Arab Region Engineering Degrees Address Industry Demands

Tackling the world's energy problem is what led Palestinian Dina Masri to pursue an engineering degree at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Masri graduated this year with a master's degree in electrical power engineering.

"The world is having an energy crisis, and we are in desperate need of cheap and sustainable energy sources to maintain a good life for our generation and our children," says Masri, who has a bachelor's degree in telecommunications engineering from Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Jordan.

Masri chose Masdar, a graduate-level university, for the institute's focus on sustainability. The school offers nine Master of Science programs and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.

"My fiance, now husband, who is also a power and energy engineer, and myself decided we wanted to make a change and to do so I needed to have a strong knowledge in sustainability, efficiency and power," Masri says.

[See which Arab region universities produce the best research in engineering.]

The school being in a modern and safe Arab country, she says, made it easier for her parents and husband to accept her going away for two years to complete her degree.

She was particularly drawn by the partnership between Masdar and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which she calls "very appealing" for its reputation and faculty. Masri also chose Masdar for financial reasons: All full-time students, whether national or international, receive a full scholarship.

For engineering majors, career opportunities abound in the Middle East and North Africa. Talascend, a global technical staffing firm, called the Middle East a "major engineering hub on all fronts" on its website, noting demand in everything from "rail to civil projects and commercial construction to modernization planning."

Nesreen Ghaddar, associate provost and Qatar Chair of Energy Studies professor of mechanical engineering at American University of Beirut, says the most promising fields in engineering in the MENA region are civil engineering, petrochemicals, software engineering and the energy sector. She says students with professional training in the energy sector are in particular demand.

The AUB career and placement services list of industrial sectors -- ranked according to demand for recruiting AUB graduates -- shows engineering and contracting as first on the list.

"Engineering indeed is at the top in demand for employment in the region," says Ghaddar of AUB, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering.

[Find out how Arab universities are adapting to a changing regional job market.]

Lebanese AUB alumna Nadia Kouraytem, who received her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, is now a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. She chose the school in Saudi Arabia, where she also received her master's in mechanical engineering, for "its faculty, its high-end facilities and its international community."

While at KAUST she completed two internships in Paris: one as a researcher at graduate school Arts et Metier Paristech, and the other as a solar architect at Total S.A., a multinational oil and gas company.

"KAUST has also provided me with the unique opportunity of getting certification and training in entrepreneurship by Cornell University and the University of California--Berkeley," said Kouraytem, in an email.

KAUST -- which offers all admitted students a full-tuition scholarship and other financial benefits -- collaborates with a number of global institutions, allowing for interdisciplinary study and research opportunities for students and faculty.

"My plans for the future include, but are not limited to, continuing in research either at a university or a company and planning my own personal projects," Kouraytem said.

During her second year, Masdar grad Masri completed two weeks of study in Switzerland related to sustainability, efficiency and material science for renewable energy. To gain more experience, she will begin work in September at Masdar as a research engineer.

Masri advises students interested in pursuing engineering degrees to have strong computer skills and to master a programming language, like Java, MATLAB and C++, through online courses, training at an institute or at home. She says students should also gain some knowledge in machine learning and data mining, "smart tools and computer algorithms that make any system smarter and able to self-learn," to gain an advantage.

Before entering the field of engineering, Jordanian Rehab Alamar, a telecommunications engineering undergraduate student at University of Wollongong in Dubai, says she wasn't comfortable interacting with the opposite sex, as engineering is typically known as a male-dominated field. But she found studying engineering not only taught her how to prove herself as a creative thinker and engineer, but also helped her overcome her personal obstacles.

No stranger to breaking down barriers herself, AUB's Ghaddar thinks engineering can be a good career choice for women. Ghaddar has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Kuwait University and master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.

[Check out how Arab region STEM programs are drawing women.]

"Engineering is a way of thinking for seeking solutions. It has many areas that women find attractive," says Ghaddar.

She says the engineering curriculum can demand time and effort, but prove very rewarding.

"There are no bounds for what engineering female students can pursue as a career after their engineering degree," says Ghaddar.

See the complete rankings of the Best Arab Region Universities.

Anayat Durrani is a Los Angeles-based freelance education reporter for U.S. News, covering Arab region universities.