Ras al Khaimah’s billion-dollar education park will transform opportunities for all students, from the youngest primary school pupils to teenagers heading to university.
Until recently, university facilities in the emirate have been limited. The Higher Colleges of Technology has two campuses and the RAK Government set up Ittihad University in 1999, but the Federal Government’s Zayed University and UAE University are restricted to students from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Compared with Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, all of which have established universities based on American, Canadian, British, Australian and other foreign curricula, the presence of private universities has been modest.
In recent years, university provision has gradually increased, with George Mason University, the first American university to open a branch campus in the UAE, beginning bachelor’s degree courses in 2006 and RAK Medical and Health Sciences University also opening. George Mason is planning a new campus at its current base on the former Ras al Khaimah Men’s College site and will not be based in the education park.
Several other colleges have already opened or begun accepting applications from students, including the UK’s University of Bolton, due to begin operations in September.
The real transformation will come over the next decade, however, as at least 15 universities and colleges will set up in the education park, some relocating from RAK city but others new to the emirate.
Some major private school groups heavily represented elsewhere in the UAE, including Global Education Management Systems (Gems), which has 26 schools nationwide, and Taleem, which has eight, have not yet opened facilities in RAK. This, however, is changing, with Gems set to build two schools.
The emirate’s educational development has been spearheaded by RAK’s education company, Edrak, which was set up in 2006 by the RAK Government’s Investment and Development Office.
In some cases, foreign institutions have approached the free-trade zone, while in other instances, such as with hospitality industry training, the authority has done the running.
“I was very much interested in getting hospitality education, because I’m not getting the service I need,” said Oussama el Omari, the director general of the RAK Free Trade Zone.
“You can have a five-star hotel and nobody will serve you a nice cup of coffee. The service is going down.”
Mr Omari has secured an agreement from Vatel Hotel School, based in Strasbourg, France, to open.
“Vatel I went after personally,” said Mr Omari, who described the college as “the best in the world”.
“I said, ‘I’m fed up with the service; I need to find hospitality skills whatever it takes’. RAK is promoting its tourist industry so we need to have a school here.”
Vatel may be located in the main education park, or in a 36-hectare hospitality education zone created to support a 105-hectare hospitality industry free-trade zone.
Efforts to attract institutions do not end with Mr Omari; the ruling family also plays a part.
“We take them to the Ruler [Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed] and the Crown Prince [Sheikh Saud bin Saqr]. It’s an accessible government,” said Mr Omari. “We take them to the locals and they feel comfortable. It’s a good place, nice and a friendly environment.”
Other free trade zones being created in RAK include an industrial park, technology park, airport park and a main business park, where many of the university campuses are temporarily located at present before moving to the education centre. Wider developments planned for RAK will cost a total of US$5bn and the emirate will require an influx of about 200,000 labourers to carry out the construction. This has caused concerns among some Emiratis that local culture will be diluted and power and water facilities overstretched.
For the northern emirates as a whole, infrastructure projects totalling US$16bn are planned. RAK, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm al Qaiwain have until now suffered from a lack of investment in facilities such as roads, parks, sewerage and drainage systems.
Daniel Bardsley