WEBA (World Educate Business Association) is the umbrella organisation and international voice for Education Business Partnerships working around the world.
It is a membership organisation with a growing number of associate and business members, (agents, education providers and study abroad counsellors).
In 2002 some educational consultants from around the world met and agreed to establish an organisation that would provide international business marketing in the educational field with a international voice of their own - an organisation that might provide collective support and leadership and an organisation committed to ensuring education business activity of a high quality internationally.
The WEBA Career Higher Education and Language Fairs are held in Europe, Middle East, Asia and United States. The exhibits appear in a trade show format with feature areas along with seminars. Each education and career fair is designed to help attendees develop or change their career path.
Over 500 universities, hotel schools, college and boarding schools joined or will join with WEBA during the period 2007 to 2008 .
The Fairs include exhibits from universities, colleges, private training institutions, continuing education, government, corporations and associations from Europe, UK, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.
The fairs are offered each year at 32 different locations : Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Austria, Bahrain, UAE (Dubai), Qatar, Kuwait, Ukraina, Belarus, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Jamaika, Korea, China, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Russia , Kazakstan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia and USA.
Present in Bahrain for BITE 2008, WEBA encouraged exhibitors to attend as they felt Saudi Arabia and Dubai were the most important countries for recruiting international students in the Middle East.
Being in Bahrain meant that exhibitors had close proximity and easy access to all the GCC countries in the Middle East, and they could make use of its strategic central geographical location which will open doors to a larger regional market.
Their exhibitors come from commercial schools, business schools, undergraduate programmes, postgraduate programmes, hotel schools, travel and tourism institutions, universities, open universities, tertiary institutions, polytechnics, vocational and training institutions, management training institutions, MBA establishments and language schools.
Visitor numbers attending WEBA events for 2007 in Europe were approximately10,000 to 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and about 15,000 in Saudi Arabia,10,000 in Bahrain and Syria, in Asia about 25,000 and in South America also around 25,000.