Host partner

Greetings from New York University Abu Dhabi

We are thrilled to host the THE MENA Universities Summit 2023 at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). We are delighted to gather higher education leaders from across the region and welcome them to Abu Dhabi to look ahead at our ceaseless efforts to educate and empower youth, generate research that tackles the world’s challenges, and drive innovation that improves our societies.

The UAE is in an optimal position to host a conference of this caliber to discuss higher learning, creativity, and innovation in our multidisciplinary universities. The country’s collaborative stance, its inspiring international solidarity during the pandemic, its focus on climate action and sustainability, and its cultivating of diversity and inclusion extend to its development of a large and diversified ecosystem for higher education. Universities and colleges in the UAE have become leading partners in research enterprises that can only succeed by pulling together across borders in the MENA region and far beyond.

This conference will demonstrate the value of building bridges to gain wide perspectives and consensus on innovative problem-solving in higher education. It will show and discuss how higher education today can best equip the next generation for jobs that do not exist yet, and how to tackle issues to make positive contributions. The summit will stage these conversations in the MENA context, and shine light on the wide range of institutions that bring value to the region, from national and global universities focused on research to institutions that excel at preparing students for the professional opportunities and lives of greatest interest to them.

Our universities are home to some of the most talented, innovative, and motivated teachers, researchers, and students in the region, with a shared drive to improve lives, communities, and society at large. NYU Abu Dhabi welcomes them and their partner institutions to our campus on 13–15 November 2023 to source and discuss new ideas and advance the collective work of creating a world where all people can thrive.

Mariët Westermann

Vice-chancellor

New York University Abu Dhabi

6,200

research publications

2,200+

students

360+

faculty

About New York University Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective programme with majors in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts, and humanities with a world centre for advanced research. Its campus enables students to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world, and to advance cooperation and progress on humanity's shared challenges.

NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from some 120 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.

 Visit NYUAD's website