The Best School in the UAE for Bursaries, Scholarships and Care for Parents in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best School in the UAE for Bursaries, Scholarships and Care for Parents 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
Dubai College
Our view of Dubai College
Web: https://www.dubaicollege.org /https://www.dubaicollege.org/community/development-office
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dubai-college
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/secondary-schools/dubai-college-al-sufouh/
Many first think of Dubai as College as one of our few globally important and recognised schools and most understand that it exists to provide a beyond-outstanding education for the most gifted children for whom a different type of school would risk leaving many children behind. There is a very strong and creditable ethical force for good that powers this schools and its educators.
However, less well known is that Dubai College has embarked on a hugely inspiring, and very important, program to formally resolve the challenge of Bursary and Scholarships provision in UAE education. Dubai College is the only school in the Emirates to have formalised a bursary mechanism for supporting families in genuine distress, with the fund-raising mechanics to make it viable, through its establishment of a UK charity with the Charity Commission.
The essence of the problem being solved by Dubai College is two-fold.
First, whilst several schools operate bursaries, these are not formally published, this for a myriad of reasons.
Second, no school, excepting Dubai College, has implemented a formal published mechanism to support the funding of bursaries, or scholarships.
Dubai College has recognised, in tackling this issue head-on, that there is a vital link between its values-rich education, of which altruism is a key value, and the creation of a vehicle to support individuals and business to square the circle. Intrinsic to a Dubai College education is the understanding by students of the ethics of altruism, giving back, using power and influence responsibly, and making a difference in the world. Linking these values with its alumni, so that they can help support Dubai College families in distress, and support making available places at Dubai College to those students and families for whom a Dubai College education is the best fit, but for whom the fees put a place at the school out of reach, is a logical next step.
Dubai College has one of the most powerful alumni networks in the Emirates with its graduate students distributed across the world in position of power and influence. The same arguments hold true of many businesses who see Education as the primary focus of their Corporate Socially Responsibility frameworks, but which require the security of formalised recognition by, and registration with, the Charity Commission.
The Charity Commission registration formalises this ambition:
”The object of the Dubai College Foundation is to promote education at Dubai College by awarding scholarships and bursaries to assist able students to attend irrespective of means whilst also promote fundraising and volunteering opportunities with a view to advancing the education of pupils at schools in developing countries.”
Dubai College remains the only school in the UAE to hold UK charity status and be registered formally with HMRC. This enables it to utilise Gift Aid for all contributions in the UK.
This is a serious, hugely creditable, commitment and the challenges of operating as a registered charity are onerous and numerous. It is also reputationally courageous. The eyes of the world are on Dubai College – and it has taken on a project with huge implications for schools – and families, across the Emirates. It’s hugely creditable. If it can make this work, Dubai College will set a benchmark for how to formalise and fund a Bursary and Scholarships mechanism, something that will have far reaching, hugely positive implications for many schools, and school groups within the Emirates.
It is arguable, but many believe that the absence of formal and published bursary and scholarship programmes as an expected part of delivering an outstanding education for children, running a school, and giving back to the UAE society that provides their home, is the one remaining gap in an otherwise outstanding-plus education system. This sort of provision is widely expected in top tier public schools in the US and UK, so it should be no different, it is argued, for the UAE.
Julian Smyth, Director of Development, Dubai College, has been appointed with responsibility for fundraising for the Dubai College Foundation. The DC Development Office which Mr Smyth leads is responsible for co-ordinating all philanthropic and corporate support for the College. It looks to help fund new buildings and facilities, equipment and access to activities not covered by fee income, support funding for bursaries and scholarships and supervises the alumni relations function and the students’ philanthropic work. Global Alumni and those who wish to support the ability of Dubai College to make a difference for families through scholarships and bursaries can contact the Dubai College Development Office here:
https://www.dubaicollege.org/community/development-office
Michael Lambert, Headmaster, Dubai College, explained:
“The Dubai College Foundation was established on 1st January 2017 as a registered charity in England and Wales (# 1173243) in order to:
- Provide scholarships and bursaries to enable suitable children from all backgrounds to attend Dubai College with the ultimate intention to generate sufficient funds so that education can be offered without the need to charge fees.
- Assist with the development of the school so that it can continue to maintain the outstanding performance whilst keeping school fees as low as possible.
- Be able to provide assistance to those parents who are suffering hardship and unable to meet the fees.
- Promote fundraising and volunteering opportunities at Dubai College with a view to advancing the education of pupils at schools in developing countries.
Mr Lambert continues:
“So far, we have used the funds for three main purposes:
- To build two schools in Nepal and, in fact, this week we just opened the new onsite preschool at SJS School in Bandipur fully funded by Dubai College Foundation. Our strategic intention is to build one school per year in the developing world in keeping with our not-for-profit values.
- To part fund C-HUB, the latest development in Project Campus 2030 on the original Dubai College site.
- To offer fee reductions and in some case full-fee exemptions to Dubai College families in need. We always have a handful of families in heartrending circumstances who we will support, especially during critical periods of their education such as their GCSE and A Level years.
“Parent donations to the Annual Fund, the C-HUB Capital Campaign as well as the Farewell Fund mean that Dubai College is able to maintain its high standards and offer valued additional value-added services which it would otherwise need to finance out of above-inflation fee increases.”
We would encourage all graduates of schools in the UAE, whether now, or in the years to come, to recognise the value of their education, and give back to the amazing schools that have contributed so powerfully to their futures. Such contributions are part of a virtuous circle of compassion and kindness that support schools in their opening up of education to children otherwise excluded – children in turn who will graduate to strengthen the alumni networks so important in the lives of school leavers as they develop their lives beyond school.
You can read our interview with Michael Lambert, Headmaster, Dubai College, here
Award Presentation
Best-School-for-Bursaries-Dubai-College-Winner Certificate-portrait
The Top Schools Award for Best School in the UAE for Bursaries, Scholarships and Care for Parents will be presented to Dubai College at a special Breakfast Celebration at The Emirates Golf Club on the morning of 16th November 2023. At the event the recipient of The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 for Outstanding Contribution to Education will be revealed.
Historic winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Education in the UAE Award include H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recognised for his era defining leadership of Education in Dubai as a force for good; and the Varkey Family, for their instrumental role in shaping education in the UAE, and ensuring the life chances for generations of children, following the founding of GEMS Education in 1959.
Our Finalists.
Our extraordinary Finalists and those schools which have achieved outstandingly in so many ways for children in the Best School for Bursaries, Scholarships and Care for Parents category follow. For reasons of confidentiality we have not provided details of the many ways each of the following schools make profound interventions each year to care for parents. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to the welfare of families and children in UAE Education:
Dubai English Speaking School and College (DESSC)
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/primary-schools/dubai-english-speaking-school-dess-oud-metha/
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dubai-english-speaking-school
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dubai-english-speaking-college
GEMS Metropole School Dubai, representing GEMS Education Schools
Web: https://www.gemsmetropoleschool-dubai.com/en
KHDA: Good with Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/gems-metropole-school-motor-city/
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-metropole-school
Safa British School
Web: https://www.safabritishschool.com
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/area/dubai-schools/safa-british-school-al-quoz/
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/safa-british-school
Safa Community School
Web: https://www.safacommunityschool.com
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features [Note as of the time of writing we are unable to reveal the current grading of this school. Read into that what you will…]
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/safa-community-school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/safa-community-school-dubai-al-barsha-south/
The British School Al Khubairat
Web: https://www.britishschool.sch.ae
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/british-school-al-khubairat-abu-dhabi
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/a-levels/the-british-school-al-khubairat-al-mushrif/
A final note.
The Top Schools Awards takes over a year to produce. It engages with parents, students educators and educationalists over countless months, and the work invested in these Awards is the stuff of sleepless nights and deeply felt responsibility. We produce these Awards to celebrate our amazing schools, our magnificent teachers – who are the centre of the universe, our school leaders, whose lives will be judged by their impact on children, and the amazing students that they build a future for. These Awards are only about recognising this – in a world in which our schools and educators have far, far too little recognition. If on exploring these Awards you do one single thing, it should be to reach out to each and every one and thank them for all they do, each and every one of our schools, teachers and school leaders. You have absolutely no idea how much that would mean.
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