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Last updated: 10/12/07 2:50 p.m.
NYU is planning to open a full-fledged satellite campus in Abu Dhabi, potentially letting some students get a liberal arts degree from NYU without ever setting foot in New York, university officials confirmed today.
The announcement, in a press release and an university-wide e-mail from NYU president John Sexton, comes six weeks after the New York Times reported that the university was planning a site in the United Arab Emirates' capital, although NYU officials refused to comment at the time.
While NYU's efforts to open a site in the Gulf region have been public knowledge for several months and the subject of internal discussions for more than a year, university officials have until today been tight-lipped about specific details, including which country the site would call home.
Administrators say the site - a "comprehensive liberal arts campus" abroad - would be a first for a major U.S. research university.
The campus, known as NYU Abu Dhabi, is expected to begin operations in 2010 with an estimated enrollment of over 2,000 students.
While site selection and campus planning for NYUAD is underway, the Abu Dhabi government has agreed to fund the development and operation of the new campus.
According to a press release from NYU, NYUAD facilities would include "extensive" classroom, library and information technology facilities; laboratories; academic buildings; dormitories; student services; and athletic and performance facilities.
NYUAD would be a "residential research university, built with academic quality and practices consistent with the prevailing standards at NYU's Washington Square campus," according to the release.
The development of NYUAD's programs will be overseen by NYU's New York-based faculty and administrators. The facility would offer co-educational courses taught in English.
According to NYU, NYUAD would offer a range of undergraduate courses and majors "comparable to that found at a typical U.S. university of its size" and would also offer "appropriate" graduate programs.
At least a portion of NYUAD's faculty is expected to be professors on rotating assignment from New York.
NYU said it hopes the NYUAD initiative will draw students from across the globe, but particularly the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe. Acceptance to NYUAD will be determined by NYU's Office of Admissions, and financial aid will be available, "enabling a significant portion of students to attend without cost," the press release said.
According to the statement, students at NYUAD will also have opportunities to spend a semester in New York and a semester at one of NYU's other study abroad sites.
The press release says that NYU will establish the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute next year to host conferences, research workshops, short courses and seminars involving scholars and students from NYU and the Middle East to "initiative academic activities in Abu Dhabi rapidly." Meanwhile, Marit Westermann, the former director of NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, has been appointed a vice chancellor and will work with NYU officials to develop the Abu Dhabi project.
The Abu Dhabi announcement comes in the midst of a major initiative by NYU to expand its global presence. NYU currently sends more students abroad than any other American university, with approximately one-third of its students studying at one of NYU's foreign sites.
This summer, NYU announced NYU 2031, an expansion plan projecting the university's growth over the next 25 years.
Part of the NYU 2031 plan calls for developing self-contained "global regional campuses," such as NYUAD, at which students could spend all four years of their education and receive their degrees.
NYU already has standard study-abroad sites in Berlin, Florence, Ghana, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague and Shanghai, and the university recently announced plans to open new sites in Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, the School of Law has partnered with the National University of Singapore to create a dual-degree program and, earlier this month, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts opened a graduate film campus in Singapore - NYU's first degree-granting program outside of New York.
NYU is also currently in negotiations with the American University in Paris to develop an academic center and residence hall on Seguin Island in France.
Sergio Hernandez is university editor. E-mail him at shernandez@nyunews.com.
