UCL Global Business School for Health receives licence for new hub in Dubai Healthcare City
Healthcare professionals across the Gulf are set to gain access to specialist postgraduate and executive education through a new Dubai hub, following UAE approval for University College London’s Global Business School for Health. It will be the first hub in the region delivered by a global top ten university.
Based in Dubai Healthcare City, the hub aims to broaden access to healthcare leadership training for professionals across the UAE and neighbouring regions. Its first cohort is expected in 2027, with teaching designed to connect management education to the practical challenges facing healthcare organisations.
The planned provision focuses on the skills needed to manage increasingly complex health systems. Organisational performance and digital transformation are central to its approach, supported by partnerships with healthcare providers and government. The school also intends to develop research links across the region.
Professor Nora Colton, Founding Director of the UCL Global Business School for Health (GBSH) says the UAE’s healthcare ambitions require leaders able to work across organisational boundaries. She points to the growing importance of management capability as health systems expand their focus beyond treatment to prevention and longevity.
“Our hub in Dubai plans to build enduring partnerships with the government, healthcare providers, wider industry, and academia to address complex healthcare challenges, strengthen leadership capability, solve real organisational challenges, and contribute directly to the UAE’s future health economy,” she says. “To realise these ambitions for the whole region will require leaders who can work across traditional boundaries and organisations with the capability to continually adapt and transform.”
The Dubai programme portfolio includes an Executive MBA Health alongside specialist master’s degrees. The MSc in Health and Wellness Management covers leadership across the wellness and medical tourism sectors. The MSc in Digital Health and Entrepreneurship focuses on innovation, including the use of technology for prevention and early intervention. Executive education will provide further professional development opportunities in strategic leadership and health policy.
Teaching is planned in a flexible, part-time format, with London-based faculty delivering intensive teaching blocks. Qualifications will be awarded by UCL under the academic frameworks used for its London programmes. The hub will offer a limited specialist portfolio, with no plans for large-scale undergraduate or postgraduate teaching.
Participants will work with healthcare case studies and undertake projects with partner organisations. Consultancy assignments will give them opportunities to apply their learning to operational challenges, while executive education is intended to support longer-term organisational development.
The expansion is being developed in collaboration with Dubai Healthcare City Authority. It supports Dubai’s Education 33 strategy and the emirate’s wider economic agenda, with an emphasis on developing specialist capabilities for the evolving health sector.
The hub aims to bring clinical professionals together with colleagues from other disciplines, including economics and engineering. Longer-term institutional partnerships will support research and knowledge exchange, addressing challenges such as workforce shortages and the demands of digital transformation across the wider region.
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