About Abdulla Bin ahmad al ghurair
In a 2020 interview with CNBC, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair discussed the work of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, which he chairs. He stated that the foundation initially promoted open learning through online degrees but encountered a barrier when regional governments would not accredit such degrees. He noted that the UAE later endorsed degrees from the top 200 universities worldwide for accreditation and job applications. Al Ghurair also said that 30 percent of university graduates in the Arab world are unemployed because the output of universities does not match job requirements, and he called for greater integration between universities and the labor market.
Al Ghurair, who is also chairman of Mashreq Bank, commented on the evolution of the finance sector, stating that economies change and institutions must develop digital products and services to meet customer demand. He said that simple jobs will disappear due to artificial intelligence and robotics, and that education should focus on critical thinking and problem-solving. In a 2017 interview, he described the foundation’s focus on selecting high-achieving students from low-income families and providing them access to regional and international universities, including the American University in Cairo.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Abdulla Bin ahmad al ghurair's recent appearances.
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Transcript (4 segments)
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Narrator0:10
The family's businesses include metal manufacturing, packaging solutions, and real estate, to name but a few. The family also has a long history of providing education in the United Arab Emirates. What began with humble initiatives led to the launch of a foundation now run by Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair in his father's name, with an aim to provide education opportunities to 15,000 Arab and Emirati youth. The Abdullah Al Ghurair Foundation for Education was established in 2015. As well as being chairman of the foundation, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair is also chairman of the board of directors at Mashreq Bank. I met with him in Dubai early this year.
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Abdulla Bin ahmad al ghurair1:10
We wanted to bring better education to our population here in the Arab world, and we thought let's promote open learning. Open learning means that you can get your degree from online universities. We thought this was a brilliant idea, but we got stuck with our regional government because they would not accredit any degree coming from an online university. So we started communicating with our Ministry of Higher Education. Now I'm happy to say that the UAE has endorsed the top 200 universities in the world. If they give you a degree, it's recognized.
The challenges you see going forward in the finance world here are evolving every day. The economies change, and we have to have products, tools, and services to meet this requirement. The country is evolving, moving digital, and the customer is also demanding convenience. So all our institutions in the region have to also go digital. I think these services will evolve, the technology will evolve, and customer demand will evolve. We've seen what online companies are doing to them.
Robotics will take over, so I think we will need to have more critical thinking education—people who can analyze issues and have solutions for these issues. They have to jumpstart their career. Our Arab world now has 30 percent of our university graduates unemployed because the output of some universities doesn't match the requirements of the job. So I think this integration between the university and the labor market is critical to ensure that doesn't happen.
