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Graduate Programs Admissions

Candidates must apply online. Applicants who have not graduated from an accredited institutions are required to have their degrees certified (in the UAE - from Abroad) by the Ministry of Education in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Please visit the following link for details of procedures.

Meeting the minimum requirement for admission to Master and Doctorate programs does not guarantee admission. UAEU has a competitive criteria for admitting students which takes into account the credentials of the applicants and where they have graduates from.

UAEU admits students in Master and Doctorate programs on full-time and part-time basis.

For information on graduate program credit transfer, please refer to the Transfer of Credits section on the policy document.

Admission Requirements

For Admission Cycles and Deadlines (Click here)

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The CGS has established minimum requirements for admission to Master s Programs. Individual Master s Programs may set additional and/or higher standards for admission. The minimum requirements are:

1. A Bachelor s degree in the discipline or related field from an accredited university recognized by the UAE Ministry of Education, with a minimum cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or its equivalent.

2. A score of at least 6.0 on the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Academic exam or equivalent, for all disciplines delivered predominantly in English. This test score must be less than two years old at the time of application, with the following exceptions:
    • A native speaker of English who has completed his/her undergraduate education in an English-medium institution and in a country where English is the official language (see list of eligible native English speaking countries); or
    • An applicant with undergraduate degree from an English-medium institution who can provide evidence of acquiring a minimum IELTS Academic score of 5.0, or its equivalent, at the time of admission to his/her undergraduate program.

An applicant with a Bachelor degree recognized by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research may be granted conditional admission into a Master s program in one and only one of the following cases:

A. An applicant with an IELTS Academic score of 5.5, or its equivalent. Such a student must meet the following requirements during the period of conditional admission or be subject to dismissal (
Preparation Course to Improve IELTS Course)
    • Must achieve a minimum IELTS Academic score of 6.0, or its equivalent, by the end of the student s first semester of study;
    • May take a maximum of six (6) credits hours in the first semester, not including intensive English courses;
    • Must achieve an overall GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the first 9 credit hours of credit-bearing courses studied in the Master s program.
B. An applicant with an undergraduate cumulative GPA less than 3.0 but equal or higher than 2.5, or its equivalent. Such a student must meet the following requirements during the period of conditional admission or be subject to dismissal:
        • May take a maximum of nine (9) credits hours in the first semester of study;
        • Must achieve an overall GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the first 9 credit hours of credit-bearing courses studied in the Master s program.
C. An applicant with an undergraduate cumulative GPA less than 3.0 but with relevant work experience factored into the calculation of the GPA to become equal or higher than 2.5. Such a student must meet the following requirements during the period of conditional admission or be subject to dismissal:
    • May take a maximum of nine (9) credits hours in the first semester of study;
    • Must achieve an overall GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the first 9 credit hours of credit-bearing courses studied in the Master s program.
3. A minimum IELTS Academic score of 4.0 or equivalent is required for admission into a Master s Program whose language of instruction is Arabic

Individual Master s Programs with professional orientation may include specific provisions for factoring relevant work experience into the calculation of the GPA for conditional acceptance. These provisions must be approved by the Academic Council.

Application package must include the following :

  1. Completed application form;
  2. The deposit slip of the required non-refundable application fee, as relevant to the program, deposited in the university s bank account;
  3. Identity documents as required for Emirati students (copy of passport and Khulasat Al-Qaid) and international students (copy of passport);
  4. Two certified copies of official transcripts from all Colleges or universities attended (the applicant must arrange for these to be sent directly to the Office of Enrollment); and
  5. An official copy of the applicant s IELTS Academic certificate or equivalent (the applicant must arrange for this to be sent directly to the Office of Enrollment);
  6. Recommendation letters as required by the individual programs.

Oct 5, 2026