Dr. Mariam Shaikh: Creating Pathways to International Education
For most parents, choosing a school is about one child. For people who build education systems, every decision can affect thousands of children they may never meet. That responsibility becomes even greater in a country where education has grown alongside the country itself, creating a constant need for schools, universities and people who understand what students and families need as their lives change.
Dr. Mariam Shaikh has spent more than 35 years working within that reality, building her career around a question that has followed her from a nursery classroom to international universities: how can education give people a better chance at the life they want?
Her own answer began with a nursery.
Where It All Began
In the early 1980s, Dr. Mariam founded Sunflower Nursery in the UAE. The decision was closely connected to her own children, giving her an early and very personal introduction to the work of education. At that age, learning happens through small things. A child learns to separate from a parent, speak up in class, make friends, ask questions and slowly discover that the world is larger than home. For Dr. Mariam, those early years became the beginning of a much longer relationship with education.
She then moved into school leadership, becoming Principal of a prominent Asian school group in the UAE. During her time there, the school grew to more than 7,000 students, making it one of the largest Asian schools in the UAE at the time. But behind that number were thousands of individual children and families placing an important part of their lives in the hands of the institution.
That experience gave Dr. Mariam an understanding of education from the ground up. She had seen the first years of a child’s learning, then experienced what it meant to lead a large school community. The next step would take her into a sector that was beginning to change the UAE’s education landscape in a very different way.
When Dubai Began Looking Outward
By the early 2000s, Dr. Mariam had moved into higher education in Dubai, just as the sector was beginning to develop at greater speed. International universities were starting to look towards the UAE, and Dubai was creating a place for institutions from other countries to establish a presence and attract students from the region.
Dr. Mariam became involved in the early development of overseas university campuses, including the University of New Brunswick’s presence in Dubai Knowledge Village. It was among the early efforts to bring an international university model into Dubai, at a time when students could increasingly consider an overseas education while remaining closer to home.
Her senior leadership roles at the Canadian University of Dubai, Heriot-Watt University Dubai and Amity University Dubai placed her at different points in this period of growth. Her responsibilities covered student recruitment, strategic development, international partnerships and student experience, giving her a view of higher education that stretched from the institution itself to the student walking through its doors.
The work also involved growing student populations and helping institutions develop the facilities and communities required to support them. A university can announce a new campus in a matter of months. Building a real university community takes much longer. It requires students who trust the institution, families who understand the opportunity, academics who want to work there and partnerships that can give the institution a place within the wider education world.
A Bridge Between Countries
Long before international education became a familiar part of student life in the UAE, Dr. Mariam was helping institutions find ways to work across borders. Over the years, she has helped develop relationships between institutions in the UAE and universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, Europe, China and Australia. These connections have supported study-abroad opportunities, academic cooperation and wider partnerships between education communities in different countries.
One particularly telling chapter came through global business challenge competitions, which she hosted to bring international students to the UAE. She was also among the early people involved in the Study in Dubai initiative, recruiting 120 Chinese students to study in Dubai.
For each of those 120 students, however, the move represented more than an enrolment decision. It meant leaving familiar surroundings, adapting to a new culture and beginning an education journey in a different country. For the institutions receiving them, it meant welcoming new perspectives into their classrooms and communities.
For Dr. Mariam, international education has therefore always had two sides. It gives students the chance to travel further, while giving institutions the chance to learn from the people who arrive.
The Birth of MS Education Consultants
In 2020, after decades in institutional leadership, Dr. Mariam founded MS Education Consultants in the UAE. The timing brought together everything she had learnt. She had spent years inside schools and universities, understood student recruitment from an institutional perspective, built relationships with counsellors and education leaders, helped establish international campuses and worked with students from many different backgrounds.
MS Education gave her a way to bring those experiences together.
The consultancy works with students as well as educational institutions. Alongside recruitment and admissions support, it advises on new education entity set-ups, partnerships, training programmes, university and career fairs, alumni events, internships and cultural exchange initiatives.
There is also a practical purpose behind the cultural and exchange work. A student can read about a university online for weeks and still have little idea of what life there will actually feel like. Meeting people, visiting institutions and experiencing a different education environment can make a major difference to the decision.
The Work Behind a University Choice
A university application can look simple when viewed from the outside. A student chooses a course, fills in forms and waits for an answer. The reality can be much more complicated, especially when the destination is another country.
There are questions about the right course, the university itself, the culture of a new country, finances, accommodation, career opportunities and whether a young person will feel comfortable once they arrive. Dr. Mariam’s experience has placed her close to many of these decisions, giving her an understanding of the uncertainty that can sit behind a student’s ambition.
That perspective later became central to MS Education Consultants. The consultancy advises students on opportunities across destinations including the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, the UAE, Europe, Malaysia and India. Its work includes programme selection, applications, international study guidance and orientation to different education cultures.
For Dr. Mariam, the choice of university has always had a human side. A student can have excellent grades and still need help deciding what comes next. Another may have the ability to study abroad but lack the confidence to take the first step. Some students need a clear explanation of their options, while others need someone to listen carefully enough to understand what they actually want.
That is where years spent inside universities become useful. She understands the institutions because she has helped build them, and she understands students because she has spent much of her career listening to them.
The Work Continues Through Partnerships
Dr. Mariam’s professional responsibilities today demonstrate how far that original nursery has taken her. Since September 2021, Dr. Mariam has served as Middle East Strategist for the University of Guelph, supporting student outreach across the UAE and GCC and helping build partnerships for the Canadian university.
In 2023, MS Education became the Middle East Regional Representative for Toronto Metropolitan University, supporting students from the region who were considering the university.
The consultancy has also worked with institutions seeking to create professional development programmes in the UAE and wider MENA region, while helping establish agreements and partnerships between education institutions and businesses.
In 2024, MS Education Consultants was appointed to facilitate the launch of a new education entity in Dubai for a Canadian educational institution. More recently, it became the official UAE representative for Kean University in New Jersey, a nationally ranked institution with an R2 Carnegie Research designation.
There is a certain symmetry in this stage of her career. She once helped bring an overseas university into Dubai. Years later, she is again helping an international institution find its place in the city.
A Different Kind of Education Network
Over the course of her career, Dr. Mariam has worked with students from more than 100 nationalities and built relationships with counsellors and school leaders across more than 200 schools in the Middle East.
That network has grown through years of direct contact rather than through a single role or organisation. It includes students and parents, school counsellors, university leaders, government representatives and people working across the wider education community.
This helps explain why people in Dubai’s education circles often describe her as someone who knows people across the sector. The relationships are important because education decisions rarely happen in isolation. A student may first hear about a university from a school counsellor. A parent may seek advice from another family. A university may discover a new partnership through a conversation that began somewhere else.
Dr. Mariam has spent decades moving through those conversations.
Her own philosophy demonstrates that understanding: “No one thrives in isolation. Not children. Not leaders. Not families. We are built for each other.”
It is a simple idea, but her career gives it a practical meaning. Education depends on people being willing to open doors for one another.
Making Dubai Part of the Conversation
Dr. Mariam’s work has also extended into the larger question of Dubai’s place in international education. She has frequently spoken at education and business conferences and taken part in international delegations promoting partnerships between institutions. She has also appeared as a spokesperson on higher education and participated in discussions about the development of education in the UAE.
She has seen international institutions establish campuses, watched student communities grow and worked with young people arriving from different countries.
Her role, therefore, has often extended beyond helping one student choose one university. She has also been part of the wider effort to show institutions what the UAE can offer and to show students what an education in Dubai can mean.
That work has placed her between several worlds at once: education and business, local institutions and international universities, students and decision-makers.
Helping Students Find Their Place
There is another lesson that comes from years of working with international students: getting someone into a university is only the beginning. A student leaving home for another country has to learn how to live there as well as study there. They have to understand a new culture, make friends, manage unfamiliar situations and eventually find their own place within the community.
That is why student experience has remained an important part of Dr. Mariam’s work. Academic results matter, yet students also need a place where they can settle, form relationships, develop confidence and begin thinking about life after graduation. Her approach places belonging, well-being and personal development alongside academic progress.
Cultural awareness programmes, exchange opportunities, internships, fairs and other activities help students understand the world around their education rather than seeing university as a qualification alone.
It is a perspective that comes from experience. Dr. Mariam has watched institutions grow, but she has also watched students arrive with excitement, uncertainty and a long list of questions.
The university provides the opportunity. The human support around it can determine how well a student uses that opportunity.
Opening Doors for Those Who Start Further Back
The idea of opportunity takes on greater meaning in Dr. Mariam’s work with refugee students. Through CSR initiatives with UNHCR, she has supported scholarships for student refugees. For a young person whose education has already been disrupted by circumstances outside their control, a scholarship can represent far more than financial assistance. It can restore a sense that there is still a future worth planning for.
Her support also extends to women in business. She has been involved with networks supporting women entrepreneurs in Dubai, with a focus on skills, mentorship and entrepreneurial projects for young women.
There is a common thread between these efforts and her work in higher education. She keeps returning to the point at which someone has an ambition but needs access, guidance, confidence or a relationship to help turn that ambition into something real.
Education can provide that turning point.
A Voice for Education
Dr. Mariam’s work has gradually taken her beyond the institutions themselves. She is frequently invited to speak at education and business conferences and has appeared on digital platforms discussing higher education. She has travelled as an ambassador for education institutions as part of foreign delegations, promoting partnerships and collaboration between universities and other organisations. She has also participated in higher education discussions in the UAE and spoken about the quality of education available through international institutions.
She has also been involved with organisations including the Canadian Business Council Dubai, the G100 Global Advisory Council, the UAE-Africa Initiative Network and Indian Women Dubai. Her links with UAE community networks extend to an audience of more than 100,000 people.
These relationships give her a view of education that reaches beyond university admissions. She sees how education connects with business, culture, government, families and the wider community.
Recognition Comes After the Work
In 2020, she received the Global Super Achiever Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Woman of Wonders Award and the GCC Woman Leadership Award. The same year also marked another significant recognition in her professional journey, with her work receiving attention within the international education sector.
Her 2021 recognitions included the Achievers Award in Entrepreneurial Venture, the Global Excellence in Education recognition from H.E. Sheikh Eng. Salem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi and the Fame Times International Excellence Award. She was also recognised for Outstanding Contribution to the Education Industry under the patronage of the Private Office of H.E. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Faisal Al Qassimi.
In 2022, she received the Business Excellence Award, along with recognitions for excellence in education from the UAE WIM Top 50 Global Awards and the Indian Women Awards. She was also an Entrepreneur Award Winner at the Emirates Women Award, presented by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
By 2023, her recognition had extended further across the international leadership community. She was featured among Asia’s Top 100 Women Power Leaders by White Page International UK. She also received the Educator of the Year recognition from ME EMMI Empire USA, the Golden AIM Conference Award for Most Prestigious Education Professional in Asia, the Global Icon Award from the Women’s Economic Development Global Summit and the Educational Trailblazer Award from Emirates Finest Business Awards.
She was also the only UAE nominee for Outstanding Contribution to the Education Industry at the PIEoneer Awards, a recognition that placed her work alongside leading figures from the international education sector.
The honours continued in the years that followed, including recognition among the Global 200 Women Power Leaders in 2024, along with the PAWES Award for Outstanding Collaborative Partnership Africa and a Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also co-author and featured contributor in Dubai Business Leaders Volume One, a publication bringing together the experiences and stories of prominent business leaders.
In 2025, she received the Pioneer in Education Award at the Hayat Arts Mirage Awards and was named among the Top 50 Global Inspirational Entrepreneurs at the Khatoon Entrepreneur Summit. She also received the Leadership Excellence Award from Impact Leadership Global, the Excellence in Leadership and Empowerment Award from Entrepreneurial Arabia and the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award at the Emirati Women’s Day Entrepreneur Summit.
The same year brought a particularly significant appointment when she became the first Ambassador for the Canadian Business Council, Dubai, recognising the relationships she had built across institutions, governments and communities over many years.
In 2026, the recognition continued with her being named an Iconic Visionary Woman Honouree at the Visionary Women Awards and among the Top International Women Entrepreneurs of the Year by Great Companies. She has also been recognised among the New Era of Women Leaders by Woman Board of Directors. Yet the list of honours tells only one part of the story.
What a Career Like This Leaves Behind
The easiest way to measure an education leader’s career is through numbers. There are student enrolments, campuses, partnerships, institutions, awards and appointments. Dr. Mariam’s career contains plenty of those numbers.
The harder part is measuring what happens afterwards.
A student who studies abroad may return home with a new profession and a different idea of what they can contribute. Another may stay in the country where they studied and build a life there. A scholarship recipient may become the first person in a family to reach higher education. A student who once needed guidance may later become the person helping someone else make the same journey.
That is where the full meaning of Dr. Mariam’s work begins to emerge.
Her career has taken her through almost every stage of the education journey, from a child’s first classroom to the creation and growth of university campuses, from individual student decisions to international partnerships between institutions.
That journey has also followed the growth of the UAE itself. She entered education when the country’s school sector was developing, moved into higher education as Dubai began attracting international universities, and eventually built a consultancy around the global movement of students and institutions.
Her name may appear on campuses, appointments and awards, but her deepest legacy lives elsewhere, in the lives of people who found a door open when they needed one. After decades, perhaps the most beautiful thing about her work is that so much of it will continue long after she has left the room, because every student given a chance carries that chance into another family, another community and another generation.
“My legacy is not what I have built for myself, but what I can build in others — the confidence to dream bigger, the courage to lead, and the opportunity to create a better future for the generations that follow.” – Dr. Mariam Shaikh