Online Education is an Effective Tool to Increase Graduates in Quality Disciplines

International studies and reports emphasized that electronic or online university education is an effective tool to meet the challenges of the education sector during the next stage, especially related to the increase in the number of graduates in various disciplines such as engineering, technology, data analysis, medicine and management, considering that it constitutes a real lever that enhances the quality of outputs in various disciplines.

Dr. Youssef Fouad Psada, an expert in international university education and a visiting professor in the field of entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo and at the European Institute of Business Administration in France, said that the Gulf countries, including the UAE, and the Arab world need an educational leap in the field of university e-education, which has faced many challenges for years. He explained that online education is an effective tool for building generations capable of economic and industry development.

He stated that after the Corona pandemic and the repercussions that afflicted the world, it is expected that industrial investment and foreign manufacturing in the Arab world will increase in the form of foreign and international investments in several areas in the GCC countries, as they are not limited to the oil industry only, but in the fields of technology and energy, which requires outputs from technicians, engineers and administrators to meet the needs of major companies. The achievement of quality production falters without a qualified workforce, with better university education and advanced specializations.

He explained that higher education abroad is very expensive, not only for the student himself, but for the country itself, pointing out that Gulf universities, including the UAE, are distinguished, and have a constellation of distinguished academics, but the problem lies in the limited number of university seats, as the labor market requires more graduates. Especially that there is a tendency to rely more on citizens and residents instead of bringing in more foreign workers who have university academic qualifications.

He believes that online education contributes effectively to filling the labor market’s need for graduates in various disciplines, especially since there are many non-profit universities that operate according to developed educational systems, such as the University of the People, which hosts more than one hundred and seventeen thousand students around the world, who receive their education via the Internet and are recognized by the American university faculty and are recognized in the United States, and business administration degrees are granted in Arabic, and English language specializations such as computer science, health sciences and education, as well as graduate studies in business administration, computer science and education.

Dr. Youssef Fouad Basada said that online education provides a golden opportunity for students to obtain a valuable university degree while working, as the employee can study and work at the same time, considering that the method of teaching online is unique and qualitative, as students are now able to study alone and in student groups of no more than 20 students under the supervision of an online teacher. Every week, students receive a list of tasks and readings to be accomplished, and once completed, it is published on the Internet and becomes accessible to the students of the rest of the group, explaining that these exchanges contribute to strengthening students’ knowledge, skills and abilities to learn, as well as flexibility and innovation that simulates the language of the times and the successive developments in educational systems globally.

He stressed the importance of focusing on the development of education and the search for new educational methods, no less important than the development of economic resources, stressing that the key to advancing all fields, especially the field of industry, agriculture, energy and technology, lies in improving educational performance, as the required number of graduates is increasing globally and takes us to the importance of finding new trends to meet the local, Arab and Gulf market demand for graduates.

This is a translated version of the original story first published in The Gulf Today