On 24 March Marc Schulze and Tim Rottleb were invited to participate in a hybrid panel during the 5th MENA Higher Education Leadership Forum taking place online and in Dubai. The bi-annual forum brings together higher education leaders and decision makers from across the globe, and engages them in discussion on the latest trends, developments and challenges pertinent to the field. During the round table format on “Building Education Hubs of the Future”, organized by Francisco J. Marmolejo, Higher Education President at Qatar Foundation, and by Dr. Adel Zairi, Dean of Academic Operations at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE, Marc and Tim presented our latest policy paper in which we summarise our findings on and recommendations for successful education hub policies.
It was a fruitful discussion with many different perspectives from a diverse audience of scholars and higher education professionals. The discussion pointed out that education hub models need to be understood in their particular contexts, and that the question of whether it serves as a blue print for regional development in general requires further investigation.