The UAE's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has rolled out a new AI-powered platform for scholarship applications that reduces the entire process to just five minutes, officials announced this week. The system connects directly with several government entities, including the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security and the National Service and Reserve Authority.
Rashed Karam Al Kaabi, Director of the International Education Support and Scholarships Department, said the digital integration has cut the number of documents applicants must submit down to just two. The number of steps required to complete an application has also dropped from five to three, while the number of form fields has been reduced from 22 to four.
Under the new system, personal information and high-school transcripts are retrieved automatically from government databases, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The platform also allows scholarship agreements to be signed electronically and sends applicants real-time notifications on the status of their requests.
Ministry officials described the launch as part of a broader push to accelerate digital transformation across education services, with the goal of making it easier for students to access scholarship opportunities. The Ministry of Education is also involved in the rollout, and authorities expect the simplified process to increase the number of successful scholarship applications during the current academic year.