UAE Golden Visa: Which universities make you eligible? Here's the full list

The UAE’s Golden Visa has become a powerful symbol of the country’s ambition to attract the best minds from across the world. Ten years of residency, no need for a local sponsor, family sponsorship rights, and the promise of professional freedom in one of the most connected hubs of the 21st century—few offers are more attractive to high-achieving graduates.

That allure only grew stronger after a landmark policy update in April 2022. In a bid to sharpen its competitive edge in the global talent race, the UAE Cabinet expanded the eligibility criteria to include graduates from the world’s top 100 universities . Whether you studied in Boston, Beijing, Bengaluru, or Berlin, if your alma mater features in the upper echelons of the QS World University Rankings , you now have a gateway to the Emirates.

The reforms are part of the UAE’s broader strategy to pivot from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-powered one, as outlined in its ambitious Centennial 2071 vision. Science, technology, research, and innovation aren’t just buzzwords—they’re pillars for national transformation.

In addition to global graduates, the programme now welcomes high-performing students in UAE schools and exceptional local university alumni. Assessment criteria include academic performance, year of graduation, and the global standing of the institution—making this one of the most merit-based visa regimes in the world.

Experts say the UAE is making a deliberate shift from a traditional sponsorship model to a self-sponsored, skills-first approach.

Read: Why UAE is a great destination for students

Who is eligible?

According to the Emirates News Agency, the new visa policy is designed to “attract and retain global talents and skilled workers” and enhance the UAE’s competitiveness in the global job market.

The Golden Visa is open to:

• Graduates from the top 100 universities worldwide
  
  
• Outstanding graduates from UAE universities
  
  
• High-performing students in UAE schools
  
  

Applications from graduates will be evaluated based on:

• Academic performance
  
  
• Year of graduation
  
  
• University classification
  
  

These criteria are aligned with QS World University Rankings, which consider factors like teaching quality, research output, and employability.

“The UAE’s visa program shows that university rankings are an important tool for comparing university performance in a global context,” said Leigh Kamolins, Director of Analytics and Evaluation at QS.
“It highlights the importance that governments and employers are placing on reputable, quality education for enabling career mobility and driving knowledge economies.”
The updated policy also allows Golden Visa holders to sponsor family members, another step toward encouraging longer-term settlement and professional development within the UAE.
“The recent changes… mark a shift from immigration based on a sponsorship model to a self-sponsored model,” said Abeer Husseini, Partner at immigration law firm Fragomen.

Top 100 universities eligible for UAE Golden Visa

Below is the complete list of the top 100 universities worldwide, whose graduates are eligible to apply for the UAE Golden Visa:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

University of Oxford

Stanford University

University of Cambridge

Harvard University

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Imperial College London

University of London

Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)

University of Chicago

National University of Singapore (NUS)

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

University of Pennsylvania

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Yale University

University of Edinburgh

Tsinghua University

Peking University

Columbia University

Princeton University

Cornell University

University of Hong Kong

University of Michigan

University of Tokyo

Johns Hopkins University

University of Toronto

Australian National University

McGill University

University of Manchester

Northwestern University

Fudan University

University of California, Berkeley

Kyoto University

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

King’s College London

Seoul National University

University of Melbourne

University of Sydney

Chinese University of Hong Kong

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

New York University

University of New South Wales

PSL Research University (Paris Sciences et Lettres)

Zhejiang University

University of British Columbia

University of Queensland

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Technische Universität München (TUM)

Duke University

Carnegie Mellon University

City University of Hong Kong

University of Amsterdam

Tokyo Institute of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Monash University

Institut Polytechnique de Paris

Brown University

University of Warwick

University of Bristol

Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Universiti Malaya

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

University of Texas at Austin

National Taiwan University

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)

University of Zurich

Sorbonne University (formerly Paris IV and UPMC)

University of Glasgow

Korea University

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Osaka University

University of Southampton

Lomonosov Moscow State University

University of Copenhagen

Yonsei University

Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Tohoku University

Durham University

University of Washington

University of Auckland

Lund University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

University of Birmingham

University of St Andrews

University of Leeds

University of Western Australia

Rice University

University of Sheffield

Pennsylvania State University

Sungkyunkwan University

University of Science and Technology of China

Technical University of Denmark

University of North Carolina