Middlesex University Dubai is on course for the largest graduating class in its history, with more than 2,750 students in line to graduate as the Class of 2026, the university announced on 19 October.
The first 1,000 graduates crossed the stage at four ceremonies held at Atlantis The Royal on Palm Jumeirah, which the university said were the first graduation ceremonies to take place at the resort. Four more ceremonies will follow in early 2027, and the university said the final size of the Class of 2026 will be confirmed once all exam results have been released.
According to the university’s published graduation schedule, the first round of ceremonies took place on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, with two ceremonies on each day, and was open to eligible undergraduate graduates and to the April 2025 intake of its daytime MBA. Dates for postgraduate programmes and other MBA cohorts are to be announced separately.
A third year of growth
If the final figure holds, the Class of 2026 will be a significant step up on recent years. In a statement published on Zawya in November 2025, the university said its Class of 2025 numbered more than 2,100 students, then the largest cohort in its 21-year history, up from just over 1,500 graduates in the Class of 2024. That would mean the graduating class has grown by more than 1,200 students in two years.
The same statement said the university had welcomed close to 3,000 new students in its September 2025 intake, its largest to date, and had more than 6,400 students from over 120 nationalities, studying across more than 90 programmes.
The Class of 2025 graduated in two phases, in November 2025 and February 2026, with the February ceremonies held at Atlantis, The Palm. Moving to Atlantis The Royal takes the ceremonies to one of Dubai’s newest landmark hotels. The 43-storey resort opened on Palm Jumeirah in February 2023 and has around 760 rooms, according to Wikipedia.
About the university
Middlesex University Dubai opened in 2005 as the first overseas branch campus of Middlesex University London, according to Wikipedia. The London institution traces its origins to the 1880s and was granted university status in 1992. Middlesex also has an overseas campus in Mauritius, which opened in 2010.
In Dubai the university operates from two sites: its main campus in Dubai Knowledge Park and a second campus in Dubai International Academic City, which opened in September 2021. Its degrees run from foundation level to postgraduate study across schools covering business, accounting and finance, law, science and technology, sport science, health and education, art and design, and media. Professor Cedwyn Fernandes is the campus’s provost and director.
Regulation and accreditation
Middlesex University Dubai is licensed by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the emirate’s education regulator. According to the same Wikipedia entry, it received a five-star rating from the KHDA for the quality of its education and overall student experience in 2020 and again in 2022.
In January 2025 the university was granted institutional accreditation by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Wikipedia reports.
The university has not yet given dates or a venue for the four ceremonies planned for early 2027.
