UAE's billionaire businessmen Abdul Aziz al-Ghurair launched the Arab world's largest education fund of $1.14 billion on Wednesday to cover university costs of 15,000 students from all across the Arab world over the next ten years.
The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education is a non-profit launched last year. With the new scholarship program, launched by Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, underprivileged Arab youth now have the opportunity to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in a science, technology, engineering or math field at top universities.
Currently, the scholarship program has partnered with four prominent universities across the region including American University of Beirut, American University of Sharjah, American University in Cairo, and Khalifa University .
However, the foundation does plan to extend their partnerships to prominent universities abroad, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe.
If granted the scholarship, students will not be burdened with the additional costs of attending a university, including travel expenses, on-campus housing, book expenses, cost of living allowance, essential university fees and a university health insurance plan.
To be eligible, students must have citizenship in an Arab country and be younger than 30 years of age. As a high school student, you would need to have earned an 85 percent cumulative GPA. If seeking to apply for the graduate program, you must have graduated from university with a minimum GPA of 3.0.
The deadline for submitting applications is May 30.