Universities in the UAE have assured pupils whose International Baccalaureate or A-Level examinations have been cancelled because of the conflict in the region they will still be able to take up their places.
Qualifications based on teacher-predicted grades, coursework and portfolios will be accepted, institutions have said, enabling young people to begin their degree course as planned later this year.
Pupils themselves have mixed feelings about the situation, with some uncertain about their future or disappointed they will not get a chance to sit the exams they had been working towards for nearly two years.
New York University Abu Dhabi said that it “would like to reassure prospective students that their admission status will not be affected”.
“The university will continue to accept official results issued through alternative assessment pathways and remains committed to ensuring that no student is disadvantaged in the admissions process,” the university said.
Gary Fernandes, an associate regional director at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, said the exam cancellations had “added a layer of complexity”, but “no significant disruption to university entry” was anticipated.
Exam boards have introduced what he described as “robust contingency measures”, including alternative assessment pathways and requirements for portfolios of evidence.
“Students continue to receive conditional offers based on school-verified predicted grades, with final admission confirmed once official results are issued by the relevant examination boards,” he said.
He said that universities globally would recognise results based on predicted grades and were aligning their admissions processes “to ensure continuity and fairness in student progression”.
Making the grade
Simon Bradbury, provost and vice-chancellor international at De Montfort University Dubai, said that A-Level examination cancellations “won’t leave DMU Dubai applicants at a disadvantage”.
“We have adopted a flexible admissions approach for applicants to support them during this critical period,” he said.
“This new approach enables students to secure a place at DMU Dubai using verified predicted grades. This includes pre-board results, mock exams, and teacher assessments, provided they are officially issued by the school to ensure accuracy and authenticity.
“We recognise that these grades are awarded through a rigorous and moderated process designed to reflect a student’s true academic ability. As such, applicants receiving these results will not be disadvantaged compared to students from previous years.”
Multiple exam boards, including the IB organisation, Edexcel, Cambridge and Pearson cancelled written exams in the UAE and other countries in the region.
Pupils who were taking English-accredited qualifications may instead be awarded the international equivalent because England’s exam regulator, Ofqual, will not accept teacher-assessed grade or mock exam results.
The cancellations have left pupils with a range of emotions. Some wanted to demonstrate in exams that they had reached a high standard.
“After spending more than a year and a half preparing for these examinations, this was meant to be the final stretch where I genuinely felt I was academically at my best,” said Saket Sachin Raje, 18, an IB pupil at Gems Modern Academy in Dubai.
He had expected to sit 15 exams over a period of about a month, starting from the last week of April.
“Although I was already in a strong academic position, I had spent the past few months pushing myself even further because I believed I could perform better in the final examinations than I had before,” he said.
“Especially since January, the amount of effort I had been putting in had increased significantly, so the cancellation initially left me feeling uneasy and somewhat disappointed, knowing that the progress I had made recently might never fully reflect in my final results.”
He has an unconditional offer from a university in the US, to study computer science, so his plans are unaffected by the cancellations.
There was initial shock at the cancellations for Mira Al Qadiri, 18, another IB student at Gems World Academy – Dubai, who had “mentally prepared” herself for her 15 exams.
“There was some disappointment as well because, for all IB students, world exams feel like the culmination of two years of hard work and preparation,” she said.
However, she said the universities she applied to have offered assurances IB results will be accepted regardless of whether exams were taken. She plans to study engineering and architectural design at University College London (UCL).
Mixed feelings
Maiev Michael Kolta, a pupil at Gems Wellington Academy in Silicon Oasis, had been expecting to take seven A-level exams.
She has “mixed feelings”: while she had spent nearly two years preparing for the exams, there was “some relief” at not having to sit them, because events had disrupted studies and school life.
“Particularly as a considerable portion of term-three content had to be delivered online, which is not always the most ideal learning environment,” said Maiev, who hopes to study product design engineering at the University of Liverpool in the UK.
Of the five universities she applied to, only one, the University of Nottingham in central England, sent an email assuring students affected by the conflict that it would accept results awarded without exams and that it would be flexible about what grades were needed.
Another pupil at the school, Syed Umer Mustafa Ahmed, 17, had expected to take 11 papers for his maths, further maths, economics and politics A-levels.
He said his school “acted very quickly” in contacting universities to ensure that places would not be affected.
“Universities have been extremely understanding and reassuring regarding the alternative assessment arrangements,” he said.
Some pupils have, however, yet to achieve clarity. Among them is Ahmed Youssef, 18, a pupil at The English College Dubai whose physics and chemistry exams were cancelled. He hopes to study robotics and artificial intelligence at University College London (UCL).
“There is still uncertainty because offers are conditional,” he said. “That is probably the most stressful part, because students are now depending on a grading process that is no longer based on the final exams we expected to sit.
“My top university of choice, UCL, also communicated to me that they do not consider any extenuating circumstances during the admissions process, highlighting that any events impacting examinations should be communicated to the exam board.”
Another pupil at The English College Dubai, Mia Grace Impiazzi, who is studying for A-levels in biology, chemistry and geography, said the school was quick to update pupils on how assessments would work following the exams’ cancellation.
“It was reassuring to learn that the internal exam process would consist of a simplified version of A-levels, that would take into account the disruption caused by online-learning, while allowing our grades to be deservedly, earned,” she said.
At The Aquila School in Dubai, pupil Khadyja Diop, 19, is “thankful” that the school has set many internal tests and mock exams as evidence of their predicted grades. She will take up an environmental studies place at The American University in Washington, DC.
Kiefer Gordon James McIntosh, 19, at the same school, is looking forward to studying finance at the University of Exeter in the UK.
“The University of Exeter has assured me that they remain fully committed to my application and don’t want circumstances out of my control to stand in the way of my future,” he said.
“These assurances definitely helped reduce a lot of the stress and uncertainty I initially had regarding university places.”
