The UAEU Merit Fellowship Award 2026/2027 gives newly admitted Master’s and PhD students at United Arab Emirates University a 50% discount on tuition fees, and it stays with you until graduation as long as you hold your grades. It is open to all nationalities, there is no separate scholarship competition to enter, and the form is two pages long. It is also one of the most misreported awards I come across, because almost every listing site calls it a scholarship without saying what the other 50% costs you, or when you are actually allowed to apply. This guide gives you the real numbers.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Degree Level | Master’s and PhD (newly admitted graduate students) |
| Field | All graduate programmes except Education, MBA, DBA and MPA. Priority to STEM, renewable energy, transportation, health, water resources, technology and space |
| Host Institution | United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE |
| Target Audience | All nationalities, including students from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Bangladesh |
| Fee | AED 200 application fee to the university. The award itself is free to apply for |
| Deadline | Within the first two weeks of classes, after you have completed course registration |
Official links you will need
Bookmark these four before you read any further. Everything in this guide comes from them.
Chancellor’s Fellowship page, showing all six award categories
Fellowship application form, Word document download
Master’s tuition rates per credit hour
Doctoral tuition rates per credit hour
What the UAEU Merit Fellowship Award 2026/2027 actually covers
This is a partial tuition waiver and nothing else. I want to be clear about that at the start, because the difference matters when you are planning a budget from Lahore or Lagos.
- Tuition: 50% discount on your tuition fees
- Stipend: none
- Accommodation: none, and UAEU states plainly that it does not provide housing for graduate students
- Meals: none
- Health insurance: not included in this award
- Flights or visa costs: not included
- Duration: valid until graduation, for as long as you keep meeting the conditions
If you stop meeting the conditions, the award is suspended rather than cancelled. You can get it back once the reason is removed. That is a genuinely fair rule and it is worth knowing, because a single bad semester does not end the award permanently.
Who is eligible
- Excellent academic standing, meaning a GPA of 3.8 or higher on a 4.0 scale
- You must maintain a GPA of 3.8 or higher throughout your studies at UAEU
- You must have no other financial sponsorship or award
- Priority goes to students in STEM and in the country’s strategic areas: renewable energy, transportation, health, water resources, technology and space
There is a version of this award for existing UAEU students too. It has one extra condition: you need at least 12 completed credit hours of coursework, not counting thesis credits. The benefit and the GPA bar are identical.
What 50% of tuition really costs you
This is the section other listings leave out, and it is the one that decides whether you can afford to accept. UAEU charges tuition per credit hour, and the rate changes by programme. Here is what a 50% waiver leaves you paying for some of the most commonly applied for Master’s programmes, using the thesis track where both tracks exist.
| Master’s programme | Credits | AED per credit | Full tuition | You still pay with the 50% waiver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSc Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Space Science, Geosciences | 30 | 2,300 | AED 69,000 | AED 34,500 (about USD 9,400) |
| MSc Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical or Petroleum Engineering | 33 | 2,400 | AED 79,200 | AED 39,600 (about USD 10,800) |
| MSc Software Engineering, Information Security, IT Management, Internet of Things | 30 | 2,400 | AED 72,000 | AED 36,000 (about USD 9,800) |
| Master of Public Health | 34 | 1,800 | AED 61,200 | AED 30,600 (about USD 8,300) |
| MSc Clinical Research | 30 | 5,000 | AED 150,000 | AED 75,000 (about USD 20,400) |
Doctoral programmes are longer, so the remaining half is larger.
| PhD programme | Minimum credits | AED per credit | Full tuition | You still pay with the 50% waiver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhD Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Geosciences, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Ecology | 54 | 2,700 | AED 145,800 | AED 72,900 (about USD 19,800) |
| PhD Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical or Architectural Engineering | 54 | 2,400 | AED 129,600 | AED 64,800 (about USD 17,600) |
| PhD Information and Computing, Biomedical Sciences, Public Health, Nutritional Sciences | 54 | 2,400 | AED 129,600 | AED 64,800 (about USD 17,600) |
Two cautions on these figures. UAEU publishes these rates as valid up to the academic year 2025/2026 and reserves the right to change them, so check the current rate for your specific programme before you calculate anything. And these are minimum credit counts, marked as “54 credit hours or more” on the doctoral schedule, so your real total can be higher.
Now add what the waiver does not touch: your own accommodation in Al Ain for the full length of the programme, food, transport, health insurance and flights. A 50% waiver on a two year Master’s is meaningful money. It is not a funded place.
Three conditions that disqualify more applicants than the GPA does
1. You cannot hold any other sponsorship or award. This single line rules out a large share of the students who read this page. If you have a government scholarship from your home country, an employer paying your fees, a family trust, or any other university award, you are not eligible. You have to choose one. For most students a home country scholarship that covers living costs is worth more than a 50% tuition discount, so do the arithmetic before you give anything up.
2. The GPA is a maintenance requirement, not just an entry requirement. A 3.8 on a 4.0 scale is roughly a first class result with very little margin. You need it to get in, and you need it in every semester afterwards to keep the award. If your transcript uses percentages or a 10 point scale, convert it honestly and get the conversion confirmed by the College of Graduate Studies in writing before you count on this.
3. Several programmes are excluded outright. The Chancellor’s Fellowship does not apply to Education programmes, the Doctor of Business Administration, the Master of Business Administration, or the Master of Professional Accounting. If you are applying to a PhD in Science Education, Special Education, Mathematics Education, Language and Literacy Education, or Leadership and Policy Studies in Education, this award is not available to you.
There is a fourth condition that is not written as a condition. Every award in this family depends on budget availability, and meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee approval. Treat a strong application as a good chance, not a certainty.
The timing problem nobody warns you about
Read the deadline again slowly. The form is submitted after you have completed course registration in your graduate programme, during the first two weeks of classes.
That sequence has a real consequence for international students. You have to be admitted, hold an offer, arrange your student visa, pay whatever the university requires to register, travel to Al Ain and start classes, all before you are permitted to ask for the fellowship. You will not know the outcome while you are deciding whether to accept your offer.
So plan on the assumption that you will pay in full. If the award comes through, it is a substantial relief on your second semester onward. If you would be unable to continue without it, this is not a safe programme to commit to, and I would rather tell you that now than have you arrive and find out.
PhD applicants: look at this award first instead
If you are applying for a doctorate, the Merit Fellowship is usually the wrong target. UAEU runs a separate PhD Fellowship open to all nationalities, and the package is far stronger.
- Full tuition waiver rather than 50%
- Health insurance where needed
- Optional paid work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant or Graduate Administrative Assistant, up to 20 hours per week and up to AED 4,000, subject to availability
- A maintenance GPA of 3.0 rather than 3.8
It carries duties in return. Full time enrolment of at least 9 credits per semester, full time availability at UAEU, and a commitment of 40 hours per week to coursework and research. Those are real obligations, but they come with the kind of support that makes a PhD abroad financially possible.
UAEU PhD Fellowship for all nationalities, official page
Use the Merit Fellowship as your backup if the PhD Fellowship does not come through, keeping in mind that you cannot hold both.
How to apply for the UAEU Merit Fellowship Award 2026/2027
- Get admitted first. Apply to your graduate programme through the UAEU admission portal and secure an offer. The fellowship is not part of the admission application.
- Check that your programme qualifies. Education, MBA, DBA and MPA are excluded. Confirm your programme is eligible before you plan around this award.
- Complete your course registration. The form is only accepted after registration is finished, which means you need to be enrolled for the semester.
- Download the form. It is a Word document from the College of Graduate Studies, and it covers all six Chancellor’s Fellowship categories. Tick the Merit Fellowship Award for Newly Admitted Students.
- Fill it in, print it, sign it and scan it. A typed name is not a signature. Scan it as a single clear PDF.
- Submit it within the first two weeks of classes, either in person at the College of Graduate Studies or by email to cgs.scholarships@uaeu.ac.ae with the signed scan attached.
- Confirm receipt. Email submissions go into a busy inbox at the busiest point of the semester. Follow up politely after three working days and ask for written confirmation that your form has been received.
Download the Chancellor’s Fellowship application form
UAEU graduate admission portal, apply for your programme here first
Office hours and time zones
There is no single global deadline date for this award, because it is tied to your own academic calendar. What you need instead is to know when the College of Graduate Studies is actually reachable, since two weeks is a short window and the office runs on UAE time, which is UTC plus 4.
| Your location | Difference from Al Ain | When it is 9:00 am at the College of Graduate Studies |
|---|---|---|
| Pakistan (PKT) | 1 hour ahead | 10:00 am |
| India (IST) | 1 hour 30 minutes ahead | 10:30 am |
| Bangladesh (BST) | 2 hours ahead | 11:00 am |
| Nigeria (WAT) | 3 hours behind | 6:00 am |
The UAE working week runs Monday to Friday, with Friday afternoon often reduced. Send anything urgent on a Monday or Tuesday morning.
College of Graduate Studies, email cgs@uaeu.ac.ae, telephone +971 3 713 4048, located in building F3, first floor, rooms 102 to 106. Fellowship submissions go to cgs.scholarships@uaeu.ac.ae.
Is it worth applying for?
Yes, if you are already going to UAEU and you are not holding another sponsorship. The form takes twenty minutes and the award runs until graduation. Turning down a 50% waiver because it is not a full scholarship would be a strange decision.
No, if you are treating it as the thing that makes studying in the UAE affordable. It does not cover living costs, it does not cover housing, you cannot apply until you have already arrived, and half of a programme that costs AED 145,800 is still AED 72,900.
The honest framing is this. The Merit Fellowship is a discount for students who are already funded enough to get there. It is a very good discount. Build your plan around a full scholarship, a fellowship with a stipend, or your own confirmed funding, and treat this as the thing that makes the budget comfortable rather than the thing that makes it possible.
Common questions
Can international students apply?
Yes. The Merit Fellowship Award sets no nationality condition. Two of the other six categories in the same family, the UAEU Staff and Families award and the National Students award, are restricted, but the Merit award is not.
Does it cover accommodation?
No. UAEU states that it does not provide housing for graduate students at all and advises students to find accommodation near the university or in nearby communities. Budget for this separately from the start.
What happens if my GPA drops below 3.8?
The fellowship is suspended rather than withdrawn. You become entitled to receive it again once the reason for the suspension is removed, which in practice means bringing your GPA back up.
Can I apply before I arrive in the UAE?
No. The form is submitted after course registration is complete and within the first two weeks of classes, so you will already be enrolled by the time you apply.
I already have a government scholarship. Can I take both?
No. Having no other financial sponsorship or award is an eligibility condition. Compare the total value of each before you decide, and remember that a sponsorship covering living costs is usually worth more than a tuition discount.
Before you apply, read these next
- PhD scholarship reference letters, with five templates you can adapt
- Statement of purpose or cover letter, and which one you actually need
If you want a second pair of eyes on your UAEU application before you send it, I read documents line by line and return them with comments you can act on.
Document review, I read your application and send back detailed comments