Motivational tools for engineering students in privileged developing countries: Examples from UAE

The topic of this paper could be irrelevant to well-developed and developing countries, however, it is quite challenging to educate students in privileged income developing countries in which all primary needs of education, health, shelter and basic needs (the base for Maslow's hierarchy of needs) are taken care of by the government. This leaves little room for the young generation to aspire to. Insufficient internal drive to work hard or to prove oneself since all basic needs are taken care of and most of these students are coming from welloff families. This created a real dilemma for educators in how to motivate and encourage this generation to take education seriously and work hard towards their degree and appreciate this educational journey. This paper would discuss some of these motivational tools and a set of recommendations for the government on this issue.