CAIRO: More than half of the Middle East's professionals believe that higher education is key to career advancement, a poll conducted by the job site Bayt.com revealed. The survey showed that 67 percent believe that pursuing a higher education program is crucial, 57 percent of which agreeing it was "very crucial. Only 8 percent said that a higher education degree is important for career development. The survey, titled "Importance of higher education in the Middle Eastern Workplace was conducted over December through March to understand the role of higher education according to the region's professionals. Of those surveyed, 31 percent said that holding a higher education degree betters their chances of a promotion, compared to 28 percent who said that a degree has to be backed with the relevant experience. Performance and hard work were seen as the main reasons for a promotion by 18 percent of the respondents, while 16 percent said it depends on the nature of the position and the employee. However, despite their belief that higher education is important, very few people are actually pursuing it, according to Amer Zureikat, regional manager at Bayt.com. "For the most part, less than 10 percent of the respondents' colleagues were actively pursing or planning to pursue higher education, he said. When asked if they were personally planning to purse a higher education program in the next 12 months, 33 percent said that it depends on certain factors such as their financial situation and the status of their job while another 7 percent were stated they are still undecided. The US ranked first as the destination of choice, as 29 percent of the respondents said they preferred studying there, followed by the UK at 27 percent. Only 7 percent said they would travel to another Middle Eastern country, while 23 percent said they would stay in their country. Paying for the program was listed as one of the major obstacles by respondents, with 38 percent agreeing that not being able to finance it was their biggest concern, since most respondents said they preferred to rely on their own savings. "What the poll shows is that while many would like to pursue higher education, it seems that many would prefer to actually have the money to do it, rather than have to rely on borrowed funds, Zureikat said. -Daily News Egypt
