Mohammed bin Rashid approves the national framework for licensing higher education institutions
DUBAI, 16 JULY / WAM / His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, adopted a decision regarding the national framework for licensing higher education institutions, in implementation of the provisions of the federal decree law regarding higher education and scientific research, which constitutes the general legislative framework regulating the higher education sector in the country, and establishes an integrated national system concerned with licensing higher education institutions and ensuring that they meet the minimum national requirements, in a way that enhances governance. Institutional, facilitates the students’ journey, ensures the sustainability of higher education institutions and their partnerships with economic sectors, supports the quality of educational outcomes, and enhances the UAE’s competitiveness in the higher education sector.
His Excellency Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Awar, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation and Acting Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s adoption of the national framework for licensing higher education institutions reflects the UAE’s keenness to build a comprehensive system based on cooperation and integration of roles between the Ministry, the competent local authorities and higher education institutions, providing a clearer and more consistent path to licensing and supervision, indicating that the framework gives institutions and investors greater clarity regarding licensing requirements, taking into account the authorities’ competencies. Local, including free zones, which contributes to reducing duplication of procedures and facilitating dealing with services. The framework also establishes reliance on updated data for follow-up and decision-making, and supports the sustainability of institutions, the quality of their outputs, and their ability to prepare national competencies.
The new framework constitutes a unified national reference for licensing higher education institutions within the country, including higher education institutions in free zones, taking into account the competencies of the competent local authorities, ensuring the governance of all higher education institutions to unified national and federal requirements and standards, and integration between the ministry and the competent local authorities, without duplication of procedures and in order to facilitate the customers’ journey. The framework also contributes to raising the level of institutional governance in higher education institutions, ensuring its sustainability in a way that serves the student’s journey and the quality of higher education in the country, and establishes a system Based on real-time data, through real-time electronic connectivity with higher education institutions and national registries in the Ministry, taking into account coordination and linkage mechanisms with the competent local authorities for higher education institutions operating in free zones, in a way that supports regulatory decision-making based on accurate and updated data, and enhances integration with relevant national frameworks, including the national framework for classification of higher education institutions and quality of performance and oversight.
In detail, the framework specified a set of regulatory provisions covering the various stages of institutional licensing, including defining the requirements and conditions for first-time licensing for new institutions, regulating the licensing mechanism in free zones, mechanisms for assessing risk, compliance, institutional sustainability, and requirements associated with renewing the license for existing institutions, while ensuring student protection and continuity of educational attainment.
The national framework for licensing higher education institutions raises the levels of institutional governance in higher education institutions, by regulating the requirements for ownership, governance councils, and executive and academic leadership, and separating ownership, executive management, and academic leadership, in addition to enhancing the independence of academic decisions and ensuring a balance between ownership, management, and governance, in a way that supports integrity, transparency, and good governance. It also focuses on ensuring the institutional, financial, and operational sustainability of institutions, through standards related to guarantees and financial statements, organizing plans to protect students, facilitating their academic journey, and the continuity of the academic process. In various organizational and operational situations.
The adoption of the national framework for licensing higher education institutions comes within the efforts of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in coordination with the competent local authorities to develop national frameworks and policies regulating the sector, in a way that enhances the system’s readiness for future requirements, raises the efficiency of academic institutions and improves their outputs, in keeping with national priorities in preparing qualified competencies for the labor market, and strengthens the country’s position as a global center for higher education and scientific research.
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