Dubai Is Getting a New $56,000-a-Year Private School From GEMS

One of the world’s largest operators of private schools is opening a new $100 million campus in Dubai where annual fees could reach as high as $56,000 as the company looks to capitalize on the influx of ultra-wealthy families that have made their way to the Gulf hub.

GEMS Education’s new 47,600-square-meter campus, which is set to open in August, will feature a 600-seat auditorium, an Olympic-sized pool and a football field that doubles as a helipad, according to a statement. Known as the School of Research and Innovation, students will also have access to robotics labs and go-kart engineering workshops, along with a 400-meter track to test their designs.

“The current ascendancy of Dubai, the UAE is pretty undeniable,” GEMS Chief Executive Officer Dino Varkey said in an interview. “As a consequence, the market has matured sufficiently to allow us to effectively create a new benchmark.”

At first, the school will only offer FS1 through year 6 of the British curriculum, meaning pupils would be of similar age to nursery and elementary school students in America. Tuition will start at $32,000 for the youngest children and rise to $41,000 when they reach year 6, which is typically when students are between 10 and 11 years old.

Eventually, GEMS plans to open up the school to students in years 7 through 12 as well and annual fees will reach $56,000 at that time. That would put it in the same price bracket as some of the world’s best-known private institutions such as Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where tuition for day school students is roughly $57,000 a year.

“If you compare to some of the more expensive day schools around the world, we’d still be incredibly competitive and below those benchmarks,” Varkey said.

The most expensive school

The price tag means it will be the most expensive school in a city that relies predominantly on foreign workers to drive its economy and where education costs are already among the highest globally. With a domestic education system that is largely off limits to expat children, private operators like GEMS are the norm.

GEMS was founded by an Indian family some six decades ago and has since morphed into one of the world’s largest providers of primary and secondary education. Last year, a consortium led by investment giant Brookfield Asset Management committed $2 billion to the business in one of the region’s largest private equity deals ever.

Dubai’s population has boomed since the pandemic, with foreigners from Russia to India and the West flocking to the emirate known for its year-round sunshine, low crime levels and favorable tax regime. The city has also attracted a growing cadre of hedge funds, crypto traders and bankers who are willing to pay premium prices for education.

Enrollments at the city’s private schools rose 6% during the current academic year, with 387,441 students now enrolled at 227 schools, according to a recent report from the government agency in charge of education.