As Dubai has grown over the last twodecades, the demand for private education has grown with it,a reflection of the number of expatriates settling in thecity. Today, 88 percent of all students attend privateschools. The surge in demand over this period had in factbeen so significant that authorities, recognizing the needto establish a specific governmental entity to oversee thesector s expansion, moved to create the Knowledge and HumanDevelopment Authority (KHDA) in 2007. Given the city-state sunique context (in which a majority of the population areexpatriates, not Emiratis), the immediate challenge for thisnew public institution was to identify an appropriateapproach for regulating a private education sector. The mainobjective of the present review is to understand what hasmotivated KHDA s policy initiatives, what principles haveguided design, how they were operationalized, and how theyfunction in real life situations today. In what follows, welook first at the broader context of the issue by giving abrief overview of: (i) the growth of private sectoreducation; and (ii) the rise of public governance reforminitiatives in the global education policy agenda. Theauthors then turn to the case of Dubai: the authors presentthe argument in the road not traveled before reviewing howthat policy framework was translated into its presentinstitutional configuration in Dubai through the developmentof the institutions that came into being. The authors thenreflect on the policy framework in operation, showing howthe constituent components function together. The authorsend by suggesting some options on potential ways forwardthat will further enhance the system.
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