Dubai International Academic City’s (DIAC) universities will be increasing the number of courses on offer by over 10 per cent for the 2013/14 academic year.

The universities include Amity, Heriot Watt and IMT, which will add an additional 35 degrees in tourism and hospitality, engineering and accounting to their existing portfolio, bringing the total number of degrees to 355, said a statement.

Of the new courses, 11 will be undergraduate, 17 postgraduate and 7 Ph D programmes, it said.

The growth in courses has been attributed to the increased student numbers and enrolments in the past year.

Dr Ayoub Kazim, managing director, Dubai International Academic City, said: “We are delighted to see our universities expanding the number of programmes on offer in 2013/14 - particularly Stem subjects such as engineering, along with tourism and hospitality and accounting."

"We see this as a sure sign that the higher education sector in the region is responding to the demands of local industry and providing a range of programmes that not only educate local students, but increase their prospects of employment upon graduation,” he said.

Details of both DIAC and its universities’ developments and performance have been recorded in the Education Cluster’s Annual Review 2012. The review provides detailed insight about students, ranging from enrollment trends, student populations and student nationalities through to alumni and graduate data.

It reveals that the majority of students studying at DIAC and DKV in 2012 were residential (79.6 per cent), while 20.4 per cent were transnational.

The Annual Review also details the education related events hosted by DIAC throughout 2012/13.

Earlier this year, the DIAC commissioned a Workforce Planning Study with Deloitte which revealed that the UAE is seen as the fourth most attractive education destination in the world for students seeking to pursue their studies abroad, and the most attractive education destination among emerging market economies.

The report put the spotlight on the fact that there are 64 skills in high demand across a range of sectors in the region including the skills required for entry-level tourism and senior-level telecoms roles. DIAC is now working with its business partners to look at ways of addressing these skills gaps. - TradeArabia News Service