For previous coverage of NYUAD, go here.

NYU Abu Dhabi is being built for a number of reasons: the enhancement of NYU’s prestige, John Sexton’s vision of a global university, expanded research opportunities, and more. But the one reason making all the others possible? Money.

In many ways, NYUAD is a blank slate, allowing Sexton and NYU to create whatever they can imagine. The campus is being built on an undeveloped island, entirely new classes are being created, and (in theory) the students are being almost hand-picked. And behind the scenes, the operation is being run by an endlessly flowing spigot of funding from the Abu Dhabi government.

Let’s first clear up one misconception: NYU is not paying for any of this. Your tuition dollars are not being funneled to the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi government pays for everything associated with NYUAD: flights, construction, staff and faculty salaries, financial aid – everything. NYU just has to justify why it needs the money and it gets it.

So, for example, NYU is currently recruiting faculty in different departments to serve as standing faculty in Abu Dhabi. This search is being conducted by NYU professors. Zvi Kedem is one of those professors. In order to have the time to serve on the search committee, he is teaching a reduced course load. He told me his “time was bought off” by NYUAD – basically, the government pays the Computer Science department for his committee work. This same procedure takes place in every department designing curriculum or selecting faculty.

Is there anything NYUAD won’t pay for? Actually, yes. Alcohol. Under Sharia law (which guides the legal system in the UAE), the drinking of alcohol is illegal. So the customary practice of purchasing wine or cocktails with dinner during faculty recruitment visits will not be reimbursed by the Abu Dhabi government.

But everything else is fair game – especially financial aid. Hilary Ballon, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of NYUAD, answered my questions over the weekend. She wrote, “NYU Abu Dhabi will have a very generous financial aid package, and awards will meet each student’s need. Scholarships may include non-tuition items such as travel, books, and costs associated with class trips in the region, but these details are not yet finalized.”

Kedem went further, explaining that NYUAD’s financial aid will look a lot like Harvard’s, meeting the full need for every student. That means full scholarships, including flights to and from Abu Dhabi, books, room and board, and tuition, for students that qualify. The question is where that cutoff will be. Kedem estimates that any student whose family makes below $80,000 will receive full aid. (Harvard gives full aid to those making below $60,000).

If Kedem is right, this would be a huge incentive for students to attend NYUAD. As he pointed out, that yearly salary is much greater in less developed countries than in the US, which will help to draw in top international students.

Students who study abroad from New York will also receive significant financial aid packages. Ballon said, “The details of financial aid for study-away students have not yet been finalized,” but Graduate Student Senator Steven Jean explained that the aid will be just like that given to NYUAD students. He wrote, “They need to qualify. But basically if your parents make under a certain amount then tuition is free.” Of course, there will still be large aid packages given to students who have more than that “certain amount.”

Since the plan is to offer the first NYUAD study abroad opportunity in the spring of 2010, before the first class begins classes in fall 2010, more information should be released about financial aid in the coming months.

*

Ultimately, Kedem estimates that the Abu Dhabi government will be paying around $250 million a year to fund NYUAD. That’s over $104,000 per student, once the university is operating at its initial target of 2,000 undergraduate and 400 graduate students. And this figure doesn’t include the $50 million a year being pumped into a new research institute for NYU faculty.

One other financial storyline: Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, an exceedingly rich Emerati businessman and “one of the royal family’s most trusted advisors,” sits on the NYU board of trustees.

Next: faculty, tenure, and research.

Photo courtesy of  Steven Jean.