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Report from the ICEF Middle East & Africa Workshop:

Emerging Markets in the Spotlight in Dubai

"This event was a very efficient and convenient way to meet agents from a wide variety of countries - if I had to travel to meet every one, it would have taken weeks, not to mention the travel expenses and visa hassles."

       — Ken Gardner, Vancouver English Centre, Canada

"Very well thought out and executed event. Highly recommended."

       — Ramy Jaber, London School of Business and Finance,
           United Kingdom

Attendees enjoying an evening reception during the 2009 ICEF Middle East & Africa Workshop.

The Middle East and Africa are increasingly on the radar of student recruiters around the world. With burgeoning school-age populations and resource-driven income growth, the regions account for a larger share of the world's international students with each passing year.

There are a number of growth hot spots throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, but Saudi Arabia—with its booming youthful population and massive international scholarship programmes—is widely acknowledged as a major driver of regional growth. The US alone has seen a 25% increase in Saudi student enrolment from 2006–2007 to 2007–2008.

We reported on Saudi Arabia's dynamic market at length in last year's report from Dubai:

"Saudi Arabia's population of 26 million is projected to double within the next 50 years, and, today, more than 70% of Saudi nationals are under 40 years of age. The country's higher education system is under considerable pressure as a result to accommodate many more students and also to create greater linkages between education programmes and work force training requirements.

The Saudi government has responded to these pressures with massive investments in new higher education institutions—12 new universities have opened in the Kingdom since 2004—as well as generous scholarship programmes for Saudi students. The Saudi Ministry of Higher Education has also supported expanded partnerships with foreign institutions, both to help build higher education capacity domestically and to host increased numbers of Saudi students abroad."

The impressive numbers and scale of opportunity in Saudi Arabia make it an obvious focal point for recruitment efforts in the region. Even more compelling, however, are the diversity and number of emerging national markets that can be efficiently accessed from a major business hub such as Dubai.

This diversity was very much in evidence at the 2009 ICEF Middle East & Africa Workshop in Dubai (February 1–3)—an event that saw record attendance this year with an 8% increase in the number of participating organisations. In total, 322 participants from 49 countries attended, including 114 educators and 186 carefully screened and selected agents for an intensive schedule of one-to-one business meetings, market intelligence seminars, and networking receptions.

Two-thirds of the educators came from the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada this year, with the balance from Australia, Ireland, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

The Dubai workshop has traditionally emphasised key markets in the Middle East and North Africa, but the event's geographic range expanded this year to include carefully screened agents from Turkey and also from emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. "We had agents from ten additional countries in Africa this year," says ICEF CEO Markus Badde. "This clearly shows the continent's growing importance in the international marketplace."

All told, the range of countries represented by agents at this year's workshop jumped by an impressive 74% over 2008. The top five countries for agents (and accounting for roughly half of the agencies attending) were Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Turkey, and Iran. Others included Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

"We continue to be impressed by the dynamism and growing demand in a number of emerging markets throughout the region," said Badde. "We're clearly hearing from our clients and colleagues that they are committed to building relationships here for the long-term, and that is a superb foundation for real business development going forward."

The 2010 ICEF Middle East & Africa Workshop will again be held at the five-star deluxe Jumeirah Emirates Towers in the heart of Dubai's commercial district.

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