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1 day ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
A strategic move to attract global talent
In a major reform announced on April 18, 2022, the UAE Cabinet introduced a revamped Golden Visa system aimed at attracting and retaining exceptional global talent. Among the updates, graduates from the world’s top 100 universities are now eligible to apply for long-term residency visas, commonly known as Golden Visas, allowing them to live and work in the UAE for up to 10 years without a sponsor. The changes are part of the UAE’s wider efforts to transition toward a diversified knowledge economy, as outlined in its Centennial 2071 vision, which places heavy emphasis on science, technology, and entrepreneurship.
According to the Emirates News Agency, the new visa policy is designed to “attract and retain global talents and skilled workers” and enhance the UAE’s competitiveness in the global job market. The Golden Visa is open to:
- Graduates from the top 100 universities worldwide
- Outstanding graduates from UAE universities
- High-performing students in UAE schools
Applications from graduates will be evaluated based on:
- Academic performance
- Year of graduation
- University classification
These criteria are aligned with QS World University Rankings, which consider factors like teaching quality, research output, and employability. “The UAE’s visa program shows that university rankings are an important tool for comparing university performance in a global context,” said Leigh Kamolins, Director of Analytics and Evaluation at QS.
“It highlights the importance that governments and employers are placing on reputable, quality education for enabling career mobility and driving knowledge economies.” The updated policy also allows Golden Visa holders to sponsor family members, another step toward encouraging longer-term settlement and professional development within the UAE.“The recent changes… mark a shift from immigration based on a sponsorship model to a self-sponsored model,” said Abeer Husseini, Partner at immigration law firm Fragomen.
Top 100 universities eligible for UAE Golden Visa
Below is the complete list of the top 100 universities worldwide, whose graduates are eligible to apply for the UAE Golden Visa:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- University of Oxford
- Stanford University
- University of Cambridge
- Harvard University
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Imperial College London
- University of London
- Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
- University of Chicago
- National University of Singapore (NUS)
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
- University of Pennsylvania
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
- Yale University
- University of Edinburgh
- Tsinghua University
- Peking University
- Columbia University
- Princeton University
- Cornell University
- University of Hong Kong
- University of Michigan
- University of Tokyo
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Toronto
- Australian National University
- McGill University
- University of Manchester
- Northwestern University
- Fudan University
- University of California, Berkeley
- Kyoto University
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
- King’s College London
- Seoul National University
- University of Melbourne
- University of Sydney
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
- New York University
- University of New South Wales
- PSL Research University (Paris Sciences et Lettres)
- Zhejiang University
- University of British Columbia
- University of Queensland
- University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Technische Universität München (TUM)
- Duke University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- City University of Hong Kong
- University of Amsterdam
- Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Delft University of Technology
- Monash University
- Institut Polytechnique de Paris
- Brown University
- University of Warwick
- University of Bristol
- Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
- Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
- Universiti Malaya
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- University of Texas at Austin
- National Taiwan University
- Universidad de Buenos Aires
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
- University of Zurich
- Sorbonne University (formerly Paris IV and UPMC)
- University of Glasgow
- Korea University
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Osaka University
- University of Southampton
- Lomonosov Moscow State University
- University of Copenhagen
- Yonsei University
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Tohoku University
- Durham University
- University of Washington
- University of Auckland
- Lund University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
- University of Birmingham
- University of St Andrews
- University of Leeds
- University of Western Australia
- Rice University
- University of Sheffield
- Pennsylvania State University
- Sungkyunkwan University
- University of Science and Technology of China
- Technical University of Denmark
- University of North Carolina
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