Inside Abu Dhabi's elite AI undergraduate programme welcoming the 'best of the best'

New bachelor's programme at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence has only a five per cent acceptance rate

The first cohort of students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in AI will soon begin classes at Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The university, which opened in 2020 and previously offered only postgraduate programmes, will welcome 115 students who are pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence. They come from 25 countries, with Emiratis making up about a quarter of the cohort, and are joining 300 new master’s and PhD students also starting this academic year.

An orientation day was held on Wednesday to welcome the new students, with classes starting on August 18. Provost Timothy Baldwin, also professor of natural language processing, told The National the undergraduate programme offers two tracks, engineering and business.

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“There's a lot of flexibility for students to make a decision about exactly what path they want to take,” he said. “The engineering stream is more focused on the core technical skills ... AI skills such as natural language processing.

“The business stream is more about that periphery, entrepreneurial, finance and communication skills, but all very much within an AI context.”

Prof Timothy Baldwin, Provost at MBZUAI. Victor Besa / The National

Though several universities in the UAE already offer a bachelor’s programme in AI, MBZUAI is the only institution in the country dedicated entirely to AI research and education. The university was launched as part of UAE’s strategy to become a global centre for AI development and innovation.

The intake follows a highly competitive process, with the university receiving more than 2,000 undergraduate applications and only about 5 per cent accepted. Students also benefit from partnerships the university has with the industry, including companies such as Microsoft.

Emirati student Sana Al Ali, 17, is pursuing the business track so she can combine her interest in entrepreneurship with an area of technology.

“More locals are trying to be in the business field and I really want to pursue business because it has been my dream for a while,” she said. “This university offers a lot of opportunities … they’re choosing the best of the best, and they want people who are smart and intellectual to represent the university and keep the high standard.”

She said MBZUAI’s connections with companies and its internship opportunities would help her gain practical experience alongside her degree. “This will allow me to see how the real world is, and I can partially work as well and continue my master’s degree,” she said.

Ms Al Ali hopes to launch her own business one day. “I want people to see that Emiratis can be part of big industries globally," she said.

Jordanian student Islam Aldaraghmeh, 18, who has enrolled in the engineering track, said he wants to focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI), systems designed to think and act like humans.

“I think AI chatbots are revolutionary, I see a lot of potential [in the difference] it can make in the education sector,” he said. “I believe it’s going to solve a huge problem that I have also faced, which is the unavailability of AI tutors. Tutors are expensive and not everyone has access to them.”

Islam Aldaraghmeh joins the undergraduate programme at the MBZUAI. Victor Besa / The National

His interest in AI began while preparing for Jordan’s National Maths Olympiad, where he used AI tools to help him train and went on to win a gold medal.

“My main goal with pursuing this degree is to understand AI on a much deeper level, a much more intuitive level,” he said. "I want to explore how to dissect AI like a surgeon.

"I joined AI because I’m fascinated about intelligence in general. For example, we study physics to understand the world around us. I study AI to understand intelligence and implement it.”

He said his longer-term aim is to set up a research team to develop new algorithms. The demand for AI professionals has surged globally in recent years, driven by the rapid deployment of machine learning, automation and data-driven systems across sectors.

A Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum found that 40 per cent of employers globally are expected to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks by 2030.

Technology is projected to the most disruptive force in the labour market, with trends in AI and information-processing technology expected to create 11 million jobs, while displacing nine million others at the same time.