United Arab Emirates University

About United Arab Emirates University

United Arab Emirates University, established in 1976 by the nation's founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan under Federal Law 4 of that year, is the oldest and highest-ranked national university in the United Arab Emirates. Located in the oasis city of Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAEU is a federal, publicly funded research university that teaches across nine colleges: Business and Economics, Education, Engineering, Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Technology, Law, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Science. In the Spring 2025 term 17,722 students were registered, 16,240 of them undergraduates and 71 percent of them women, taught on a modern, technology-rich campus by a faculty of 645 academics who all hold doctorates from accredited institutions. Instruction is primarily in English, on an American-style credit-hour system, with Arabic used for programmes such as law and Arabic studies. UAEU is institutionally accredited by the UAE Commission for Academic Accreditation and by the WASC Senior College and University Commission, whose July 2025 Commission Action Letter continues its reaffirmation cycle to 2031-32. Its programmes carry a wide range of international accreditation, including ABET for engineering since 1999 and for computing, AACSB for business since 2000, and ACPE for the PharmD. The university reached 217th in the QS World University Rankings 2027, positioning it as the UAE's leading national research institution as it marks its 50th year.

Tuition & scholarships

Admissions & entry requirements

Admission to UAEU is competitive and merit-based, assessed on the General Secondary School Certificate (Grade 12) with subject-specific thresholds in English, mathematics and science rather than an overall average. Applicants qualify on their Grade 12 subject percentages or on equivalent tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, AP, IB or A-Levels. Undergraduate applications for UAE nationals route through the Ministry of Higher Education portal, while UAEU runs its own graduate application portal.

Entry requirements by level

Life at the campus

UAEU offers a full residential campus experience in Al Ain, with more than 40 student clubs, extensive sports and structured career and wellbeing support. Facilities, housing and many activities are gender-segregated, and a dedicated Center for Career Placement and Alumni connects students to internships and employers across government and industry.

Facilities & campus

United Arab Emirates University occupies a single modern campus in Al Ain, described by the university as a state-of-the-art new campus, with teaching and research laboratories, specialised research centres across its nine colleges, a large central library and the National Medical Library, on-campus student housing and extensive sports facilities. The campus has gender-segregated sections and served 17,722 students taught by 645 faculty in the Spring 2025 term.

Campus leadership

Getting to campus