KAUST Admission Process

Once your application has been submitted, our Admissions team will review your application to confirm there are no missing documents or errors in your application. If there are any issues, our team will contact you to submit them before your application proceeds any further.

Once your application has been checked and approved by the Admissions team, it will be passed on for review by a faculty review committee.

In this stage, the faculty review committee will evaluate and rank your application against all other submitted applications. The most promising applications will then be shortlisted and be moved forward to the Academic Interview stage.

If you have been selected, you will be sent an email inviting you to an online academic interview with a panel of KAUST faculty from your subject area. The focus of this interview is to evaluate your academic background, area of interest, and career plan.

If you have passed the academic interview, you will be sent an email inviting you to an virtual KAUST interview. During the KAUST interview you will be asked questions around your general interests, hobbies, motivations, and expectations of becoming a student at KAUST. These questions are designed to determine whether you will be a good fit in our scientific community. You can find out more about the on-campus lifestyle on the Life at KAUST page. 

Students will be contacted by email regarding the outcome of their application. Each of our admissions rounds has a final date for sending outcome notifications, please wait until this date has passed before contacting the admissions office for an update.

You can find the outcome timelines on our admissions timeline page.

Please note that in order to receive a decision from the University you must have provided all required documentation. If you do not do so, that may result in your decision being delayed or no decision being made. Should you be given a decision, you will be given a fixed number of days to respond indicating your acceptance. It is important that you respond within the time indicated; otherwise, the decision may be withdrawn and the place offered to another applicant.