Many Gulf countries have over recent years developed national visions and roadmaps for developing sustainable economies. Education and training strategies are key pillars of these strategies – and many reforms of basic, secondary, technical and higher education have been implemented. So why do so few Gulf students make it to the UK’s FE colleges? According to figures compiled by the British Council (accessible via the SIEM website), only 1275 students from the Gulf countries were registered at FE institutions in the UK in 2014. Opportunities do exist ; we examine some in the attached report and make some suggestions as to how colleges in the FE sector can best plan their engagement in Gulf countries.