What Happened: An update by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Higher Education kept universities in the US, Australia, France, and Israel eligible for scholarships, but excluded the UK, effectively cutting off UAE government funding for Emirati students wanting to study in Britain.

Why Did it Happen: The UAE has moved to remove British universities from its official list of scholarship-eligible institutions for Emirati citizens, a decision senior Emirati authorities say is driven by concerns that United Kingdom (UK) campuses pose a risk of Islamist radicalisation, and by London’s failure to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood, a group the UAE deems a serious threat to regional and global security.

How Did it Happen: The UAE’s Ministry of Higher Education published a revised list of countries where Emirati citizens can study and access UAE government scholarships. This includes universities in the United States, Australia, France, and Israel but excludes UK institutions, effectively blocking students wishing to study in Britain from accessing UAE government scholarships. Emirati officials told their UK counterparts that the exclusion was “not an oversight” and that the UAE doesn't “want their kids to be radicalised on campus”.

What the British are Saying: British officials, for their part, have stressed the importance of academic freedom and have sought to downplay the scale of Islamist influence on UK campuses. But the UAE’s move highlights growing diplomatic strain between the two countries and comes against a backdrop of continuing Islamist terror threats in the UK.

Britian Faces a Massive Islamist Terror Threat: In July 2023, the British government said Islamist terrorism had accounted for 67% of terror attacks in the UK since 2018 and made up about three-quarters of MI5’s caseload, meaning most of the agency’s live investigations and operational workload still focused on this threat. MI5 is the UK’s domestic security and intelligence service, responsible for detecting and disrupting threats such as terrorism and espionage inside the country.

The decision by the UAE also comes as the UK grapples with real-world attacks. In October 2025 a man motivated by Islamic State ideology carried out a combined vehicle and knife terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester leaving members of the public dead or injured.

Emirati diplomats have long pushed the UK to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist terror movement. The UK has repeatedly resisted an outright banning, saying that the Muslim Brotherhood has not met the threshold required for banning under British law.