Dubai-based company, Emaar Group, to set up International schools in India

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by chydenius, Mar 20, 2006.

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  1. chydenius

    chydenius New Member

    http://www.emaar.com/MediaCenter/PressReleases/2006January31.asp

    Dubai-based company, Emaar Group, to set up International schools in India

    "[T]he numbers of Arab student enrolments in the USA have declined significantly post 9/11. On the other hand, the enrolment rate in universities in the Arab world has increased simultaneously, and is believed to be a continuing trend."

    No surprise there.

    "etween now and 2010, demand for premium primary, secondary and higher education, especially in Egypt and the UAE, will exceed supply."

    Gentlemen, start your business plans. ;)
     
    chydenius, Mar 20, 2006
    #1
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    There was a dot-com boom and now we're seeing a dot-edu boom. There will be supply to meet this demand. Online campuses are easy to scale, even by an order of magnitude, if you know your bum from a hole in the ground.

    Also as with the dot-com boom, ultimately there will be a shakeout where we find out which 3/4 do not know which is which.

    -=Steve=-
     
    SteveFoerster, Mar 21, 2006
    #2
  3. chydenius

    chydenius New Member

    The demographics are particularly fascinating. North America and Europe are aging very fast, while the population is largely younger than twenty-five almost everywhere else. If North American and European schools are going to remain competitive, they are going to have to be accessible to the other 5.5 billion prospective students.

    North American and European schools are chasing ever-smaller, yet highly subsidized, domestic markets. They are able to charge monopoly prices, because accreditation is a barrier to entry and domestic students tend not to study abroad. We don't see a lot of Chinese, Indian, or Latin American universities setting up campuses in Australia, Canada, Europe, or the USA. The only significant competition in these places comes from other domestic schools.

    However, abroad, where the market is much larger and more competitive, price will have to come down to approximately marginal cost (i.e., the cost of producing the next unit of output), which is very low in education. The difference in cost between having 20 students in a class and having 21 is negligible. Faced with a choice between seeing a paying student take his tuition money elsewhere and coming down in price (or offering non-monetary inducements), many education providers will cut prices as far as is practical.

    It will be interesting to see which of the schools in the major education-exporting countries will be able to adapt. Quite possibly, the survivors will have unfamiliar names.

    Who had ever heard of Amazon, eBay, Google, or PayPal even ten years ago?
     
    chydenius, Mar 22, 2006
    #3
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    However, abroad, where the market is much larger and more competitive, price will have to come down to approximately marginal cost (i.e., the cost of producing the next unit of output), which is very low in education. The difference in cost between having 20 students in a class and having 21 is negligible. Faced with a choice between seeing a paying student take his tuition money elsewhere and coming down in price (or offering non-monetary inducements), many education providers will cut prices as far as is practical.

    That's an excellent economic argument. I think some of the other social sciences come into play as well, though, in that there seems to be a strong preference for degrees from certain universities in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries.

    It will be interesting to see which of the schools in the major education-exporting countries will be able to adapt. Quite possibly, the survivors will have unfamiliar names.

    Indeed, some of the early adapters have been under-the-radar kind of operations like the unaccredited Prescott University that operates out of Wyoming. Their prices still aren't anywhere near approaching the cost of service provision, though.

    Who had ever heard of Amazon, eBay, Google, or PayPal even ten years ago?

    I don't know, but I'll bet they're not worried about money these days. :)
     
    SteveFoerster, Mar 22, 2006
    #4

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