
Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai

Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai

Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai is the United Arab Emirates campus of Rochester Institute of Technology, the New York university founded in 1829. Established in 2008 inside the Dubai Silicon Oasis Headquarters, it moved to the Techno Point building in 2011 and now operates from phase one of its own campus development in Dubai Silicon Oasis. RIT Dubai is a not-for-profit university instituted and sponsored by the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, a wholly government-owned free zone. Students earn the same American degree awarded in Rochester, and every programme is accredited by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The university teaches 13 bachelor's degrees and nine master's degrees across engineering, computing, business, psychology and new media design, together with five credit-bearing micro-credentials and three combined accelerated bachelor's/master's pathways. Bachelor's tuition is a single flat rate of AED 68,000 a year across the published programmes; master's degrees are priced as whole-award totals of AED 117,000 to AED 143,550. Scholarships and financial aid reach 50 per cent, with separate academic, Dean's, Tiger Journey, corporate, Global Tigers, athletic, sibling and alumni-family awards. Cooperative education sits at the centre of the RIT model: every undergraduate takes a compulsory co-op preparation course in second year and must complete 700 hours of paid, assessed work experience before graduating. RIT Dubai reports an 80 per cent employability rate after graduation, more than 2,000 alumni and students of more than 90 nationalities. The campus is phase one of a 129,000-square-metre, USD 136 million development in Dubai Silicon Oasis, the emirate's technology park. It holds 26 named laboratories and centres, five research groups, a sports complex, a library that mirrors the New York campus's collections, and gender-segregated student accommodation a five-minute walk away. Students may also spend part of their degree at RIT's campuses in New York or Croatia.
4 years · Undergraduate
5 years · Undergraduate
4 years · Undergraduate
4 years · Undergraduate
4 years · Undergraduate
4 years · Undergraduate
All figures were read from RIT Dubai's live tuition page on 2026-08-25. RIT Dubai states it may revise tuition fees based on operational costs without prior notice, and publishes a conversion rate of USD 1.00 = AED 3.6725 for the dollar column. Two published programmes carry no fee in the table: the BS in Management Information Systems and the credit-bearing micro-credential in Accounting and Financial Analytics, so no figure is stored for either.
Awarded on high school percentage: 80-84.99% earns 5%, 85-89.99% earns 15%, 90-94.99% earns 25%, 95-97.99% earns 35%, and above 98% earns 45%.
A limited number of awards based on grades in subjects relevant to the field of study: maths, physics and chemistry for engineering; ICT, computer science and maths for computing; business studies, economics, accounting and English for business; statistics, psychology and social sciences for psychology.
Fifty seats. Requires predicted grades of 90% and above, meeting the English language requirement and passing the required placement tests. Cannot be combined with any Section B award.
Ten seats each academic year for international students joining RIT Dubai from abroad. New students only, renewable against the academic scholarship table after the Summer 1 term.
For students associated with partner companies and organisations; the list is held by the admissions office.
Need-based, assessed on the family's financial status. Requires six months of stamped parental bank statements, salary certificates, the rental contract, receipts for siblings' school fees and passport and visa copies for all family members.
RIT Dubai admits students twice a year, for the Fall semester that begins in August and the Spring semester that begins in January, and reviews applications on a rolling basis. Admission is selective: the Admissions Committee weighs previous school or college performance (particularly in the subjects required for the chosen major), admission test scores, the competitiveness of the previous school, and the programme applied for. Recommendations and an interview with an admissions counsellor may also count. Final decisions on the master's programmes are made by the RIT Graduate Department in Rochester, New York, after RIT Dubai forwards the completed application.
Submit an application for admission for the Fall (August) or Spring (January) intake. RIT Dubai encourages early applications because scholarship places are limited, and reviews applications on a rolling basis.
Undergraduate applicants send a passport copy, high school transcripts, an Emirates ID if resident in the UAE, an English language test result if they have one, and a personal statement. Predicted final-year marks are accepted for a conditional decision until final marks are available. Master's applicants add a CV, official original transcripts with a certified English translation where needed, and two letters of recommendation.
The Admissions Committee meets once the application is complete and notifies the applicant of the decision. Master's applications are forwarded to the RIT Graduate Department in Rochester, New York, which makes the final decision.
All incoming freshmen take placement exams at the start of the semester to set the right course level. Engineering students sit maths and physics; business, computing and psychology students sit maths; cybersecurity and new media design students may sit optional papers. A Level, IB Higher Level or AP results can exempt a student from specific papers.
Pay the enrolment deposit for admission of AED 2,500. It is non-refundable and is credited towards tuition.
Applicants who are not UAE citizens or permanent residents are contacted about student visa requirements and procedures after they apply. New student orientation runs in the week before classes begin.
Day, evening and online classes begin. New undergraduate orientation ran 18-19 August and graduate orientation on 20 August 2026.
Day, evening and online classes begin. New undergraduate orientation runs 5-6 January and graduate orientation on 7 January 2027.
Fall semester, early admission phase
Fall semester, regular admission phase
Fall semester application deadline
Spring semester, early admission phase
Spring semester, regular admission phase
Spring semester application deadline
Applicants who are not citizens or permanent residents of the UAE may need a student visa. RIT Dubai contacts applicants about visa requirements and procedures after the application is submitted. The published visa fee is AED 5,300 including a refundable AED 2,500 deposit and 5% VAT; changing visa status inside the country costs AED 1,890, yearly renewal AED 1,750 and cancellation AED 525.
RIT Dubai draws students of more than 90 nationalities into a campus community inside Dubai Silicon Oasis, the emirate's technology park. Student Affairs runs sport, recreation, clubs and volunteering; an elected Student Government represents students to the university's departments; and residential students can serve as Resident Advisors or Mental Health Ambassadors.
RIT Dubai student housing sits in Dubai Silicon Oasis about a five-minute walk from campus, in gender-segregated buildings allocated by the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. Rooms come furnished with beds, study desk, chair, lamp, shelf, built-in wardrobes, a personal safe and a fridge, and each room has a private bathroom. The residence has 24/7 security, free wifi, a gym, social areas, free self-service laundry, free weekly basic cleaning, a futsal court and a small basketball court, and is non-smoking with designated smoking areas. Alcohol and pets are not allowed, and residents buy their own bedding. Rates include round-trip transport to campus but not linen care or a meal plan.
The Office of Cooperative Education and Career Services runs RIT Dubai's co-op programme, which every undergraduate must complete: a compulsory co-op preparation course in second year covers CVs, LinkedIn, job-application technique, interviews and workplace skills, and students must log 700 hours of full-time, assessed, paid work experience in their field before they graduate. Careers staff run one-to-one CV, interview and networking sessions, and the long-running Career Wednesdays series has held more than 100 employer events since 2019 with organisations including Siemens, Emerson, Henkel, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric, Aramex, KPMG and McKinsey. RIT Dubai reports an 80 per cent employability rate after graduation.
RIT Dubai occupies phase one of a USD 136 million campus development in Dubai Silicon Oasis that will eventually provide 129,000 square metres of interactive learning space. The university was established in 2008 inside the Dubai Silicon Oasis Headquarters and moved to the Techno Point building in 2011; Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority instituted the university and sponsors it. The campus holds twenty-six named laboratories and centres, five research groups, a library that mirrors the New York campus's collections, a sports complex, and student lounges, with gender-segregated student accommodation a five-minute walk away. Dubai Silicon Oasis itself is a wholly government-owned free zone spanning 7.2 million square metres and organised around industrial, commercial, education, residential and public-facility districts, and RIT Dubai students have access to training and development run by DSO and the international companies it hosts.
One of RIT Dubai's twenty-six named laboratories and centres, supporting teaching and research in artificial intelligence and robotics alongside the Artificial Intelligence Research Group.
Equipped for automation, smart manufacturing and robotics work across the engineering programmes.
A dedicated laboratory for the BS and MS in Cybersecurity, used for secure computing, forensics and penetration testing coursework.
Supports the networking and systems administration sequence taught in the computing degrees.
A laboratory established with the UAE Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority ICT Fund, used by the computing programmes.
Serves the electrical and computer engineering degrees for circuits, control systems and instrumentation work.
Supports the communications and digital systems strands of the electrical engineering curriculum and the Wireless Communications Group.
Used for the smart energy focus area of the electrical engineering programmes and by the RIT Dubai Sustainable and Energy Center.
President
Dr. Al Assaf holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, awarded in 1988. He was a founding member and chair of the industrial engineering department at the University of Jordan, and a founding member of the electrical engineering and computer engineering programmes at the American University of Sharjah from 1998, where he became Associate Dean of the College of Engineering in 2004 and Dean in 2005 before his appointment as President of RIT Dubai. His research applies soft computing to modelling and control in industrial and medical systems, including materials modelling and classification, prosthesis control, industrial quality control and optimisation.
Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs
Vice President of Finance and Administration
Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing, Professor of Electrical Engineering
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RIT Dubai, Building A, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (P.O. Box 341055)