Students flock to new University of Birmingham campus

Hundreds of students from across the UAE have already applied to attend a new UK university campus opening in Dubai.

The University of Birmingham campus is set to open in September and will take about 3,000 students, specialising in subjects from engineering to business.

Drone footage was released by the university to show its state-of-the-art campus in Dubai International Academic City.

Provost David Sadler told The National it was designed with a quadrant to replicate the historic centre at the heart of the University of Birmingham.

The facilities will include shaded courtyard spaces and the buildings will sit next to parkland, sports pitches and an open-air event space.

“The way it looks is very distinctive. We have made a long-term commitment to be in the UAE,” Prof Sadler said. “We will be growing to about 3,000 students in the next phase of our plans for further expansion and we have recruited staff from the UAE and academics from across the world.”

Two thirds of its students are from the UAE and it has had a lot of interest from India, China and the UK.

Last year, campuses of international universities across the UAE reported an increase in domestic enrolment because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The University of Birmingham Dubai, the first Russell Group university to open in the emirate, is also hoping to attract UK students for secondments from their business degrees.

“The UAE has handled the pandemic relatively well and, having a strong vaccine programme, it is recovering quickly and is keen to develop its higher education programme,” Prof Sadler said.

“The campus is fully on track and we are really excited to be moving into it. The pandemic remains central to our thinking, in common with the UK, and we have contingency plans in place but we do not expect it to affect the opening. We have incredibly stringent protocols and spend a lot of time talking to our students.”

The university, which opened in Dubai in 2018 and currently has 400 students, is hoping to move into research involving renewables and transport in the future and has the capacity to expand to 4,500 students.

University of Birmingham vice chancellor and principal professor David Eastwood expects the new venture to flourish.

“We are a global university with a civic outlook and are committed to contributing to UAE society – as a leading provider of education and through our research strengths,” he said.