Dubai: The 20th Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX), a leading educational forum in the region, was inaugurated yesterday by Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
The four-day event at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre gives national and expatriate students access to more than 2,500 course options provided by over 500 higher education providers.
The event focuses on three segments: GETEX Careers and Training, GETEX Student Recruitment and GETEX Education Equipment and Technology.
Students flocked in the hundreds to GETEX Careers and Training and GETEX Student Recruitment, which has a high presence of UK higher education providers with 65 exhibitors, followed by India with 45.
Confident
Thirteen Canadian, nine French and ten German universities are also part of the international spectrum of education pro-viders.
"I think people are getting more confident with the education that Dubai has to offer," said Arjun Goyle, a mechanical engineering student at BITS, Pilani Dubai.
GETEX Education Equipment and Technology, which opened a day earlier, was visited by a Saudi delegation looking to purchase educational technology and equipment for public and private sector institutes.
The segment was also attended by representatives from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in charge of implementing information communication technology with Iraq.
During the segment, leading educators, policy-makers and academics participated in the second day of the Global Forum on Innovation and Technology, which is jointly organised by GETEX and the US headquartered International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The conference covered topics including the need to address distance-learning skills and effective leadership for technology in higher education, and the use of Web 2.0 tools for digital age schools.
By Manal Ismail, Staff Reporter