The Experience of Quality in Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates: In Times of Rapid Change and Complexities

In less than five decades, from offering formal education only in a few schools to a small tribal community to providing a selection of three public and approximately 100 private higher education institutions to the citizens of seven emirates creates a unique context in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is an evolution that corresponds with its remarkable economic growth. Quality assurance of diverse higher educational institutions requires complex schemes to ensure their fitness for purpose, while perhaps development and enhancement aspects need time to mature. The quality of the education is especially important because the UAE yearns for the diversified and knowledge-based economy; one that is led by its own citizens whose contribution to the workforce is currently less than 10%. This chapter highlights contextual complexities in the UAE that might have direct and/or indirect impacts on the quality experiences in the higher education sector, with proposed recommendations

How about professionalism, professions and standards: the creation of acculturated professionals

Professional education is both an epistemological and ontological experience. The end game is to be a practitioner within a selected profession that satisfies personal expectations while contributing to society through practice. There is a triadic sensemaking relationship between the individual wanting to be a professional, the higher education institution (HEI) providing the preparatory curriculum and related experiences and the different stakeholders who employ the new professional and those expecting intellectual capital and productivity gains from these new professionals. Therefore, quality is a many-sided perception dependent on whose purpose frames its evaluation and the extent to which outcomes are determined to be gains. This chapter discusses the various perspectives of what quality is and the transferability of determinations between the different perceivers