Developing mechanisms for licensing higher education institutions to whistle bureaucracy

Abu Dhabi, April 2 / WAM / The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the adoption of mechanisms for licensing higher education institutions in the country and the adoption of their academic programs, and the framework of evaluation based on outputs, according to the provisions of Ministerial Resolution No. (27) of 2024 and Ministerial Resolution No. (62) of 2025.

The decision determines the paths and mechanisms for obtaining institutional licenses and the necessary program credits for higher education institutions and their new and existing programs, and a unified evaluation framework is based on measuring the levels of the performance of these institutions according to indicators based on outputs.

His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al -Mualla, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stressed that this initiative comes within the framework of the Ministry’s efforts to simplify and facilitate the services provided to higher education institutions in line with the targets of the government bureaucracy tolerance program, where the licensing procedures between the Ministry and the relevant local educational bodies will be unified in a way that shortens time and effort and reduces the documents and procedures necessary to complete the license process.

He pointed out that the decision is consistent with the ministry’s strategy, aimed at organizing and governance of the higher education sector, to ensure the quality and efficiency of the outputs in order to link the outcomes of the educational system with the requirements of the labor market, and supports the life learning journey for the graduates.

He pointed out that the paths and procedures specified by the ministerial decision to license higher education institutions will shorten the time of the new institution’s license from six months to one week in the event that all requirements are fulfilled, and the time to obtain accreditation for new academic programs from nine months to one week as well, and the time to renew the accreditation of existing academic programs from nine to three months with a maximum.

He added that, according to the new mechanisms, a system based on risk management will be adopted to renew the licenses and academic credits of the existing universities in order to reduce the time and simplify the procedures required for the renewal process, indicating that institutions with low risks will be granted a 6 -year license and control will be made every 3 years, while institutions with high risks will be granted for a period of two years and implement control annually on them.

Al -Mualla stated that the new framework provides higher education institutions approved in the country is a unified evaluation mechanism based on clear pillars and performance indicators through which the outputs of these institutions can be evaluated.

The new decision contributes to reducing the number of documents required from 28 to 5 for a new high education institution obtaining the license and starting its work, and from 13 to 1 for a new high education institution to obtain accreditation for academic programs for the first time, and from more than 11 documents to one document to renew the institutional license for existing higher education institutions, and from 13 documents to 1, for the existing higher education institutions obtaining academic accreditation for a new program.

The decision specified the paths that new higher education institutions must follow to obtain institutional licensing and start their work, and the mechanisms of these institutions obtaining accreditation for academic programs for the first time, as well as explained the mechanism for renewing institutional licensing or programming for higher education institutions, existing programs and the path that these institutions must follow to obtain academic accreditation for new programs.

The license decision, issued to higher education institutions, determines the academic units covered by the institution, and it is necessary to obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research when adding any new academic unit or closing any existing academic unit.

According to the decision, the licensing procedures will be unified between the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the local educational bodies, so that the educational institution is licensed by the ministry if it obtains the license by the local educational authority, and according to the decision the academic programs that are based on global accreditation by reliable and recognized accredits without the need for additional procedures, which will contribute to shortening time and effort and reducing the necessary documents and procedures.

The Ministry’s decision also specified six basic pillars for the framework of the evaluation based on outputs and the relative weight of each pillar, as follows: Employment outputs (25%), learning outcomes (25%), cooperation with partners (20%), scientific research outcomes (15%), reputation and global attendance (10%), community participation (5%), and the decision clarified the main performance indicators that were approved to conduct the evaluation based on Outputs in each pillar.

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