Dubai International Academic City's geography lesson

Dubai International Academic City has developed a reputation as an educational hub of high order for overseas students and locals alike.

Spread across 1.67 million square metres, Dubai International Academic City represents the largest concentration of overseas college branches anywhere in the world. Randi Sokoloff / The National

It is an unlikely seat of third-level learning.

Located off a motorway that carries traffic to and from the city's industrial estates, there are no dreaming spires or leafy quads to be seen among the campuses of Dubai International Academic City (Diac).

But this collection of sand-coloured buildings spread across 1.67 million square metres of desert represents the largest concentration of overseas college branches anywhere in the world - at least for now.

Behind the doors of these office block colleges, preparations are underway for freshers' week. Thousands of new students are expected to attend ice-breaking introductions to university life from a Diac's Got Talent show to a Rap Battle for aspiring undergraduate Eminems.

While students will be looking forward to a fun-packed week, many administrators may not be so upbeat about the start of a new academic year.

The UAE has a total of 37 branch campuses and 21 of them are located in Diac. But no new ones have opened this year and there are three fewer today than in 2009 amid rising competition from Asia and an increase in the number of students from the region going to the United States to study.

"The centre of gravity for international branch campuses is clearly shifting eastwards from the Gulf," says Alex Katsomitros, a research analyst at the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) in the United Kingdom.

Dubai's emergence as the largest international hub for overseas campuses sprang from the sudden demand for local university places in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US when thousands of students from the region encountered problems getting visas for study in North America and Europe.

That was a significant catalyst for its rapid growth over the past decade, attracting colleges as diverse as Manchester Business School from the United Kingdom and Australia's University of Wollongong.

But the patterns of global education migration are shifting fast.

The number of overseas branch campuses in China has surged by 70 per cent during the past three years while there was a 50 per cent increase in Singapore, according to a recent report from OBHE.

It says there are now 200 higher education branch campuses in the world - about 23 per cent more than in 2009.

China's third-level student population is now more than 22.3 million - 75 per cent higher than a decade ago. That has drawn in international educational institutions including New York University - which also operates a campus in Abu Dhabi - and the University of Alberta.

But this is not the only challenge facing the UAE as it seeks to attract more overseas students.

The number travelling to the US from the Middle East surged 26 per cent last year, including a 44 per cent rise from Saudi Arabia, data from the Institute of International Education showed.

Some analysts say this may explain why there are no new American international branch campuses planned here.

"More and more countries have understood why bringing in foreign educational providers is a smart and relatively cheap way to strengthen economic development," says Professor Maurits van Rooijen, an expert on overseas branch campuses. "So the Middle East no longer has the relative advantage it once had."

As more options open up for students from the region to study abroad, Dubai is tailoring its colleges to provide more vocationally oriented courses that dovetail with industries experiencing rapid growth in the emirate such as hospitality and logistics.

Ayoub Kazim is in charge of both Diac and Knowledge Village as the managing director of Tecom Investments' Education Cluster.

He acknowledges three out of 30 institutions have been forced to close their doors after failing to attract enough students to be commercially viable. But he is still unconcerned that just one new college opened at Diac last year and none so far this year.

"For us it is not about quantity," he says. "In 2010, during the peak of the crisis, some 25 universities applied. We didn't accept any of them."

Shazadi Durrani graduated with an MBA from Hult International Business School at Diac last year and now helps to entertain the latest crop of arrivals as a student services manager.

Originally from Quetta in Pakistan, she says Dubai is still a great place to study and offers a lot of entertainment options, clubs and societies for new students.

But because visas are tied to study, graduates who do not immediately find work must leave the country - which has discouraged some overseas students from opting to study here.

While there are some 135 nationalities represented at Diac, most of the intake comes from south Asia which may yet provide a buffer for Dubai against emerging competition for new overseas branch campuses in Asia.

Manipal University caters to this diaspora and has operated a branch campus at Diac since 2006 - offering 25 programmes and with more than 1,500 students.

B Ramjee, the director of Manipal University, says the region's "youth bulge" will sustain demand despite rising competition. About 22 per cent of the population in the Middle East is aged between 15 and 24.

"If you look at the demographics of the UAE and the cultural reluctance to travel to the West, we fill that void. I cannot speak for all institutions. But we are here to stay."