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Women with disabilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) face unique challenges due to traditional gender roles and societal expectations. Despite these challenges, recent social policies in the UAE aimed at supporting people with disabilities have significantly improved their life satisfaction. This study explores the determinants of happiness for women with disabilities compared disabled men using data from the 2017 National Survey for Happiness and Positivity. Contrary to expectations, women with disabilities in the UAE have highest happiness scores compared to women without disabilities and men with/without disabilities. Furthermore, both women with and without disabilities consistently over score men with/without disabilities in happiness and life satisfaction levels in the UAE. In line with our assumption of higher women's vulnerability, we found that women with disabilities report lower levels of satisfaction with their physical health, mental health and their ability to perform daily life activities as well as they declare a bit higher anxiety level than men with disabilities. However, the scores' differences are not significant. At the same time, women with disabilities report higher levels of satisfaction with the health care facilities and social connections. These findings suggest that the UAE's inclusive policies and redesignation of people with disabilities as 'people of determination' may contribute to these high happiness levels. The study highlights the importance of tailored social policies and programs aimed at addressing the specific needs of women with disabilities, emphasizing social and healthcare support, and suggests that continued efforts in this area are yielding positive outcomes. These results provide valuable insights for policymakers to further enhance the wellbeing of women with disabilities, ensuring their full inclusion and empowerment in society. Keywords: Women's happiness, Disability, Predictors of wellbeing, Gender difference, UAE, Introduction The United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (3), recently established a special term for people with disabilities, 'people of determination,' to emphasize their [...]

The study aims to disclose the role of the universities and students' backgrounds in predicting student engagement. The study uses Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations (MEMO) of 2015 and 2017, which is hierarchical nationally representative data set of 5,251 undergraduate students nested into 135 universities in Russia. Four indices were developed to measure student engagement based on behavioural approach, namely, class engagement, learning engagement, research engagement, and extracurricular engagement. The mixed-effects multilevel modelling was used to test the hypotheses on university roles and students' background characteristics. Students' parental family characteristics did not appear to have a strong influence on student engagement except mothers' higher education. High school achievements are very important for further student engagement. The findings highlight the importance of motivation and career ambitions of students. Plans to work within the field of study or to pursue further studies to obtain a MA or Ph.D. degree positively associated with student engagement. The results confirmed that the academic environment is the strongest predictor of student engagement. Universities need to develop active teaching practices to improve the academic environment and increase student engagement.

This paper investigates the paradox of research productivity of higher-education institutions in the Arab Gulf Countries. Exploring the case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the article fills the gap in the literature on the Gulf higher education research efficiency. Despite the considerable investment into higher education, UAE universities showed rather slow growth in research output. This puzzle was tackled to present possible policy outcomes relevant for research productivity in higher education institutions located in the emerging economies. The study highlights the research productivity indicators dynamics for GCC countries and brings detailed analysis on the research output and input for the UAE universities. We argue that to succeed in academic efficiency the county needs to increase its research investments and diversify research-boosting policies and practices. The policies should focus on work-attractive long-term conditions for the faculty/researchers, home-based doctoral education system and home-trained human resources.

Author(s): Louise Lambert [sup.1] , Tatiana Karabchuk [sup.2] , Mohsen Joshanloo [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.43519.3a, 0000 0001 2193 6666, Psychology Department, UAEU (CHSS), , Al Ain, United Arab Emirates [...], The literature is rife with papers discussing the state of developed and developing economies with a number of commonalities around what drives life satisfaction. In sum, females, the educated and well off, younger and older generations, the married or partnered as well as employees with decent job prospects report higher life satisfaction. Yet, whether these hold true in a diverse, expatriate society transitioning from post-oil dependence to a knowledge economy, as is the case in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is unknown. Using survey data of a nationally representative sample collected by the Gallup Organization between the years of 2006 to 2017, we explore life satisfaction of more than 17,000 UAE residents and citizens. Our results show that the usual predictors found in other nations did not completely hold true. Age does not follow the usual U-shaped life satisfaction relationship in male or female citizens. Tertiary education contributes to life satisfaction only for men, but not women. Unemployment and the freedom to live one's life as chosen have no significant impact. There remain culture-specific determinants of life satisfaction that require continued investigation, particularly in Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many governments introduced lockdown measures in which people were expected to work and study from their homes. Schools, daycares, and extracurricular programs were temporarily closed. All students from primary to the post-graduate level were transferred to online learning. This shift added a tremendous burden and additional workload for parents who were supposed to combine their own work and supervision of the online studies of their children from home. Recent research confirmed that women took more responsibilities for household chores and care of children during the pandemic. We conducted a study on female doctoral students because women in this demographic tend to have families by that age, pursue their graduate studies, and are often involved in full-time and part-time jobs to contribute to their family income. We suggest that the gender equality sustainable development goal can be achieved through doctoral education, opportunities for combining academic careers with family responsibilities to women; and the support of women in the knowledge-based economy. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore female Ph.D. students' lived experiences under the pressure of the pandemic and investigate the main strategies of coping with the multiple duties they had. This case study applies a qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological approach. The data source is the in-depth semi-structured interviews with six female Ph.D. students who comprised a homogenous and purposeful sample as they shared the same experience. Keywords: Doctoral studies, Ph.D. students, Motherhood, Parenting, Female, Work-family balance, Coping strategies, COVID-19, Introduction The pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, which began in late 2019, rapidly evolved into an international emergency affecting the economy, education, healthcare, and social development worldwide. The closure of schools [...]

Few articles explain how life satisfaction and happiness influence intention to migrate to another country. This study fills the gap by investigating the desire to emigrate in relation to individual life satisfaction while testing for moderation effects of national life satisfaction scores, the Human Development Index and Gender Inequality Index at country level. The empirical analysis is based on the unique Gallup World Poll data for 127 countries in 2017. In line with previous research, the findings confirm a negative association between life satisfaction (both individual and country level) and the desire to emigrate. Furthermore, results point to mean country life satisfaction, human development and gender inequality levels acting as moderators of individual‐level life satisfaction on the desire to emigrate. Higher aggregate life satisfaction levels act as counter‐forces to individual life satisfaction, performing as enablers of stay versus move. In countries with lower human development and higher gender inequality, individual life satisfaction will act as an enabler to move. A comprehensive discussion includes findings for gender and age groups and those born or not born in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]