Middle East and North Africa

Entry Requirement

Undergraduate

For students from most countries in the region, we require a foundation programme, previous university/college study or international high school qualifications for entry into our Undergraduate Bachelor degree courses.

For students from Morocco, we will consider grades above 17 from the Moroccan Baccalaureat. 

We accept a number of international qualifications, including the International Baccalaureate with the majority of our courses requiring a grade between 29 - 32 or the SAT with the majority of our courses requiring a minimum of 1100 out of 1600 with 550 in each test.

We also offer a range of Foundation Programmes which can lead to entry to our undergraduate degrees, please visit University of Essex International College for further information. 

Some courses have higher entry requirements as well as other admissions criteria. Please see individual courses for more information or email our admissions team admit@essex.ac.uk.

Postgraduate Taught (Masters)

Many of our Postgraduate Taught Masters will consider applicants with a equivalent to UK 2:2 or above from a Bachelor degree. See country specific requirements below. Some courses and departments have higher entry requirements as well as other admissions criteria. Please see individual courses for more information or email our admissions team at pgadmit@essex.ac.uk

We also have a range of Pre-Masters Foundation Programmes available through our partner Kaplan International Colleges if you do not meet these grades. Please visit University of Essex International College for further information.

Postgraduate Research 

For entry to Research degrees, please refer to the entry requirements for the degree that you are interested in. 

An undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK 2:2 (see the grade information above), and a master's degree with a good grade is required for most PhD programmes, in addition to a well-developed research proposal in a field in which we can offer supervision. Please have a read through our information for research degree applicants and check the course details for your chosen programme for further information about entry criteria.

Scholarships and funding

Our Essex Global Talent Scholarship, worth 50% of the first year tuition fee, is available for international undergraduate or masters students.

The International Baccalaureate Excellence Scholarship offers £2,000 scholarships to students who start at Essex in 2025-2026 and achieve academic excellence in their International Baccalaureate.

The University of Essex International College Progression Scholarship offers £3,000 scholarships to students progressing directly from the University of Essex International College to register for a full-time undergraduate degree at the University of Essex.

Our Middle East Undergraduate Scholarship offers up to £3,000 scholarships to undergraduate students from Middle East. Please visit the link for further details about deadlines and eligibility.

Our Academic Excellence International Masters Scholarship offers scholarships worth up to £5,000 to international students who took undergraduate degree in specified countries or in the UK and are self-funding their postgraduate studies. Please visit the link for further details about deadlines and eligibility.

Our Africa Regional Scholarship offers up to £4,000 scholarships to undergraduate students from member states of the African Union. Please visit the link for further details about deadlines and eligibility.

Our Africa Postgraduate Scholarship offers up to £4,500 scholarships to undergraduate students from member states of the African Union. Please visit the link for further details about deadlines and eligibility.

Please visit our Scholarships pages for information about additional funding opportunities.

Our Student Society

 We’ve got over 100 clubs and societies at Essex, including our friendly Arabic society, where you’ll have the chance to:

• Socialise with other Arabic-speaking students
• Join the celebration in the annual Arab style party
• Make and enjoy Arabic food
• Partake in society socials

Explore the Arabic society

Join in the conversation and get to know other students with the society's Facebook page.

Spotlight of the region 

Advanced Institutional Visit to Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2023

To support the partnership goals of the University of Essex, as outlined in the University’s Partnership Sub-Strategy, our senior management team, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Anthony Forster, along with Dr. Annecy Lax, Professor Maria Fasli, Executive Dean of Science and Health, and Vanessa Potter, Director of CER, recently visited Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from September 30 to October 6. This visit was supported by the Middle East and North Africa Regional Team, comprised of Rosie Kaylani and Hassan Abdelrahim.
The University has longstanding partnerships with universities in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The visit proved highly successful in revitalizing existing university partnerships and forging new relationships. Essex has been a particularly popular destination, especially between 2000 and 2010, for disciplines such as Economics, Languages and Linguistics, Law, Computer Science, and Electronic Engineering.

Two receptions were held by the Vice-Chancellor in Riyadh and Jeddah for academic staff from various universities. Anthony Forster commented, ‘not only was it a chance for me to share our successes, but also an opportunity for me to hear first-hand from our amazing alumni about their experience of studying at Essex and how this offered them opportunities not available in their home countries’. Approximately 30% of Essex's female alumni in KSA are employed in Higher Education, with many PhD alumni now holding senior leadership positions and spearheading internationalization efforts, eager to foster partnerships in their respective universities.

Anthony also expressed his encouragement, stating,‘I was encouraged by the quality of international partners who would like to work with us and how our international partnerships and Essex graduates are making a difference in the world’.

Hear from our Alumni

Read about our graduate and British Council Alumni Award finalist Khalifa Al Haroon who studied a foundation course in English language at Essex in 2003. He is the founder of ILoveQatar.net and RaqamiTV.

You can also watch his interview with the British Council where he talks about his transformational, international study experience in the UK.

Meet us in your region

We do not have visits planned to the region in the near future.

Get in touch with your country contact: