New report explores HE in the UAE
| Date: | August 5 - 2026 |
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The Quality Assurance Agency has published a new country report on the United Arab Emirates, exclusive to our Global Insights members.
In support of the UAE's Vision 2031 Agenda, its National Strategy for Higher Education, launched in 2017, aims to grow an innovative education system that incorporates skills development into teaching methods to create academic programmes which are continually enhanced and globally competitive. It emphases the importance of high standards for higher education institutions, effective quality control mechanisms, strong student completion rates, integrated academic programmes and the alignment of graduate skills with labour market needs.
QAA's new report considers the initiatives introduced to support this strategy through the implementation of clear, coherent quality standards and published quality reports, and which include the development of a National Quality Framework, a Qualifications Framework, a National Higher Education Institutions Classification Framework and an Outcome-Based Evaluation Framework.
Our report looks at the work of the UAE's Commission for Academic Accreditation and explores the higher education landscape in the UAE, detailing the types of providers, admissions and quality assurance processes, student populations, and the use of English as a language of instruction.
It goes on to chart the operation of transnational education in the UAE, a territory which hosts more than 40 international branch campuses, and explores the impacts on higher education delivery of ongoing conflict in the region.
QAA Global Insights Members can access our report in the Country Resources section of our Membership Resources site.
Our Global Insights members are also invited to register for our Global Insights Conference, which will take place online on 19-22 October 2026, and will focus on sustainable international student recruitment, transnational education at scale, opportunities for student mobility, student support during geopolitical crises, and futureproofing assessment in global online learning.
If you're interested in finding out more about QAA's Global Insights package, please visit the Global Insights webpage.