throughout the Research of my Phd. I will remain obliged to my family & others for supporting my decision on taking this Phd. Finally, I would like to extend my special thanks to my two sons, ADVAIT & ABHAY and my life partner Bindu Kishor. They were very understanding and supportive of the fact that I had less time to spend with them during the course of these two years
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Abstract
The author has presented detailed literature review and primary research on privatisation of higher education and its impact on localisation of workforce of a nation. The study has been carried out in UAE among students and working professionals, university staff that have been engaged in course designs, course teaching and course monitoring and the employers that have been employing candidates from universities through campus interviews. Samples have been selected from six universities. The entire focus of the study is on impact of private education on employability of Emiratis in UAE industries. It has been revealed that most of the Emiratis depend upon the preparatory courses to qualify for the higher education in private institutions and universities. In spite of very serious efforts by the government through schemes like TANMIA, not all Emiratis are able to make it to higher education. The primary concern is that a significant percentage of Emiratis are not able to achieve employment even after completing the higher education programs. Hence, the problem is not only in the gaps in primary and graduation level education in UAE but is also in the preparatory courses. Also, the employers have hinted about need for improvements in quality and level of almost all private universities offering higher education in UAE. In nutshell, a lot needs to be done to carry out reforms in the overall education system of UAE and the government has major responsibilities to deliver. The system needs to be modified in such a way that the gaps between skills and competencies of Emiratis students and the industrial requirements of UAE can be bridged such that the dependence on expatriates can be reduced

Problem Statements
In spite of significant support by UAE Government and

special preparatory schemes like TANMIA, the percentage of Emiratis taking admissions in PHEs is very less compared to foreigners. The Emiratis are not able to achieve sufficient job opportunities in UAE industries in spite of large number of employment opportunities available. The UAE industries are largely dependent upon Expatriates to fill their vacancies. Even the Emiratis that have undergone education in PHEs are not absorbed 100% by local industries. The dependence on expatriates doesnt seem to be reducing.
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Research Questions
How does the growing trend of private higher

education affect the local work force of United Arab Emirates? How does this trend affect the access to high-quality private higher education and the acquisition of labour market qualification by the Emiratis students in UAE? How have been the private higher education institutions successful in meeting the requirements of the labour market of UAE? How do these PHE institutions and universities affect the employment outcomes for the Emiratis?
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Investigation Areas
Perspective of Emiratis Students and Working

Professionals

Skill enhancement of Expatriates with respect to

requirements of local industries. Quality of Education delivered by PHEs. Subject Matter Knowledge Delivered by PHEs. Teaching Talents of PHEs. Global Value of the Courses offered.

Perspective of PHE University Staff Effectiveness of Schemes like TANMIA Performance of Emiratis in the courses Local Job Opportunities for Emiratis Relevance of Course Curriculum
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Investigation Areas - Continued

Perspective of Employers that have conducted campus

interviews in recent past.

Relevance of Course Curriculum Level of Subject Matter Knowledge Employment of Emiratis Employability of Emiratis due to PHEs Skills of Emiratis Students

Research Design Followed

Data Collection
Structured Questionnaire with Likert Scale employed Responses collected from Emiratis 102 Students and

Working Professionals, 37 PHE University Staff and 16 Employers. Face to face and telephonic interviews conducted. Cross Sectional data collection employed (i.e., data is collected within a fortnight and not tagged with timelines or historical significance) A short pilot was conducted before data collection to verify the quality of questionnaire and the interpretations of the questions.
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Data Collection - continued

The results of the interviews were shared with all

participants exhibiting full transparency. Under Delphi Technique

The responses of other students of working professionals

were shared with them requesting for any changes in responses if they desire. The university staff were able to see the responses of students and working professionals before filling their responses. The employers were able to see responses of students and working professionals and employers before filling their responses.

The technique was learnt from the theses of Manning

(2010), Geiselhofer (2010), Vazquez-Ramos and Leahy et al. (2007) and Garavalia and Gredler (2004).
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Data Analysis
The levels of Likert Scale were mapped with numbers as

below:

Strongly Agree 1 Agree 2 Disagree 3 Strongly Disagree 4

Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 17.0

academic edition. The descriptive statistical technique was employed to analyze the responses. The parameter analyzed were: Percentiles, Cross-Tabs, Mean, Median, Variance, Standard Deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis.
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Data Analysis Continued.

Percentiles: These have been used to provide an

indication of the choice of the respondents about the attributes studied against a question towards the various levels of the scale used in the question. Cross-Tabs: These have been used to provide comparison of the choice of the respondents about attributes of scales among multiple questions. Mean: Arithmetic mean has been used to observe the central tendency of the data. Median: Median has been used to observe the value at the middle of a data set.
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Data Analysis Continued.

Variance: Variance has been used to observe the extent to which the

data is either above or below the Mean for the entire set of data. Standard Deviation: Standard deviation is the square root of Variance and has been used as absolute measure of variability for each data point. Skewness: Skewness has been used as the measure to observe degree of asymmetry around the mean value of the data set. Kurtosis: Kurtosis has been used as the measure to observe the peak of the histogram curve formed by the data sets. The curves that are flat are called Platykurtic with Kurtosis values of less than 3 and have data sets farther away from the mean. The curves that are high and steep are called Leptokurtic with Kurtosis values of greater than 3 and have data sets cluttered around the mean. The curve having Kurtosis value equal to 3 is called the Bell curve.

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Findings
The situation about contribution of PHEs to employability

of Emiratis is good in UAE but needs improvement because the dependence on expatriates hasnt reduced. TANMIA and UAE Government sponsored schemes are quite effective in UAE for attracting students towards the PHEs. But it needs to do better. Level and quality of preparatory courses needs to be improved. More than 50% of Emiratis get employment after completing their courses in PHEs. But this percentage needs to improve.
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Findings - Continued
The government needs to focus on enhancement of primary

education to bring it in line with the requirements of UAE industries and economy. Also, it is waste of time and money to run preparatory courses and hence the government should consider them as short term measures although should apply best possible efforts to enhance their quality. The real focus should be on enhancement of primary education. The quality and level of education in PHEs is good but needs to be improved for better competition with global institutions and universities. The results indicate that the Emiratis students that achieve employment after completing higher studies may not be much higher than 50% in many cases. This is a good number but significant improvements is required.
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Recommendations

The government should apply efforts to optimise the quality of the

preparatory courses offered to bridge the gaps between primary and undergraduate education and the higher education offered by private institutions/universities. However, the efforts in the recommendation of point (a) should be treated as short term measure and the long term focus should be in reforming the primary and undergraduate education in UAE. The government should continue to offer sponsorships to the students that qualify in the preparatory courses and if possible give them maximum opportunity to join the branch campuses of global institutions in the Dubai Knowledge Village. The PHE institutions and universities in UAE should continuously enhance the quality and level of their courses.

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Recommendations - Continued
The PHE institutions and universities in UAE should try to focus more

on Emiratis to ensure that they are able to avail the benefits of the higher education in which they are enrolled. They should closely nurture the Emiratis students that in their view have not yet come up to the mark. The employers should try to give more opportunities to Emiratis as much as possible and reduce the trend of importing expatriates at least at the entry level jobs. The Emiratis students should come forward and avail maximum benefits out of the preparatory courses and apply extra efforts to bridge all their gaps in skills, competencies and English language. The Emiratis students should openly communicate with the university staff about their needs such that the staff can take appropriate corrective actions. Hiding the weaknesses will not help them to avail the opportunity of enhancing their skills and competencies from the higher educational programs.
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Thank You
Many thanks for your patience.

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