United
Arab Emirates University, the country’s first university, was founded in 1976.

Since then it has only accepted Emirati students, but it will
now accept non-Emirati undergraduate students – making the step a first in 40 years.

Since 2013, the university has been in the top 50
universities in the Times Higher Education rankings. 

Diversity will be a good thing for the university because…

Interaction with international students will expose Emirati students to a different set of ideas and experiences which can fuel innovation. Professor Mohamed Albaili from the university also believes sharing stories in class discussions will help remove stereotypes.

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He also told The National that the extra income from fees paid by expat students will help the university, which like other institutions, struggle to compete for limited research funding.

However, Emirati students would be given priority…

Therefore the international enrolment would be a small number. Zayed University took the first step to enrol international students in 2010 with the count being 334 expats among 8,800 students.