Dubai Medical University · Quality Assurance & Institutional Effectiveness

SDG 01

SDG 01 – No Poverty 2025

DMU contributes to SDG 1 by lowering the cost of a health-professions education for its own students and by taking its students, faculty and staff into the community to support people on low incomes, orphans and families affected by crisis. Much of this work in 2025 was carried out with the Saeed Ahmad Lootah Charity Foundation (SALCF) and framed under the UAE Year of Community.

Financial support for students

Scholarships and discounts are governed by the Student Tuition Fee, Refund & Scholarship policy (E.16), and students in hardship can apply to the Charity Fund (E.19). In April 2025 DMU announced 100% scholarships for UAE nationals in its Pharmacy and Nursing programmes through the NAFES programme, and scholarships of up to 40% for all female students (Link).

QA Hub's scholarship register records the support given in the first semester of 2025/26:

Scholarship type (Fall 2025)

Awards

Value (AED)

Merit based

156

4,483,050

Academic excellence

20

460,350

Need based

7

85,500

Sponsorship from other organisations

20

832,500

Tuition discounts (siblings, staff families and others)

230

1,955,050

Total

433 awards to 386 students

7,816,450

A further eight students applied for financial aid or fee rescheduling for 2025/26 through QA Hub's financial support form.

DMU scholarships announcement, April 2025

Food, clothing and relief

DMU, SALCF and the Dubai Food Bank ran a two-part packing and distribution drive. DMU students worked alongside pupils of the Islamic School to prepare food parcels that were delivered to labour camps across Dubai.

Students packing Ramadan food parcels

With SALCF, students took orphaned children shopping for new Eid clothes, helping each child choose an outfit, which was then distributed to them.

Eid clothes shopping with orphaned children

115 DMU volunteers packed essential food supplies for families in Gaza, with SALCF, as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 under the Mohammed bin Zayed Initiatives and UAE Aid.

DMU volunteers packing food for Gaza

Students, faculty, staff and their families joined the Mohammed Bin Rashid humanitarian campaign to prepare ten million meals for Gaza.

Free health services for vulnerable groups

Over four days, more than 100 DMU medical volunteers gave free health check-ups to more than 200 members of the Dubai Club for People of Determination.

Health check-up camp for people of determination

Nursing students and faculty ran an occupational-health session at the Dubai Public Health Center for cleaners, office assistants, security and facility staff on heat exhaustion, hygiene and blood pressure — a workforce that is among the lowest paid and most exposed to summer heat.

Sources