The Emirates has placed restrictions on funding for students seeking to study in Britain due to Muslim Brotherhood influence on campuses
According to British media reports, the United Arab Emirates has chosen to limit student enrollment at UK universities over radicalization concerns, scaling back its educational grants program.
The Times, citing sources with direct insight into the decision, stated that the Gulf nation believes its students are targeted by Islamist groups—especially the Muslim Brotherhood—while attending British campuses. This transnational Islamist organization is recognized as a terrorist group in the UAE.
The UAE has announced it will no longer offer generous educational grants that cover tuition fees, accommodation, and other expenses for students wishing to study in the UK. It is not imposing a blanket ban on studying in the country, and those willing to fund their own education remain free to do so.
Last June, the Emirati higher education ministry published a list of universities eligible for scholarship grants, with no British institutions included. A source familiar with the discussions told the Financial Times that this omission was not an oversight, and the latest move had been under consideration for some time.
“[The UAE] doesn’t want its young people to be radicalized on campus,” the source stated.
The Emirates took action against the Muslim Brotherhood—a loosely organized international Islamist network that first emerged in Egypt in the 1920s—following the 2011 so-called ‘Arab Spring’. The series of Islamist-led uprisings toppled multiple governments across the Middle East and North Africa, plunging several nations including Syria and Libya into years of bloody civil war.
The UAE outlawed the organization domestically and has been pushing for international recognition of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The group has already been banned in Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and several other countries.
Late last year, US President Donald Trump designated several Muslim Brotherhood offshoots and affiliated individuals as terrorists, yet stopped short of labeling the organization itself as such. France has been considering a similar move, with a government report released last May explicitly stating the country’s authorities positively established “the anti-Republican and subversive nature of the Muslim Brotherhood.”