Admissions Rules

Admissions policies are clearly articulated so that they can be understood by applicants and implemented consistently by those making the decisions. Applicant information used for admission decisions should be gathered systematically and used consistently.  Admission decisions depend on many factors including accrediting agencies' requirements, societal factors such as the development of UAE nationals, student scholastic achievement, leadership experience, work record, and other indices that may be related to academic and career success.The University follows its admission policies in making admission decisions. Admission policies include all factors considered in entry decisions and should be accessed and understood by all participants in the entry process. Admission policies should result in:

• Student body that supports the achievement of the UD mission.
• Higher Retention rates.
• Higher 4-yr graduation rates.

Applicants must fulfill the following requirements:

• Admission Form.
• Original UAE high school certificate or certified equivalent (approved by the Ministry of Education).
• Copy of valid UAE residence visa or UAE /GCC citizenship (Kholasat Al Kaid).
• Copy of valid passport or identity card
• Six recent colored passport-size photographs
• Medical Certificate
• Pay AED 300 non-refundable fees for admission
• Pay AED 100 for the ID card.

Transfer students must also submit the original transcripts from the college/university they are transferring from. In addition, transfer students must submit course Syllabi and course descriptions of all courses they seek to transfer for credit.

Admitted First-Time/Transfer students will be contacted by the Admission personnel and informed of the English (If candidate does not have the TOEFL requirements) and Math placement exams (If candidate does not have the SAT requirements) needed and the date for the placement exams.

A. Regular Admission

1. A minimum of 65% in High School
2. A minimum of 500 in TOEFL (or its equivalent)

B. Conditional Admission (Revised Admission- Effective Fall 2009)

1. Candidates (First-Time & Transfer) with less than 65% (but not below 60) in High School are considered on a case-by-case basis. The accepted student will have to achieve a 2.0 GPA upon completing the study of 18 credit hours at UD. Students having a High School percentage below 60% must join a Foundation Program.
2. Candidates with less than 500 on TOEFL (or do not have a valid TOEFL score) will have to take the English placement exam and will be placed in English (remedial or credited) courses based on their achieved scores.
3. Students may not register beyond 18 credit hours unless they fulfill all regular admission requirements.
4. Upon finishing the maximum allowed credit hours, the student may not register any additional new courses and will be given one semester to remedy the deficiency (TOEFL, or GPA 2.0 for those with low high-school percentage) or else be dismissed.
5. The students may be given additional chance (one semester) to meet the requirements with the approval of the President of UD.

A. First-Time Students.

All First Time students who cannot provide a valid official score for TOEFL (or its equivalent) must take the relevant on-campus exam for appropriate placement or else will be placed in the beginning levels (remedial) for English.

All First Time students who cannot pass the Math Placement Exam must take a remedial course in pre-Math.

The student pays the fees in order to attend the Placement exams.

MATH Placement Exam

1. Students may choose to register in Intensive Math without taking the placement test.
2. Students who have received a score of 400 on the SAT Reasoning Test (MATH) at any time in the past will be able to register in Math I and do not need to take the Math placement exam.
3. All other First-Time students must take the Math placement test at UD; they may then register in the appropriate Math course according to their results as follows:

Math Placement Score	Placed in
Below 400	Intensive Math
400 and above	Math 1

English Placement Exam

1. Students may choose to register in Intensive Level 1without taking the placement test.
2. Students who have received the required score of 500 on the TOEFL (or its equivalent) within the last two years will be able to register in English I and do not need to take the English placement exam.
3. All other First-Time students must take the English placement test at UD or its equivalent as listed in the table below.

English Placement test*	ITP TOEFL score**	IELTS Score**	IB TOEFL**	CBT**	Placed in:
Below 400	< 400	≤ 4 Overall	< 32	< 97	Intensive English level 1
400-449	400-449	4.5 Overall	32-44	97-132	Intensive English level 2
450-489	450-499	5-5.5 on the Overall but < 5 in at least one part.	45-60	133-172	Intensive English level 3
490-549	500-549	5-5.5 on All Parts	61-78	173-212	English I
550 and above	≥ 550	≥ 6 on All Parts	≥ 79	≥ 213	English II

* In order to continue at UD, students registering in English I or II courses on the basis of their score on the UD placement test must obtain a minimum 500 and 550 respectively in an official ITP TOEFL administered at UD or Amideast. The admission of these students will be treated as conditional until they meet the requirements and according to the stated UD rules.

** Score certificates on ITP TOEFL, IELTS, must be received directly from the institution. They must be taken within the last two years. Only scores received from approved institutions will be accepted.

B. Transfer Students

MATH Placement Exam

Transfer students who present evidence of having obtained a minimum score of 400 on the Mathematics section of SAT Reasoning Test (international test) at any time in the past does not have to meet any further Math proficiency requirements.

Transfer students who do not present evidence of having obtained the score on the Mathematics section of SAT Reasoning Test, but who are given conditional credit for Math I or Math II on the basis of courses completed at another institution, must obtain the minimum required score on the Math Proficiency Exam prior to registering any courses at UD beyond 18 C.H. or prior to registering into courses that require the Math Proficiency Exam (Microeconomics, Principles of Financial Accounting Statistical Analysis, and Quantitative Methods).

All other transfer students are subject to the same Math proficiency requirements as first-time students and will be placed according to the test result.

English Proficiency Requirements

Transfer students who present evidence of having obtained the minimum scores at any time in the past do not have to take any further English proficiency requirements. (See Table above)

Transfer students who do not meet the above requirement, but who are given conditional credit for English I and/or English II on the basis of courses completed at another institution, must obtain the minimum official scores on the English proficiency exams as indicated in table above. Their admission is considered conditional till the official TOEFL/Equivalent scores are presented.

All other transfer students are subject to the same English proficiency requirements as First-Time students.

• Accounting Department sends copies of the students’ receipts for the Placement Test fees to the Department of Admission and Registration.
• The Department of Admission and Registration enters the names of all the new students who paid the fees into the SIS which can be accessed by CESL and GED.  The CESL and GED should not allow any student not listed to take the exam unless the student shows the receipt indicating his/her payment of the fees and identity card.
• Scores will be entered into the Student Information System by the respective English and the General Education departments.
• Copies of the placement tests reports must be kept inside each student file.
• All logistics of coordinating with AMIDEAST (the agency for administering ITP TOEFL) will be done by the Head of CESL.

UD approves, in principle, the admission of applicants transferring from other institutions of higher education. These candidates are eligible for admission subject to the following conditions:

1. The institution they are transferring from is recognized by the ministry of higher education and uses the credit-hour system.
2. Applicants transferring from other institutions must have earned a GPA of not less than 2.00 points and may only be given transfer credit for courses which are equivalent to those offered by UD and in which they have received a minimum grade of C, (2.0 points or 70%).
3. If the transferred student is on academic waning (GPA is less than 2.0), he/she will be accepted with a conditional acceptance in which he will study a different concentration from the one he already had, the general requirement courses are the only courses to be considered.
4. Prior to their admission, transfer students will be informed in writing of transfer courses approved by the college Dean. The transfer courses will be conferred upon reception of official transcripts.
5. Transfer credits are entered on the student transcript and student academic plan with a grade of “TC”. The transferred courses are credited hours but no grade points are assigned; thus, they are not used in computing the student's Grade Point Average (GPA).
6. The maximum number of credits a student may transfer must not exceed 50% of the total hours required for graduation.
7. Transferred courses must match at least 80% of the course content of UD courses.
8. No credits will be granted twice for similar courses taken at different universities.

Conditions

• Passed successfully all the prerequisites to the required subjects.
• Full adherence to UD regulations and rules including attendance
• Cumulative number of credit hours allowed for registration to visitor students should not exceed 63 credit hours and cannot register for more than 2 consecutive regular semesters (Short terms are not counted).
• The visitor student could be accepted as a regular student after the compliance with UD admission   requirements.
• Visiting student may register during any day of registration.

Documents Required

• Copy of a valid Passport.
• Three Recent photographs.
• UAE residence visa.
• Original transcripts from the university in which the student is currently studying.

Admission Regulations

The following admission regulations are followed:

• Admission and acceptance of students to UD is valid only for one semester. Students who fail to register will lose their admission status and must resubmit their application as a new applicant. The university will only keep the files in its records for two semesters after their submission.
• Applicants should make sure that all documents required for finalizing their admission are submitted to the Admission and Registration Department before registration begins;
• The names of UD students on all University documents are spelled in English exactly as they appear on their passports or identity cards. If a name on a passport or an identity card does not appear in English, it will be spelled according to the applicant's preference;
• Applicants, who were denied admission to UD, may file a petition for admission on a conditional basis. These applicants will be evaluated on a case by case basis by the Student Affairs Committee. The final or denial approval may only be granted by the President.
• Students granted conditional admission will be considered AT-Risk and accordingly, they will be closely monitored by the faculty mentor assigned to him/her.
• Issue a student status report for conditionally admitted students at the end of each semester and a hard copy is kept in the student's file.

Administrative Procedures for handling Admission

• Collect all the required admission documents from the student.
• Enter the student data into the SIS
• Issue an ID number.
• Provide the student with the dates of the placement tests.
• Notify the student officially of the admission status.
• Get the receipts for the application and placement tests fees.
• Keep a copy of the notification letter in the student file (it should be signed from both student and Registrar).
• Enter the placement test results into SIS (English through the CESL), (Math through the GED).
• Keep a record of the placement test results in each student file.

All students who have withdrawn from the university or cancelled registration from UD and wish to be re-admitted must submit a formal request to the Admission and Registration Department. A dismissed student may be re-admitted as a new student only. The president may approve the student's readmission, based on the recommendation of the Student Affairs Committee.

Student File

All original records of students who join UD will be kept in security vaults and regularly maintained by the Admission and Registration department.  Student files must contain the following:

• Application form.
• Original High School Certificate.
• Passport copy.
• 6 Passport –Size photographs.
• Official TOEFL certificate.
• Notification letter of acceptance
• Record of the Math & English placement test results.
• Registration and (Adding, Dropping) forms.
• Recent copy of the UD Transcripts.
• Original copies of any other transcripts for transferred courses.
• Probation (Academic or Disciplinary) notification letter
• Student Status Report (for conditionally admitted students)

Record Confidentiality

• No records from student files may be disclosed without the prior approval of the Registrar and the student’s written request presented in person.
• No records are amended without the prior approval of the Registrar and based on official documents.
• The A&R coordinator is authorized to manage and update students’ files
• The rights of viewing the students’ information though the SIS:

  Registrar is authorized to view/amend all the information.
  Head of Admission is authorized to view the information related to the admission.
  Head of Registration is authorized to view the information related to the registration in courses.
  The Student is authorized to view the transcript, final exam results and the courses registered in the current semester (through the online registration). The access is password-protected.
  Any student-related information and records must only issued by the Admission and Registration department.

Record Backup

The IT Services are requested to take two types of system backups:  The SIS database must be backed-up twice daily. A second back-up must be taken daily for all servers at UD.

The test lasts for about two-and-a-half hours, including the instructions before the test starts. The students must attend the exam on time; late-comers will not be admitted. All the questions in the exam are multiple-choice.  The results of the exam will usually be available after two working days. Depending on the result, the student will be able to register in one of five different English courses at the university.

The test consists of three parts.  The first part includes listening to recorded conversations and talks, and answering questions.  The second part asks you to identify mistakes in sentences or to choose the correct version of a sentence.  The third part involves reading several passages and answering questions on them.

The test lasts for about one-and-a-half hours, including the instructions before the test starts.  The students must attend the exam on time; late-comers will not be admitted. All the questions are multiple-choice. The result of the test will be available the following working day. Depending on the result, the student will be able to register in either Intensive Math or the regular Math I (Credit Hour) course.

The Math Placement Test is focusing on the following concepts:
Number and operations : Arithmetic word problems (including percent, ratio, and proportion), properties of integers (even, odd, prime numbers, divisibility, etc), Rational numbers, Sets (union, intersection, elements), Counting techniques, Sequences and series (including exponential growth), Elementary number theory.
Algebra and functions: substitution and simplifying algebraic expressions, properties of exponents, Algebraic word problems, Solutions of linear equations and inequalities, Systems of equation and inequalities, Quadratic equations, Rational & radical equations, Equations of lines, Absolute value, Direct and inverse variation, Concepts of algebraic functions, Newly defined symbols based on commonly used operations.
Geometry and Measurement: Area and perimeter of a polygon, Area and circumference of a circle, Volume of a box, cube, and cylinder, Pythagorean Theorem and special properties of isosceles, equilateral, and right triangles, properties of parallel and perpendicular lines, coordinate geometry, geometric visualization, slope, similarity, transformations
Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability: Data interpretation (tables and graphs), Descriptive statistics (mean, median and mode) probability.