The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has restricted government scholarships and funding for its citizens wishing to study at British universities over longstanding concerns about the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and fears of Islamist radicalisation on UK campuses, it said.
UK media is reporting that the UAE has been warning of the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK and has taken action to prevent this from spilling over.
In June 2025, the UAE Ministry of Education published a revised list of overseas universities eligible for State-funded scholarships and official degree recognition. Institutions from the US, Australia, France, and even Israel were included but British universities were conspicuously absent.
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to British officials that the omission was deliberate, driven by Abu Dhabi’s worries that Emirati students could be exposed to negative Islamist ideas while studying in the UK.
The move reflects deepening strains in UK-UAE relations, particularly over Britain’s refusal to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE designates as a terrorist organisation.
BREAKING: The United Arab Emirates is restricting their nationals from enrolling at British universities over fears that UK campuses are being radicalized by radical Islamist groups.
THIS IS BEYOND HILARIOUS! The UAE has a lower tolerance for radical Islam than the freaking UK. pic.twitter.com/Z38Cv3Quv6
— George (@BehizyTweets) January 9, 2026
A 2015 UK government review, commissioned under then-prime minister David Cameron, concluded that while the group’s ideology opposed British values, there was insufficient evidence of links to terrorism in Britain to justify proscription.
The current UK Government under Kier Starmer has stated that the matter remains under “close review”.
Right-wing leader of the opposition party Reform UK, Nigel Farage, has said he plans to ban the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes PM.
In the year ending September 2025, some 213 UAE nationals were issued UK study visas, a sharp decline from previous years.
Existing Emirati students in the UK continue to receive funding and wealthier families can still self-fund studies privately.
Degrees from non-approved institutions, though, will not be recognised by the UAE Government, diminishing their value for public-sector employment.
The UAE’s stance aligns with its broader crackdown on Islamist movements since the 2011 Arab uprisings.
Under President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly pressed London on the issue, viewing the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to regional stability.
Despite the restrictions, several British universities maintain branch campuses in the UAE, including those operated by the University of Manchester and Heriot-Watt University in Dubai.
According to the UAE, the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat to its secular regime and Emirati officials have been sounding the alarm on the brotherhood and radical islam towards the West.
In France, governmental reports have warned that the Muslim Brotherhood is “a threat that is spreading in a pernicious and progressive way”.
It is seen as a risk to national cohesion more potent than Salafism, a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam that advocated a return to the practices of early Islam.
The Brotherhood was described as an organisation aimed at promoting Islamism and “tipping over the entire society, an entire territory, into Sharia law”.
French anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler has warned that the Muslim Brotherhood has achieved so much influence in Brussels that local politicians now need its support to win elections.
The Brotherhood’s top three funders, she says, are Qatar, Turkey and the European Union.
“There will come a day, when we will see far more radical extremists & terrorists coming out of Europe because of lack of decision making trying to be politically correct or assuming that they know the Middle East & they know Islam & others far better than we do, and I am sorry…
— حسن سجواني 🇦🇪 Hassan Sajwani (@Sajwani) January 9, 2026
