UAE’s new framework for colleges, universities announced – all you need to know

Dubai: Looking for the perfect college or university in the UAE? A new national framework for classifying higher educations in the UAE can help make your decision easier.

On Thursday, June 27, the UAE’s Ministry of Education announced the National Framework for the Classification of Higher Education Institutions.

Here is a breakdown of how universities are being assessed and how the results can help you make more informed decisions on where you should study.

The framework and assessment was done for two major categories of higher education institutions licensed with the Ministry of Education:

1. Research group: Universities that offer postgraduate studies alongside bachelor studies.
2. Non-research group: Universities that offer bachelor's or diploma programmes only.

These are the universities excluded from the assessment:

- Universities that offer postgraduate courses only.
- New universities, with less than five years having passed since their establishment or having less than three batches that have graduated.
- Universities with revoked or suspended licenses.

The framework is based on four pillars of assessment, with each category having a set weightage:

- Research and innovation – 35 per cent
- Quality of teaching and student life – 35 per cent
- Recruitment and alignment with the labour market – 20 per cent
- International collaboration – 10 per cent

The results will be made available on the Ministry of Education website – moe.gov.ae, where each university’s ranking on the basis of the criteria will be shared.