CAA accreditation is the federal quality assurance approval that a higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates needs to have its degrees recognised nationally. It has two parts: a licence for the institution and accreditation for each award-bearing programme. Both rules and procedures changed in 2025, and a new federal law was issued at the end of 2025. This guide explains how the system works as of November 2026, using the regulator’s and the ministry’s own publications.
What CAA accreditation is
The Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) describes itself as “the UAE Federal Government Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education”. It sits within the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR), and its role is to license higher education institutions in the UAE and to accredit their award-bearing academic programmes.
The practical consequence is set out on the same page. To be entered in the National Register and receive federal recognition, any institution offering post-secondary education in the UAE must hold institutional licensure and accreditation of its degree, diploma and certificate programmes that last at least one year. CAA accreditation covers higher diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, postgraduate diplomas and certificates, master’s degrees and doctorates, which the CAA places at levels 6 to 8 of the UAE’s National Qualifications Framework, known as QFEmirates.
The Commission for Academic Accreditation says it holds accreditation from the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), and is a member of the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, according to its international recognition page. The CAA says its WFME accreditation supports the recognition of academic programmes in medical fields in the UAE, which matters for any medical school seeking CAA accreditation.
Who needs CAA accreditation
Federal institutions such as the Higher Colleges of Technology, private universities and international branch campuses all appear on the CAA’s register of higher education institutions. The register lists each institution’s emirate and status, and records licences that have been revoked or institutions that have merged.
The scope widened with Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2025 on Higher Education and Scientific Research, announced by MoHESR on 31 December 2025. The ministry says its provisions apply “to all higher education institutions and technical and vocational education and training institutions across the UAE, including the free zones.”
Under the law, free zone institutions must obtain authorisation from their local authority and an institutional licence from MoHESR. The ministry grants that licence to institutions holding local authorisation “without requiring them to repeat the licensing procedures or pay additional fees”. The law also prohibits any institution from offering, advertising, admitting students to or starting any programme before it has programme accreditation from the ministry.
The 2025 reforms to UAE programme accreditation
On 3 April 2025 MoHESR announced a streamlined system for institutional licensure and UAE programme accreditation, under Ministerial Resolutions No. 27 of 2024 and No. 62 of 2025. The ministry’s Undersecretary, Dr Mohammad Al Mualla, said “the licensure process for new institutions has been reduced from six months to one week” when all requirements are met.
| Process | Before | After the 2025 reforms |
|---|---|---|
| Licensure of a new institution | Six months, 28 documents | One week, 5 documents |
| Accreditation of a new programme | Nine months, 13 documents | One week, 1 document |
| Renewal of programme accreditation | Nine months | A maximum of three months |
| Renewal of institutional licensure | More than 11 documents | 1 document |
The CAA’s overview of the licensure and accreditation system adds procedural detail. Institutional licensure takes one week “if a local license exists” and involves a single site visit. Accreditation of a new programme is designed to be completed within one week and is followed by a verification visit before the programme begins. The CAA puts the renewal period for licensure and programme accreditation at 1.5 to 3 months, down from a six-month process with several evaluations.
Renewals of CAA accreditation are now risk-based. According to MoHESR, low-risk institutions receive a six-year licence with oversight every three years, while high-risk institutions receive a two-year licence with annual monitoring. Adding or closing an academic unit requires the ministry’s prior approval.
How outcomes now shape CAA accreditation
The second half of the 2025 reform is the Outcome-based Evaluation Framework, which applies to all institutions licensed by MoHESR and to new applicants. Al Mualla said the framework “ensures all institutions are evaluated on measurable outcomes.” It has six pillars, each with a fixed weight.
| Pillar | Weight |
|---|---|
| Employment outcomes | 25% |
| Learning outcomes | 25% |
| Collaboration with partners | 20% |
| Scientific research outcomes | 15% |
| Reputation and global presence | 10% |
| Community engagement | 5% |
The CAA overview says accreditation decisions are guided by 24 key performance indicators, each with defined high, medium or low thresholds. Its university guide to the framework says institutional data is used to calculate the indicators for renewing programme accreditation and institutional licensure, and that many indicators use multi-year rolling averages rather than a single year.
Where the framework identifies weak performance, an institution may have to prepare a Corrective Action Plan. Institutions not yet connected to the ministry’s data systems submit data through an interim template available from the CAA on request. For CAA accreditation, this means graduate employment and partnerships now count directly towards whether a licence and programmes are renewed, and for how long.
The 2025 law and the transition period
Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2025 sets national frameworks for licensing, qualifications, classification and quality, research, and technical and vocational education. The Arabic text of the decree-law is published by MoHESR. The ministry says the law specifies the validity period of programme accreditation, evaluation procedures and renewal processes, and that it subjects all licensed institutions to periodic classification and evaluation, with results published after approval by the Education, Human Development and Community Development Council and the Cabinet.
The law requires prior approval, from the ministry and in some cases the local authority, before an institution makes substantial changes, adds colleges, institutes or centres, closes academic units or makes major changes to programmes. Institutions offering e-learning or blended programmes must apply national quality assurance standards and subject those programmes to independent academic or professional accreditation.
Gulf News reported on 27 January 2026 that the ministry had given institutions a one-year transition period from early January 2026 to bring policies, governance and programmes into line with the law. The ministry announcement seen for this guide does not state a transition period, so institutions should confirm deadlines with MoHESR.
International accreditation and recognition
Both the 2025 reforms and the new law ease the route for programmes that already hold international accreditation. MoHESR said in April 2025 that “internationally accredited academic programmes will be automatically recognised without the need for additional procedures”.
The decree-law sets conditions. A programme with international accreditation can receive UAE programme accreditation without re-accreditation or additional fees, provided the institution holds a UAE institutional licence, the international body is reputable and accredited by the ministry, and its standards are no lower than the national standards.
The CAA has had such arrangements before. In September 2020 it agreed with AACSB International to recognise AACSB’s accreditation standards for business schools as “a key quality indicator aligned with its own governmental standards”. Institutions relying on any international accreditor should check that the body is accepted by the ministry under the current rules.
Checking CAA accreditation status
The CAA publishes a searchable register of accredited programmes, which can be filtered by institution, emirate, subject area and study level. Its status filter distinguishes active and inactive programmes, programmes “currently on probation”, closed programmes, programmes in teach-out, programmes where admission has ceased, and renamed programmes.
The CAA accreditation register for institutions uses similar categories of active, inactive and on probation. For students, employers and partner institutions, checking both registers is the most direct way to confirm whether an award carries CAA accreditation. A programme in teach-out remains listed for enrolled students but is no longer open to new entrants.
Steps to CAA accreditation for a new provider
Putting the 2025 ministerial resolutions and the decree-law together, a new provider moving towards CAA accreditation follows this sequence, according to MoHESR and CAA publications:
- Obtain approval or authorisation from the relevant local authority in the emirate or free zone.
- Apply to MoHESR for an institutional licence, with five documents and a single site visit; the target is one week where a local licence exists.
- Apply for accreditation of each programme, with one document per programme; the target is again one week.
- Host a verification visit before the programme begins, and do not advertise or admit students until accreditation is granted.
- Submit outcome data for the evaluation framework, which feeds renewal of the licence and of each programme.
- Seek prior approval before adding or closing academic units or making major changes to programmes.
The length of the licence that follows depends on risk. A low-risk institution receives a six-year licence with oversight every three years, and a high-risk institution a two-year licence with annual monitoring. That makes the outcome indicators a direct factor in how often CAA accreditation must be renewed.
What CAA accreditation means for branch campuses
For international branch campuses in free zones, the 2025 law makes federal licensing a requirement rather than an option. Several already hold it: the institutions register lists campuses such as Middlesex University Dubai and IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi as active.
Middlesex University Dubai said in February 2026 that the Commission for Academic Accreditation had granted its institutional licence in January 2025 and had since accredited all its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes open for 2026 to 2027 recruitment, including more than 90 bachelor’s honours degrees. The university said: “Moving forward, all current undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are nationally recognised in the UAE.” That recognition sits alongside its existing approval from Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
For providers planning a UAE campus, the sequence is now clear in law: local authorisation, a MoHESR institutional licence, then UAE programme accreditation before any student is admitted. With the one-week timelines and the outcomes framework, CAA accreditation has become faster to obtain but more closely tied to measurable results at renewal.
