United Arab Emirates University Research Rankings
Compare United Arab Emirates universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 49 index-ready universities in United Arab Emirates. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 3,091 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 24,413. The average publication-growth signal is 70.5%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.
Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.
Top research universities in United Arab Emirates
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Khalifa University of Science and Technology | United Arab Emirates | 87.2 | 25,096 | 185,950 | 154.5% |
| #2 | United Arab Emirates University | United Arab Emirates | 81.9 | 18,157 | 173,171 | 30.3% |
| #3 | University of Sharjah | United Arab Emirates | 80.4 | 18,896 | 193,200 | -5.8% |
| #4 | Amity University | United Arab Emirates | 79.8 | 13,037 | 32,411 | 199.5% |
| #5 | Abu Dhabi University | United Arab Emirates | 74.4 | 6,134 | 54,086 | 76.0% |
| #6 | Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence | United Arab Emirates | 74.4 | 4,540 | 55,150 | 114.1% |
| #7 | Ajman University | United Arab Emirates | 73.4 | 7,156 | 73,787 | 17.1% |
| #8 | New York University Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates | 73.1 | 4,993 | 47,105 | 24.7% |
| #9 | American University of Sharjah | United Arab Emirates | 72.0 | 4,660 | 43,857 | 4.7% |
| #10 | Zayed University | United Arab Emirates | 71.1 | 6,100 | 45,776 | -5.3% |
| #11 | Al Ain University | United Arab Emirates | 70.3 | 5,407 | 46,205 | 11.2% |
| #12 | Ras al-Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University | United Arab Emirates | 70.3 | 2,062 | 13,619 | 214.7% |
| #13 | University of Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 69.1 | 3,054 | 20,741 | 100.6% |
| #14 | Higher Colleges of Technology | United Arab Emirates | 67.2 | 3,662 | 22,757 | 14.0% |
| #15 | Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences | United Arab Emirates | 66.9 | 2,566 | 17,034 | 58.3% |
| #16 | Gulf Medical University | United Arab Emirates | 66.0 | 2,786 | 15,568 | 40.7% |
| #17 | British University in Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 62.6 | 1,170 | 12,855 | 25.8% |
| #18 | City University Ajman | United Arab Emirates | 62.6 | 1,121 | 6,174 | 152.5% |
| #19 | Skyline University College | United Arab Emirates | 61.9 | 1,280 | 23,953 | -31.5% |
| #20 | Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates | 61.5 | 1,877 | 7,643 | 49.0% |
| #21 | Rabdan Academy | United Arab Emirates | 61.5 | 1,446 | 14,960 | 31.8% |
| #22 | Canadian University of Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 61.4 | 1,236 | 10,659 | 45.2% |
| #23 | American University of Ras Al Khaimah | United Arab Emirates | 61.1 | 1,084 | 6,989 | 40.3% |
| #24 | University of Wollongong in Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 60.3 | 1,020 | 8,661 | 26.5% |
| #25 | American University in Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 60.2 | 886 | 3,527 | 112.2% |
| #26 | Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani - Dubai Campus | United Arab Emirates | 59.7 | 1,093 | 7,122 | 16.4% |
| #27 | Dubai Medical College | United Arab Emirates | 59.6 | 1,453 | 4,266 | 51.4% |
| #28 | Synergy University Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 59.5 | 919 | 5,722 | 46.7% |
| #29 | Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University | United Arab Emirates | 58.1 | 686 | 5,847 | 38.8% |
| #30 | American University in the Emirates | United Arab Emirates | 57.9 | 921 | 9,260 | -13.3% |
| #31 | Emirates Aviation University | United Arab Emirates | 56.0 | 295 | 1,193 | 238.6% |
| #32 | Heriot-Watt University Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 56.0 | 573 | 3,157 | 54.7% |
| #33 | University of Khorfakkan | United Arab Emirates | 55.7 | 406 | 1,800 | 456.3% |
| #34 | Rochester Institute of Technology - Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 55.4 | 677 | 4,444 | 18.3% |
| #35 | University of Modern Sciences | United Arab Emirates | 54.9 | 1,045 | 918 | 68.9% |
| #36 | Dubai Pharmacy College | United Arab Emirates | 53.7 | 711 | 2,955 | 64.7% |
| #37 | Emirates College for Advanced Education | United Arab Emirates | 53.3 | 375 | 2,901 | 15.8% |
| #38 | Islamic Azad University, UAE Branch | United Arab Emirates | 52.3 | 318 | 788 | 178.5% |
| #39 | Liwa University | United Arab Emirates | 51.8 | 241 | 2,719 | 52.1% |
| #40 | Middlesex University Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 51.8 | 287 | 2,202 | 25.0% |
| #41 | MODUL University Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 49.0 | 285 | 428 | 70.8% |
| #42 | Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government | United Arab Emirates | 48.6 | 347 | 1,306 | -7.4% |
| #43 | American College of Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 48.2 | 137 | 474 | 153.1% |
| #44 | College of Islamic and Arabic Studies | United Arab Emirates | 47.2 | 426 | 669 | 31.7% |
| #45 | Ittihad University | United Arab Emirates | 46.9 | 210 | 166 | 317.2% |
| #46 | Jumeira University | United Arab Emirates | 46.4 | 199 | 448 | 74.2% |
| #47 | European University College | United Arab Emirates | 45.1 | 124 | 146 | 106.1% |
| #48 | Al Khawarizmi International College | United Arab Emirates | 43.3 | 184 | 700 | -50.0% |
| #49 | Al Ghurair University | United Arab Emirates | 42.1 | 103 | 761 | -53.2% |
How ITS Research Score v2 is constructed
Every index-ready institution has a base score from recent output, citations, h-index, i10-index and publication growth. After deep enrichment completes, ITS Research Score v2 uses six dimensions: 25% output strength, 30% Research Impact Score, 20% Momentum Score, 10% international-collaboration share, 5% open-access share and 10% topic-diversity signal. Output and citation-scale terms are log-normalized to reduce domination by the largest universities.
Research Impact Score combines citation intensity, h-index, two-year mean citedness when available and i10 visibility. It is intentionally not called field-normalized impact. International collaboration is based on recent works with authors from more than one country. Research diversity is an entropy-based summary of the institution’s leading topic signals, not a department count.
These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.