UAE RESTRICTS FUNDING FOR EMIRATI STUDENTS IN UK AMID RADICALISATION CONCERNS

Fri 09 January 2026:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), known for offering substantial scholarships to its top students for international study, has begun limiting government funding for those pursuing degrees at British universities. This stems from concerns that UK campuses may expose Emirati students to radicalisation influenced by an extremist Islamist organisation, UK media report said on Friday.

The Times’ referenced officials with knowledge of the move to claim that federal funding was being limited for UAE citizens hoping to study in the UK due to the feared influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, among other issues.

The group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UAE, which has also campaigned for European nations to ban it over extremist activities.

“It’s a way of threatening young students to behave, saying in essence, whatever you do, don’t join the Muslim Brotherhood if you’re in the UK,” the newspaper quoted a Middle East expert as saying.

“They (the UAE) complain to the UK about the Muslim Brotherhood to cause a diplomatic stink until they get what they want. It’s often an internal thing. I don’t believe our universities are infested with the Muslim Brotherhood, it’s all about positioning,” the expert stated.

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According to ‘The Times’, the Emiratis are not imposing a blanket ban, and privately funded students will be able to enrol at UK universities. However, state funding will be directed towards university degrees in other overseas destinations.

The number of UAE students enrolled at UK universities doubled to 8,500 between 2017 and 2024, a rise likely to be impacted by this decision.

Programmes managed through its Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UAE’s study grants are designed to cover tuition, living stipends, travel and health insurance for top-performing students pursuing degrees in priority fields.

The UAE, along with other countries in the region, has cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, believing that the Islamist group poses a serious threat to its relatively secular and socially liberal system, the newspaper reports.

In 2014, the then-prime minister David Cameron led Conservative government launched an inquiry into the group which concluded that while the group’s beliefs were opposed to British values, there wasn’t enough evidence to ban the movement.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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