Making Education the Focus of Gulf-Europe Ties

THE engagement of the European Union in the Gulf region tends to boil down to a few issues: the expansion of trade opportunities and economic engagement of EU member states into the region; the role the EU can play in assisting the US in disengaging from its Iraq quagmire, for example, by promoting training programmes for Iraqi security forces or hold meetings to pledge reconstruction funds; and the determination by the EU-3 (France, Germany and the United Kingdom) to engage the Islamic Republic of Iran diplomatically over its nuclear programme to avoid another dangerous conflict scenario in the region.

Similarly and in this context, the annual EU-Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meetings are dominated by discussions about the impending free trade agreement (now in discussion for the 15th year), the situation in the Arab-Israeli conflict, or references to the ongoing political reform process in the Gulf and the need for the GCC countries to improve their human rights record. Beyond these, little substantive and constructive dialogue on other issues appears to be taking place.

While this is a simplistic characterisation - as the ties between the EU and GCC members are much more discriminate, involving regular contact and movement below the surface - it is nevertheless an issue that deserves more attention, but gets lost in the rush to make headlines and in the EU’s attempt to prove its seriousness as an actor capable of helping to promote stability and security in the region.

In such a situation, an EU statement about the dangers of an Iranian nuclear programme or the deteriorating situation in Iraq, while important as a signal of intent, actually does very little to address the core issues of instability that are currently impacting the region. Moreover, they give the impression that EU policies are nothing more than reactive positions that place little emphasis on the long-term issues needed to resolve the Gulf’s security dilemma.

The most clearly missing area of engagement is education. While the overall GCC-EU trade relationship has expanded to about $80 billion, nearly double of what is was in 2000, very little emphasis and financial resources have been allocated to the field of education. The ministerial communiqué from the annual GCC-EU meeting in Manama in April only makes a fleeting reference to the "comprehensive development of education" without providing any details. And while cooperation at the university and higher education level was agreed upon more at the 1995 Granada summit, the project never materialised, and was subsequently shelved. Till now, the political will required to turn education into a cornerstone of GCC-EU relations has not been exhibited.

This is a glaring omission especially since the demand for educational services is rapidly growing within the region. A simple look at the demographic development in the GCC countries reveals a structure that has children and students making up a majority. In Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait, over 50 per cent of the population is below the age of 24; it is around 40 per cent in the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. In comparison, the figure stands at around 30 per cent among most of the EU member states.

Currently there are 7.2 million students in the GCC countries in the 6-18 age group. At the higher education level, student enrolment figures are rapidly approaching 800,000. Between 1990 and 2001, the growth rate of student enrollment at the higher education level was 11.5 per cent in Saudi Arabia, 19 per cent in the UAE and 22.5 per cent in Oman. Moreover, these figures do not reflect the rapid expansion in, for example, private universities or projects such as the Qatar Education City that has taken place in the higher education sector in recent years. If these numbers are combined with developments in the information technology and connectivity sectors, it is clear that current and future students will be increasingly vocal as well as socially and politically conscious about regional issues of concern.

Given the current debate about terrorism, it is of even greater consequence that education is the one area where the outlook and vision of a young population is being shaped and determined. As far as the GCC countries are concerned, issues of expansion, the appropriateness of the current curriculum, the link between educational output and labour market needs, and quality rank high among the minds of policymakers. And while the lingering effects of 9/11 mean that access to the traditional market for Gulf students in the US remains restricted, it opens the door for Europe to step in and play a critical role - an opportunity gap that exists and must be filled.

Among the possibilities that should be considered are encouraging European institutions to set up subsidiaries in the GCC countries; expanding access for Gulf students in European study programmes; establishing linkages between European and Gulf institutions of higher learning through twining programmes; and mobilising European technical cooperation agencies and appropriate NGOs to better promote their services. The EU-GCC University Project in regional studies, as envisioned by the Grenada Ministerial Meeting of July 2000, should also be revived.

European institutions should also look into the possibility of offering scholarship programmes. The idea that the GCC countries are rich enough to fund all these programmes themselves is outdated and such a notion stands in contrast to the overall value of educational exchanges, advancement and the future development of the Gulf region. The spending on education as a percentage of the total budgets of the GCC member countries has increased significantly in recent years as well. If EU governments and institutions are serious about promoting educational services instead of making funding issues the key issues of cooperation, they will certainly find receptive ears among the GCC partners.

A report - "The EU and the GCC: A New Partnership" - first published in 2002 by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and the Germany-based Bertelsmann Foundation, argued: "The new EU-GCC Partnership should attribute the greatest importance to cooperation in the field of education. This is in many ways more urgently needed than cooperation in trade, finance or energy. The very high priority attributed to cooperation in education should be made into the distinguishing feature of the new EU-GCC Partnership, and generous financial means should be made available to substantiate it."

In its updated version of February 2005, this point is made even more forcefully. One can only hope that this time around, relevant policymakers and officials will follow that recommendation.