Dubai, UAE · est. 2005 · PrivateUniversal American School opened in 2005 in Dubai Festival City, when the district itself was still being built, and belongs to the Al-Futtaim group. The school runs two roads at once: an American programme on the AERO standards and the IB programmes - the Primary Years Programme since 2010 and the Diploma since 2007. In the senior years a parent has to choose: either the IB Diploma together with the American high school diploma, or the AP and AERO path, that is the American diploma plus university credit for AP examinations. There are more than 1,350 students, and the site names 68 nationalities in one place and 80 in another. Teaching is in English, Arabic is taught as a subject from KG1, and French and Spanish from grade 6. The campus is large: a 25-metre pool, a gymnasium, a natural-grass pitch, a 400-metre running track, a professional jiu-jitsu mat, a 546-seat hall with a full-scale theatre stage, separate elementary and secondary libraries, two art studios, a recording studio, a radio station, a podcast room, a ceramics room, science and ICT labs and a medical clinic. The KHDA inspection rates the school "Very Good".
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MSA · accreditationIB · PYP, DP · authorised programmeCollege Board · authorised programmeAl-Futtaim Education Foundation · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: PYP (ages 3-12), DP (ages 16-19). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
Al-Futtaim Education Foundation is the education arm of the UAE group Al-Futtaim, and it has two schools: Universal American School in Dubai Festival City and Deira International School. On its relation to them the pages speak of management and belonging: UAS «is part of the Al-Futtaim Education Foundation», and «being managed by the Al-Futtaim Education Foundation allows UAS to take a long-term view of growth and development» (uasdubai.ae/al-futtaim-education-foundation), while the group's corporate page calls the school «operated by the Al-Futtaim Education Foundation» and «a not-for-profit American curriculum and IB World School», giving it «1,350+» students, «86+» nationalities and a «95% IBDP Pass Rate». The foundation's name is spelled two ways on that one corporate page - «Al-Futtaim Education Foundation» and «Al Futtaim Education Foundation». No founding year for the foundation and no combined figures for the two schools are given; the second school's site (disdubai.ae) was closed to machine reading by its robots.txt rules on 25 Sep 2026, and nothing was taken from it.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.