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In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other surrounding Gulf Arab nations, an increasing number of males are opting out of higher education. In the UAE, fewer than 30% of students attending public higher education institutions are male. Little, however, is known about why some males choose to continue their education and others do not. This policy paper, which is drawn from the first part of a study on understanding male enrollment patterns in the UAE, looks at a sample of males who have continued on to higher education.
The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been able to achieve rapid economic growth over the past 40 years, which has largely been the result of revenue from vast reserves of oil and gas. However, the 21st century has seen a global shift towards establishing knowledge-based economies, through moving away from the dependence on oil to promoting business, tourism, and other economic sectors.
Heaviness and obesity have become as much of an epidemic worldwide as they are in North America, affecting approximately 1 in 10 children. This brief examines the issue of children’s becoming overweight and obese and discusses how this is affecting the UAE. Using the case of Ras Al Khaimah, it will also address some of the challenges children face with regard to physical activity and healthy eating.
Schooling is widely acknowledged as one of the key arenas in which the basic economic, social, and political attitudes of a population take root. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), much tends to be assumed about young people’s attitudes toward risk, competition, achievement motivation, responsibility, and other areas relevant to national development. But relatively little research has been conducted to confirm or deny popular assertions in these areas, or to explore the variation that may exist across individual emirates or across school types within each emirate.