NYU Abu Dhabi plans to increase its enrollment by 40% over the next five years, as reported by The National, a news outlet in the United Arab Emirates.
The campus will not be expanding its building space to accommodate the increasing student population, according to NYUAD Acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of External Relations Kate Chandler.
“NYU Abu Dhabi is on track to grow to some 2,200 undergraduate students and around 400 graduate students over the next half decade, as has been the plan from the beginning,” Chandler wrote in an email to WSN. “The existing campus was built to house this population.”
Student body President of NYUAD Hafsa Ahmed said new graduate programs will contribute to the rise in population.
“Since 2 new masters programs are now being offered starting next fall, there will naturally be an increase in the number of students on campus,” Ahmed wrote in an email to WSN.
Ahmed is referring to the Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media and the Master of Science in Economics degrees, which will begin to matriculate students in fall 2020. Both applications open Wednesday.
NYUAD senior Michael Liu said the expansion has the potential to increase opportunities and connections between current students and alumni.
“The growing student body is definitely a good thing because it can help build up NYUAD’s reputation more rapidly and we will have a larger alumni network in a few years,” Liu said.
However, Liu said more students means facilities such as dining halls and fitness centers may become more crowded.
“The problem right now is that it seems the infrastructure is slow to catch up,” Liu said.
Email Alexandria Johnson at [email protected].
