Federal National Council discusses higher education

The Federal National Council requested that wages be reconsidered for teachers and employees, and that the academic and financial promotions system be amended to attract more national teachers.

These proposals came during its fourth session, held today in the premises of the Council in Abu Dhabi, under the presidency of Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of FNC.

The council stressed the importance of finding alternatives to enroll students who would like to continue their studies in higher education governmental institutes, but have not fulfilled all requirements, highlighting the importance of adopting a unified national system for acceptance, testing and graduations.

Today’s recommendations of the FNC included discussions of the topic, "Higher education and scientific research policy", which included the importance of respecting the culture and traditions of foreign academics, adopting initiatives that aim to promote loyalty and belonging, promoting moderate thinking, establishing a national independent agency concerned with scientific research, and allocating a suitable budget to cover its needs, linking research in higher education to the UAE’s future strategy and the national work plan for innovation.

The Council referred the recommendations to the committee of media, sports, youth, culture and education affairs, to submit a final draft report to the government.

The committee had listened to the opinions of experts, academics in universities, governmental and private faculties, as well as representatives from higher education institutes, and conducted a survey to monitor the opinions of students in governmental and private education.

This session was attended by Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, Dr. Ahmad bin Abdulla Humaid Belhoul AlFalasi, Minister of State for Higher Education, and Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs.

The recommendations also stressed the importance of putting in place a plan to develop the professors’ programs, in order to cover all needs in governmental higher education institutes, increasing the period of optional training in accredited institutes to acquire experience, creating a central governmental database about labour market needs. This should be linked to all higher education institutes to identify the needed fields of work, as well as the importance of committing to the Arabic language as a main requirement in the capacity development of students, and establishing accredited standards for universities to guarantee education quality in the UAE.

The Council also discussed the Emiratisation, the curricula, the instruction language and its effect on students’ educational achievements, and the Ministry’s plan to enhance the community’s role of governmental universities .

The minister of education stated that in 2016 there were 442 teacher appointments, and 900 resignations.