Higher Education in the GCC and its Transformation in the 21st Century

The article presents an analysis of the situation in the field of higher education in six countries of the Persian Gulf (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia). The authors substantiate that the higher education sector has traditionally maintained a fairly high quality that meets international standards. However, the processes of global, regional, and country-wide economic and political transformation, coupled with increasing global instability and shifting accents in the sectoral structure of the world and the region, require new approaches to the field of education and its rather serious qualitative transformation. The rapid development of information technology has contributed to the progress of humanity and socio-economic well-being, but it is also extremely important for the region that regional education systems support the moral and religious values that are associated with the society of the Persian Gulf. The article shows that in recent years, the six Gulf countries have tried their best to stimulate economic transformation and diversified development through education and human resources reform, but they have faced disadvantages such as a highly divided labor market and weak support for education and human resources, they still face challenges such as a divided labor market and weak support for education and human resources, as well as problems such as the need to improve the team structure of talented specialists, educational synergies, etc. The authors conclude that the education reforms of the GCC countries should be coordinated, and unilateral changes make it difficult to achieve the expected goals due to their significant similarities in objectives, initiatives and goals.