The Ministry of Higher Education And Scientific Research has published the first Higher Education Statistics Guide in the UAE for 2013-2014, in response to the directives of his Excellency the Minister Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, due to the crucial and significant role of education statistics and indicators in the strategic planning and development process in the State.
His Excellency said in the introduction to the Guide, which was published on the Ministry’s website in both Arabic and English, that “collection and analysis of data and drawing conclusions from them, that reflects the reality of education for educational decision makers, backs them in drawing policies and the development of the quantitative and qualitative higher education system consistent with the Vision and National Agenda for UAE 2021″. The Minister praised the efforts of the staff at the Department of Statistics and Information in the Higher Education Planning & Coordination Department which has produced this Guide, he also thanked all higher education institutions that have contributed by providing the necessary information and data, whether licensed governmental or private institutions which the first part of the Guide is dedicated to, while the second and third parts is about the statistics of students and graduates, while the fourth part is about the statistics on the faculty, and the final part includes financial statements and expenditure on governmental and private higher education institutions, in addition to scholarships and certificates equivalency statistics.
According to the Guide, the number of working institutions of higher education reached 71 universities, colleges and institutes offering students belonging to 161 nationality, 808 programs, as well as seven institutions under establishment and receiving accreditation of academic programs, in addition to ten educational institutions that are branches of international universities. 67.96 % of students are enrolled at universities, 28.71% in colleges, and 3.33% in institutes.
In the Guide the active academic programs are divided into 73 diploma programs, 15 high diploma programs, 492 Bachelor programs, 8 postgraduate diploma programs, and 204 Masters and several Doctoral programs. The Guide also provided detailed statistics of accredited programs and disciplines in each individual Emirate.
The citizen students reached 91.89% of government institutions students, and 43.06% of non-governmental institutions students. 14.04% of students are students from the total number of students (citizens and non-citizens) study in basic education, 5.29 % in the diploma and higher diploma, 72.28% in Bachelors, and 8.38% in graduate studies.
The Guide stated that the number of graduates in the years (2008-2013) reached 90,777 graduate, 37.87% from government institutions, and 62.13% from non-governmental institutions. The specialty of Business Administration came on top in (2012-2013) with the highest percentage of graduates (39.41%), followed by Engineering (12.98%), Education (8.86%). (5641) males and (7914) females graduated that year.
The Guide also noted that the number of faculty members in 2014 reached 7731 faculty member from 116 States, either full-time, part-time, or visitors. 11% of them are with the rank of Professor, 17.20% with the rank of Associate Professor, 29.50% with the rank of Assistant Professor, and 39.30% with the rank of Lecturer.
Regarding the financial statements, the Guide that there is no significant difference between the cost of studying in governmental and non-governmental institutions, and that spending on salaries and bonuses reached 58.1% of total expenditure, expenditure on scientific research and development of academic faculty reached 2.7% of the total spending.
And in 2013-2014 the percentage of female students awarded scholarships rose to 32% of the total students awarded scholarships, 62.9 % of them enrolled in undergraduate programs, and 37.1% in graduate programs.
