UAE universities face a new test: Are their graduates actually getting jobs?

UAE <a href="https://jiuniversity.com/australian-universities-urge-government-for-cheaper-housing-travel-as-student-rents-soar-40/” title=”Australian universities urge government for cheaper housing, travel as student rents soar 40%”>universities face a new test: Are their graduates actually getting jobs?

New higher education framework shifts focus from what universities teach to what graduates achieve, with institutions changing courses, industry links and research

• PUBLISHED:Wed 9 Sept 2026, 6:45 PM

• By:
• Haneen Dajani

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UAE universities are being pushed to answer a question that goes beyond what they teach in the classroom: What happens to their graduates after they leave?

Under the UAE’s new higher education framework, graduate outcomes, employment and alignment with the labour market are becoming increasingly important measures of whether an academic programme is delivering what it promises

Dr Ahmed Sultan Al Shuaibi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (Mohesr), said learning outcomes would be reviewed by subject experts, including people from the labour market, to ensure academic programmes are producing graduates with skills and knowledge that employers need

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“We know that today the labour market is very dynamic and there is a constant change.”

The shift is part of a wider regulatory overhaul unveiled by the Ministry, with new Cabinet decisions covering university licensing,review fees, Ministry service fees and financial guarantees, and violations and administrative measures

The Ministry has said the new framework is designed around the quality of educational outcomes and greater confidence in qualifications, with Al Shuaibi saying employers should be able to expect graduates holding a particular qualification to have the skills and knowledge associated with it

“When I hire a graduate with a certain certificate, as a business market, a company, I have a certain expectation that he has this certificate and certain skills and knowledge,” he told Khaleej Times

The new approach is already prompting universities to change how they assess programmes, involve industry and measure what happens to graduates after they leave campus

At Abu Dhabi University, the shift has included a greater focus on graduate employment, industry participation in courses and research, and the use of technology to collect information about graduates

The new regulatory approach represented a major move away from evaluating universities primarily on their processes and inputs towards measuring results, said Dr Mohammed Prakandi, Director of Academic Quality and Accreditation and Associate Professor of Management at ADU

“In the past, most of the regulatory bodies and still most of the international organisation bodies follow the process. They look at how you’re doing it, they talk to your students, look at the faculty qualifications. So, they were looking at the processes and inputs,” he said

“But the new regulation is mostly, I would say nearly 100 per cent focusing on the output.”

One example, he said, is whether graduates find employment and whether they are working in the field in which they studied

“So, there is a shift: Did your graduate get jobs in nine months, are they working in the field? Did they get jobs in their field of specialisation?” Prakandi told Khaleej Times

“If a programme’s graduates are not getting jobs, does it matter how good your curriculum is? They’re not getting jobs, which means that they’re not prepared”

He described the change as a major shift in how the quality and impact of higher education are measured

At ADU, the change has affected how faculty members view their role in preparing students for the workplace

“In the past, as a faculty myself — I’ve been in academia for over 25 years — when we went to the class, my goal was primarily to teach whatever is in the syllabus, but now all faculty are aware that if our graduates don’t get employment, the programme will be in trouble,” Prakandi said

The university has also set a goal for at least 50 per cent of courses to have industry involvement, he said

That involvement can begin with the design of a course. Under ADU’s process, an academic can send a syllabus to a relevant industry professional for feedback on whether anything is missing from an industry perspective. The feedback is documented and used to adjust the course

“So, I would say programmes are becoming more industry aligned than traditionally academic aligned.”

Industry professionals are also being brought into the delivery of courses, with practitioners expected to teach part of some courses and give students exposure to current professional practice

The same emphasis is being extended to research, with ADU encouraging greater industry involvement in research projects and contributions to programmes through laboratories and research funding

The university is also using data and artificial intelligence to track graduate outcomes

Prakandi said ADU had around 5,000 graduates whose employment status and career information needed to be collected, including where they worked, whether they were employed in their field and whether they were looking for jobs

The university initially used a team of about 30 people to make calls to graduates, but later developed an AI agent capable of contacting graduates simultaneously. The system reached nearly 60 per cent of the graduates in two days

The information allows the university to identify where graduates are working and which graduates may need additional support

“We can find those who are not finding jobs, support them, give them training,” he explained

The move towards outcome-based measurement also extends to how ADU designs and assesses teaching

Hamad Odhabi, ADU’s Vice Chancellor of AI, said the university had changed its assessment methods as artificial intelligence became more widely available

Rather than relying heavily on assignments that students complete independently and submit, some assessments now involve multiple stages of interaction between the student and faculty

A student working on a project, for example, may first have to present a plan to a faculty member, answer questions about it, then proceed to data collection or developing a prototype before returning to present the work

“This engagement between student and faculty helps ensuring the student is learning.”

The university has also developed an AI-based exam moderation system that reviews exams for factors including quality, timing and alignment with course and programme learning outcomes, as well as industry relevance

Odhabi said more than 2,400 exams had been completed through the system since its launch about a year ago

He said the university’s approach to AI was not simply about detecting cheating, but about adapting education and assessment to a technology that is now part of students’ lives

ADU has also developed AI tools to support assessment and academic integrity, while training faculty and students on appropriate uses of the technology

The Ministry’s new framework similarly places emphasis on educational outcomes, with officials saying universities must be able to demonstrate quality, compliance and effective delivery rather than simply meet traditional input requirements

For students, the change means that the value of a degree is increasingly being measured by what it enables them to do after graduation, not only by the content of the programme itself

For employers, the Ministry’s aim is to strengthen confidence that a qualification represents a reliable set of skills and knowledge

And for universities, the new approach means keeping closer track of what happens to graduates, involving employers more directly in programmes and using evidence from the labour market to shape what is taught

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Source: www.khaleejtimes.com