Middle East · who awards a management degree

MBA institutes in the United Arab Emirates

17 institutions that award management qualifications in the United Arab Emirates, grouped by what kind of body each one is — because that, not a ranking, is what decides whether the award holds up where you need it.

17~~institutions listed~~

5~~kinds of body~~

1~~open universities~~

US$400~~our own programme~~

01 · How the system works

What to check in the United Arab Emirates

The UAE runs two parallel systems and the difference matters. Institutions licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research hold federal accreditation; those inside the Dubai free zones are regulated by KHDA instead. Ask which one your programme sits under — a KHDA-regulated branch campus award is usually accredited in its home country rather than federally here, which is fine until you need an MoHESR equivalency certificate.

If you take a qualification abroad and bring it back here, it is assessed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. Dubai free-zone institutions additionally sit under KHDA. The process there: Equivalency certificate. All 104 countries are mapped here.

A listing is not a recommendation. These institutions award management qualifications in this country. We do not claim any of them currently runs an online or distance MBA, what it costs, or that it is good — we have no verified data on any of that and neither does anyone else publishing a ranking. Ask the institution directly, and ask for the total fee in writing. The five questions to put to them are here.

02 · The institutions

17 in the United Arab Emirates, by kind of body

Name, city and what kind of institution it is. Nothing else, because nothing else is verifiable from here.

Disclosure. We run one of the programmes on this site — the IICT and IIPM online MBA, described here. It is deliberately excluded from every directory page, including this one, so you can weigh it against these institutions rather than find it seeded among them.

Open university~~1 · distance and online is its statutory purpose~~

Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart UniversityDubai

Public university~~5 · awards its own degree~~

United Arab Emirates UniversityAl AinZayed UniversityDubaiKhalifa UniversityAbu DhabiUniversity of SharjahSharjahHigher Colleges of TechnologyAbu Dhabi

Autonomous business school~~1 · awards under its own name — check whether that is a degree~~

SP Jain School of Global ManagementDubai

Private university~~5 · awards its own degree~~

American University of SharjahSharjahAmerican University in DubaiDubaiAbu Dhabi UniversityAbu DhabiAjman UniversityAjmanCanadian University DubaiDubai

International branch campus~~5 · awards the home institution’s degree — check whose name is on the certificate~~

Heriot-Watt University DubaiDubaiUniversity of Wollongong in DubaiDubaiMiddlesex University DubaiDubaiRochester Institute of Technology DubaiDubaiBITS Pilani, Dubai CampusDubai

03 · Nearby

Elsewhere in Middle East

Saudi Arabia~~12 institutions listed~~See them →Qatar~~7 institutions listed~~See them →Kuwait~~6 institutions listed~~See them →Oman~~8 institutions listed~~See them →Bahrain~~7 institutions listed~~See them →Jordan~~7 institutions listed~~See them →Lebanon~~6 institutions listed~~See them →Every country~~554 institutions across 72 countries, and the Indian register~~See them all →

Every country →Who assesses a foreign qualification →The syllabus, free →