UAE restricts scholarships for citizens studying at British universities amid radicalisation fears

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has restricted government funding for its citizens wishing to study at British universities, according to a report by the Financial Times.

In June, the UAE’s higher education ministry published a list of global universities for which scholarships would be approved and qualifications certified, as part of reforms limiting funding to top-performing institutions.

The list included universities in the US, Australia, Israel and France, but excluded the UK, home to many of the world’s leading academic institutions.

The exclusion is linked to UAE concerns over what it perceives as the risk of Islamist radicalisation on UK campuses, according to three people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.

When UK officials queried the absence of British institutions from the June list, UAE officials said the omission had not been an “oversight”, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions quoted by the newspaper.

“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalised on campus,” the person told the FT. In response, UK officials emphasised the importance of academic freedom, the person said.

In 2023-24, 70 students at UK universities were reported for possible referral to the government’s Prevent deradicalisation programme showing signs of “Islamist radicalisation”, nearly double the previous year, out of an overall higher education student population of almost 3 million.

Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, the UAE has imposed strict controls on domestic Islamist activity and intervened regionally to limit the role of political Islam.

Under UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi has questioned the UK’s decision not to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood for years. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s administration said last year the matter was under “close review”.

A comprehensive UK government review into the Muslim Brotherhood in 2015 said the group had not been linked to terrorist-related activity in and against Britain.

The UK has been a popular destination for Emiratis, who receive generous government scholarships to study internationally. Federal funding for Emiratis wanting to begin studying in the UK was already being denied before June, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.

In the year ending September 2025, there were 213 students from the UAE granted visas to study at UK universities, a decline of 27 per cent from a year earlier and a 55 per cent drop from the year ending September 2022, according to the report.

UK officials said it was unclear how comprehensive the scholarship ban was in practice, saying they were aware of cases of some UAE military personnel still receiving scholarships, the FT reported. Some wealthier Emiratis have continued to send their children to study in the UK, paying fees directly.

However, the UAE has said it would not recognise qualifications from academic institutions not on the accredited list, meaning degrees from UK universities have less value for Emiratis.

The development comes as the UAE has become an increasingly popular location for UK universities to open campuses, with Dubai sites for leading institutions including the University of Manchester and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

A UAE official declined to comment on the apparent exclusion to the FT, saying the bilateral relationship remained strong. The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to the FT’s request for comment. The UK education department did not immediately comment.