A major operator of Middle Eastern and North African private schools announced Monday that it will open a new $100 million Dubai campus in August, as wealthy families continue to flock to the United Arab Emirates.
The GEMS School of Research and Innovation will provide English language instruction based on the British academic system. Students at the school will have access to a 600-seat auditorium, robotics laboratories, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and AR and VR-enabled learning centers. The campus’ football field will also do double duty as a helipad, according to Bloomberg.
In the post-pandemic years, the already booming Dubai has seen its population go through the roof. During the 2024 school year, enrollment at Dubai’s private schools increased by six percent, according to the city’s government. The city aims to open at least 100 new private schools by 2033 in an effort to mitigate the growing population.
“The current ascendancy of Dubai, the UAE is pretty undeniable,” GEMS Chief Executive Officer Dino Varkey told Bloomberg. “What we’ve seen over the course of the last three years in terms of the reallocation and relocation of families and wealth has been pretty apparent and visible.”
The school’s initial students are expected to be elementary school-aged children, though there are plans to expand into secondary school in the future. The tuition for the youngest students will be $32,000 annually, though by the time students reach the age of 10 or 11, the cost will increase to $41,000. The expanded secondary education is expected to be $56,000 annually, according to Bloomberg.
The GEMS School of Research and Innovation plans to target “what we would think of as sort of the affluent parent body,” Varkey told Bloomberg. “If you compare to some of the more expensive day schools around the world, we’d still be incredibly competitive and below those benchmarks.”
Indeed, even GEMS’ highest projected tuition rate falls below many top U.S. private schools’ current costs. Here are the 10 most expensive private schools in the United States, ranked by their 2024-25 combined tuition, boarding, and fees:
