MBZUAI enrolls largest ever student intake
Abu Dhabi's AI university enrolls record 403 students
#UAE #ArtificialIntelligence - Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has enrolled a record 403 new students for Fall 2025, including its inaugural undergraduate class of 115 students and new graduate cohorts across Computer Science, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Robotics programmes. The intake represents a 5% acceptance rate from over 8,000 applications whilst expanding total enrollment to more than 700 students from 47 nationalities. According to MBZUAI, 27.5% of incoming graduate students hold degrees from the world's top 100 computer science universities including Cornell, Tsinghua, Edinburgh and UC San Diego.
SO WHAT? - The new student intake shows continued strong growth in admissions, with 403 students for this year, compared with 209 students last year and 142 students in August 2023. MBZUAI’s student body (and so future output) continues to grow fast, allowing the university to play a critical role in building the UAE’s AI graduate pipeline and wider AI talent pool.
Here are some key points about this year’s MBZUAI intake:
Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) enrolled 403 new students for Fall 2025, achieving a 5% acceptance rate from over 8,000 applications across Bachelor and graduate programmes.
The inaugural undergraduate class includes 115 students from more than 25 countries, with over 25% UAE nationals, studying Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence with AI for Business and AI for Engineering streams.
New graduate programmes include the first intakes for Master of Science in Statistics & Data Science and Master in Applied Artificial Intelligence, alongside existing Computer Science, Computer Vision and Machine Learning offerings.
The total student body now exceeds 700 representing 47 nationalities, with undergraduate programmes including students from Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, UAE and UK.
Graduate students include 151 individuals (27.5%) holding degrees from world's top 100 computer science universities according to CSRankings, demonstrating the programme's ability to attract exceptional academic talent.
MBZUAI’s new Bachelor programme has helped to bolster the 2025 student intake, combining technical rigor with leadership development, entrepreneurship and industry experience.
Meanwhile, postgraduate programmes bring together students from Canada, China, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Serbia, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam, creating diverse international academic environment.
ZOOM OUT - Officially opened in 2020, MBZUAI is the world’s first graduate-level AI research university, and forms a key part of the UAE’s vision to become a global leader in artificial intelligence. The institution attracts some of the best and brightest talent from around the world. Abu Dhabi’s AI R&D ecosystem now has the biggest critical mass of AI research talent and arguably the region’s most significant AI research output. Meanwhile, demand for top AI talent continues to increase across the UAE, with investment in AI talent growing fast across commercial and government sectors.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]