By Amitha
As artificial intelligence reshapes the future of work, universities across the GCC are redesigning undergraduate education around adaptability, interdisciplinary thinking and employability
Dubai, Sept 28, 2026: A shift from content to capability is reshaping how degrees are designed and taught at universities across the region. Significant emphasis is being laid on the capacity of graduates to keep learning as their professions are being remade by artificial intelligence.
Universities across the GCC are redefining what makes an undergraduate programme ‘New Age,’ shifting the measure of value away from specific technical content, since today’s tools risk becoming outdated by graduation, and towards adaptability, digital fluency and independent judgement that hold up over a career.
There is a deliberate move away from teaching specific tools/aspects, which are likely to be outdated before a student graduates, towards building the underlying capacity to keep learning.
“A ‘New Age’ undergraduate programme is not defined by the technology it contains but by the kind of mind it forms,” says Prof Nathalie Martial-Braz, Vice-Chancellor of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD). “The function of a university is not to transfer information; it is to transfer thinking, the reasoning process itself.”
Prof Ghassan Aouad, Chancellor of Abu Dhabi University (ADU) says more than the knowledge it delivers, a new age undergraduate programme is defined by how effectively it prepares students for careers that will continue to evolve throughout their professional lives.” According to him, graduates today need technical expertise alongside adaptability, digital fluency, critical thinking, collaboration and an entrepreneurial mindset.
