UAE Parents Face High Costs for Children’s Higher Education: Saving for the Future

A recent poll has shed light on a key area of concern to many families in the UAE – the costs of child’s tertiary education. In the survey by YouGov and for the sponsor Zurich International Life, prospective parents are likely to spend between 250,000-600000 AED ($68,000-$163,000) for their children on university education. Still, 29% of parents did not start saving, which points to another significant weakness which may negatively affect further education of children.

Awareness of high cost of tuition fees in the UAE higher education institutions was established from the survey with 63% of respondents confirming on the fact. Most of the respondents continue to save in conventional ways, the ways being bank deposit, 77% and shares, 48%. Although, only 14% people using the education-specific savings plans, which are meant to provide growth & target benefits for the educational cost.

Education-oriented savings programs are gaining more significance as they come with investment in growth-favorite funds which allow for saving necessary amounts that increase with inflation rates. David Denton-Cardew, the Head Of Propositions at Zurich in the Middle East notes that people should begin early to invest in the right savings plan. Such as these education-specific plans, which take money out of many initiatives at once while also putting it back into more successful ones, provided a smarter strategy than previous practices.

It was also realized that most parents think that educating savings of between 6% to 20% of their monthly salary is enough. But, 87% expressed a willingness to save through saving plans which also have life policies both for growth and insurance covers.

With the costs of education invariably rising over time, parents in the UAE seek to find ways of saving and this calls for consideration of need to invest in multifaceted plans. These plans provide stability and assurance of delivery of their children’s education dreams and at the same time economic growth.