Dubai opened the DKP by attracting prestigious universities in the United States and Europe. A total of 25 universities from 11 countries around the world, including the University of Michigan, the University of Wollongong, and the Manchester Business School, opened a branch in DKP. Dubai had the singular goal of realizing the cultivation of global talents in the city. This means providing full support to DKP universities so as to make excellent students in the Middle East choose the DKP instead of studying abroad, and absorb outstanding individuals from abroad. IGC was born about ten years later under the initiative of the South Korean government and the Incheon Metropolitan City. Five universities have moved into IGC so far, starting with State University of New York Stonybrook, followed by George Mason Universtiy, Ghent Universtiy, University of Utah, and FIT. Its goal is also to foster global talents who will lead each sector, such as knowledge, economy, industry, and culture, by allowing outstanding individuals in South Korea to obtain the degrees of the home campus without having to go study abroad and through the importation of foreign talent from abroad. Dubai's plan for the development of education into a new growth industry to lay the foundation for its second prosperity is now on track. The number of students at DKP grew from just 2,000 in its first year to over 25,000 in about ten years. The number of enrolled students in IGC also increased by nearly 70 times that of the first year, laying a solid foundation for its second-stage takeoff. Dubai's core competitiveness lies in government policies with full support. This involves approving the establishment of forprofit educational foundations, providing salaries and housing to all foreign professors, supporting scholarships, tuitions, dormitory expenses and other living expenses, and student loans.
Assuming that South Korean students spend KRW 50 million each year for tuition and living expenses until graduation when they go abroad to study, about 3,000 domestic students generate a deficit of KRW 150 billion annually in the country's education balance. This implies that the deficit will decrease by about KRW 150 billion when they go to IGC. In addition, foreign students, faculty, and research institutes in IGC institutions can help revitalize the local economy. Additional effects can be also expected by enhancing the brand value of Incheon, creating jobs, and attracting more investments. In fact, IGC will take a firm presence in the world if ongoing support from the national level will be added to its differentiated competitiveness as an extended campus, allowing students to take the same educational curriculum and program as the home campus and receive the identical degree to the one on the home campus, engage in a broad spectrum of activities by making the best of industry-academia-research cooperation, and have the opportunity to study at their university's home campus for one year.
