UAE: Widespread student cheating could get a university closed, says official

Student cheating is not tolerated in UAE universities and an increase in such incidents is a violation that could eventually lead to an institution's closure, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Currently, there are no educational institutions in the process of closure, but some universities are under close observation, said Dr Muhammad Yusuf Baniyas, higher education adviser and director of the Academic Accreditation Commission at the Ministry of Education.

Seven key violations can lead to the withdrawal of an educational licence or the closure of a university, he explained.

These violations are:

A decision to revoke a university's licence, however, is not issued immediately. Several steps will be taken and the process may take up to five years, Dr Baniyas explained. Institutions will be given opportunities for improvement.

“The Commission for Academic Accreditation evaluates universities according to the standards of licensing and academic accreditation that it set in 2019, which is based on measuring risks and measuring the level of confidence according to three levels, which are high confidence, medium confidence and low confidence,” the education official said.

Fifteen per cent of universities in the country have a high level of confidence, while 70 per cent are at the medium level. The percentage of universities with a low level of confidence is only 15 per cent, Dr Baniyas said.

Among the seven universities that have achieved a high level of trust are Khalifa University, UAE University, University of Sharjah, American University of Sharjah, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medical Sciences, New York University Abu Dhabi, and Birmingham University in Dubai.

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