The International Monetary Fund and Finance visit Higher Education

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund and from the Ministry of Finance visited the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, 14^th of January 2015, with the aim of studying the strategies and plans and strategies of the Federal Government and the Governments of the UAE in the education sector, and coordination between them in relation to this sector, in addition to examining the challenges facing it, and to make recommendations for the development and advancement of this sector at the State-level, within a study the Ministry of Finance is conducting on policies concerning higher education in the State.

The meeting was attended from the International Monetary Fund by the experts Mr. Andrew Bird, and Mr. Timothy Erwin. And from the Ministry of Finance, Ms. Abeer Ali Alabdooli, Director of Fiscal Policy Department, Mr. Fares Okasha, Consultant of the Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Rashid Sbeie, an expert of the Fiscal Policy Department. And from the Ministry Assistant Undersecretaries his Excellency Mr. Saif Al Mazroui, and Ms. Fatima Zaabi, Professor Mohamed Badr Aboul-Ela, Director of the CAA, Ms. Yomna Hamad, Deputy Director of NAPO, Ms. Hanan Al-Ameri, Acting Director of Scholarship and Cultural Foreign Relations Department, Mr. Khalid Al Hosani, Director of Human Resources, Finance & legal Department, Mrs. Muneera Al Marshoudi, Director of Strategic Planning, Institutional Performance & Excellence Department.

The parties discussed the role of the Ministry in higher education sector, the existing coordination mechanisms for spending, the effectiveness of coordination between the Federal Government and the Governments of the UAE, in the areas of development of strategies and plans of spending and budget management, and the potential impact of improvement on things such as; provision of infrastructure services as well as cost and efficiency.