Staff
Dubai, Sept 29, 2026: Campus management systems are moving from back-office record-keeping to platforms that connect admissions, academics, finance and student services in one place. Cloud delivery, AI-assisted workflows and mobile self-service are the main levers, while regulators are raising the bar on reporting.
“Campus management systems are evolving from static systems of record into connected platforms of intelligence and action,” says Maged Fahmy, Senior Vice President and Head of Region, Middle East at Ellucian, a higher education software provider. “The shift to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is foundational.” He says “artificial intelligence is now embedded directly into this foundation rather than added as a standalone feature,” bringing insight into daily staff work while keeping the security and governance universities require.
Mujahed Obeidat, Head of Product – OneEdu at RAQM, which develops the OneEdu higher education ERP for UAE institutions, sees three forces behind the change: regulation, expectations and consolidation. On regulation, he says, “In the UAE, the move to outcomes-based evaluation means institutions are assessed continuously against defined KPIs spanning learning outcomes, employability, research and community engagement — so systems must capture accreditation evidence as it happens rather than assembling it at renewal time.”
Evaluation framework
In the UAE, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s Outcomes-Based Evaluation Framework took effect in April 2026. It assesses universities against 24 key performance indicators covering areas including employment, learning, research and community engagement. The ministry is also cutting its own electronic services from 38 to 18 on a single unified platform.
On expectations, Obeidat says students “arrive expecting the same frictionless digital experience they get from consumer apps.” And institutions are moving away from disconnected tools. “The systems winning today provide a single source of truth – one platform where a change in enrolment instantly reflects in finance, scheduling and accreditation reporting,” he says. “The result is a shift in the registrar’s office from data entry to decision-making.”
