Dubai’s private schools earned AED 7.5 billion ($2.04 billion) in revenue from tuition fees in the 2017 and 2018 academic year, an AED 700 million ($190 million) increase from the previous year, according to new statistics from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).In 2016-2017, Dubai private schools reported generating AED 6.8 billion ($1.85 billion) in revenue, compared to AED 6.1 billion ($1.66 billion) in 2015-2016, AED 5.3 billion ($1.44 billion) in 2014-2015 and AED 4.7 billion ($1.28 billion) in 2013-2014.
In a report entitled “Doing Well, Being Well: the Health and Happiness of Dubai’s Private Schools – the KHDA noted that 53 percent of students pay less than AED 20,000 in tuition fees. The figure is 4.5 percent less from the percentage reported last year.
The report also found that the average school fee in Dubai is AED 26,865 ($7,311), not taking into account discounts. A number of schools, such as King’s School Nad Al Sheba, GEMS World Academy and Repton school charge in excess of AED 100,000 ($27,224) a year.
Most expensive
The most expensive school in Dubai is considered the recently opened North London Collegiate School, which charges fees of between AED 83,000 ($22,596) and AED 130,000 ($35,391).
According to KHDA, in the current academic year there are in 281,432 students enrolled in 194 private schools, with 11 new schools having opened from the previous academic year.
The number of students enrolled represents a 2.9 percent growth in enrollment, and represents a capacity utilisation rate (CUR) of 85 percent of the 330,000 school seats available in Dubai.
Of the 182 nationalities represented in the Dubai private school sector, Indian nationals were found to form the largest percentage of the student body, with 95,368 students. Indians were followed by Emiratis (30,747), Pakistanis (22,603), Egyptians (15,357) and Britons (13,329).
Earlier in June, Dubai’s Executive Council put a freeze on all private school fees for 2018-2019, which His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, said was “in order to reduce the financial burden on parents.”
The KHDA report also found that there was been a 4.84 percent increase in enrolment into higher education institutions, with 30,375 enrolled in 32 free zone universities.
Of the students, the vast majority – 59.3 percent – are enrolled in business programs, which also accounted for 53 percent of the year’s 7,227 graduates from free zone universities.
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