Vision and Mission

NYUAD Vision

To be a world-class leader in, and new paradigm for, global higher education, defined by excellence in research, teaching, and learning, resulting in a distinguished, diverse, and united scholarly community for Abu Dhabi and the world.

NYUAD Mission

To welcome and educate global citizens, and produce knowledge in order to promote human understanding and to better society. Through distinctive global liberal arts education and graduate programs, we enable students and graduates to achieve intellectual, personal, and professional fulfillment and empower them to make significant societal contributions to Abu Dhabi and the world. Through cutting-edge research, we develop knowledge, foster creativity and innovation, and help solve humanity’s shared challenges. Together, we contribute to Abu Dhabi’s knowledge-based economy and society, and play a central role in NYU’s global mission.

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU's agreement with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to create NYU Abu Dhabi is the outcome of a shared understanding of the essential roles and challenges of higher education in the 21st century: a common belief in the value of a liberal arts education, concurrence on the benefits a research university brings to the society that sustains it, a conviction that interaction with new ideas and people who are different is valuable and necessary, and a commitment to educating students who are true citizens of the world.

The following principles are foundational to achieving NYU Abu Dhabi’s vision and fulfilling its mission:

• Dedication to a distinctive global liberal arts education that develops critical thinking, empathy, integrity, leadership, and love of lifelong learning
• Advancement of a new model of global higher education that attracts students from across the world, fostering intercultural understanding and global citizenship
• Passion for discovery, innovation, and the sharing of knowledge
• Commitment to being an anchor institution in and of Abu Dhabi as a dynamic hub for knowledge, culture, and innovation
• Respect for the value of diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to community engagement and ethical responsibility
• Commitment to academic freedom, rooted in the belief that human understanding advances through rigorous study, exchange of ideas, collaboration, interdisciplinarity, encounters with difference, and mutual respect.