Unlike young Emirati women, many young men are expected to get jobs and be financially independent soon after they finish school so they can save money to get married and start a family. This explains why most of them either delay their studies, combine them with part-time jobs, or work full-time and study in private universities that offer more freedom and flexibility in timings and age at admission.
This contributes to the reasons why the number of Emirati men enrolled at private universities is higher than women. As The National reported yesterday, 55 per cent of Emirati students at Dubai private universities in 2013 were men, with the percentage increasing to 57 per cent this year, compared to only 30 per cent of students in public universities.
Prof Abdullah Al Shamsi, head of the British University in Dubai, said the reasons for this included the strict enrolment criteria in federal institutions, which limit admission to recent high-school graduates, and the restricted times when classes are scheduled.
The fact that many young Emirati men don’t enter higher education right after high school highlights another benefit of the recent national service law. If undertaken immediately after secondary school, military service can provide an opportunity for young men to think about what they want to study and prepare them for tertiary education.
Studies have shown that boys mature more slowly than girls, which can mean that they need to take a longer time to figure out what they want to do in life. Ideally, young men should be encouraged to take some time off after finishing secondary school, to travel and experience other cultures and also to work in different jobs to find out better in which field their eventual careers should be.
This would most likely instil in them the need to have higher qualifications and eventually be more serious and motivated when joining university and choosing their future careers.
In turn, public universities ought be more flexible so they can accommodate those who want to delay their studies. With extended age limits and more flexible class timings, students will be able to choose suitable courses and fit their study around their work commitments.
A higher education degree is no longer just an additional qualification. It’s becoming a basic requirement for most jobs, and universities should accommodate that.
