UAE-based graduate wins prestigious Oxford scholarship
A UAE-based graduate is preparing for a new academic chapter after becoming the first UAE-based and first Pakistani recipient of the Oxford-Pershing Square Graduate Scholarship, one of the prestigious graduate awards offered at the University of Oxford.
Farzan Ahmad Khan, an alumnus of New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), will move to the UK in October to begin a fully funded two-year programme at Oxford. The scholarship will allow him to complete two degrees: a Master of Science in Education and an MBA.
Khan’s journey to Oxford is closely connected to the UAE. Originally from Lahore, Pakistan, he moved to Abu Dhabi in 2014 to study at NYUAD, where the university’s global liberal arts model introduced him to a very different approach to education.
Growing up, Khan studied in classrooms that could include as many as 250 students, within a highly competitive and traditionally structured education system. At NYUAD, he encountered smaller academic environments, closer interaction with faculty and greater opportunities for students to participate in university life. He was able to combine engineering with liberal arts while exploring interests beyond the boundaries of a single discipline.
The experience ultimately changed the direction of his career. Rather than pursuing a conventional engineering path, Khan developed an interest in how universities can shape students’ lives and how educational institutions themselves can be built and improved.
Today, he works at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) as a student-engagement specialist, where he has been involved in developing student affairs structures for the university’s first undergraduate cohort.
His work reflects the same philosophy he encountered as a student: universities can offer more than academic qualifications. They can create environments where students develop independence, discover new interests and participate actively in shaping their own educational experience.
Khan credits the UAE’s higher education ecosystem with playing a major role in his development. He highlighted how quickly the country has built universities and academic institutions capable of competing internationally, despite many of the world’s leading universities having histories stretching back centuries.
The Oxford-Pershing Square Graduate Scholarship will now give him the opportunity to explore education from both academic and management perspectives. Combining an MSc in Education with an MBA could provide a foundation for understanding not only how students learn, but also how educational institutions can be managed, developed and scaled.
His long-term ambitions extend beyond Oxford. Khan hopes to eventually use the experience gained in the UAE and the UK to contribute to the development of higher education in Pakistan, where he believes there is significant potential for growth.
His achievement also arrives at a time when the UAE is expanding its ambitions in higher education. In July, the country launched a new national higher education award aimed at promoting excellence among universities and strengthening academic standards across the sector.
From arriving in Abu Dhabi as a student in 2014 to becoming the first UAE-based recipient of the Oxford-Pershing Square Graduate Scholarship, Khan’s journey reflects the increasingly international role of the UAE’s universities — not only in attracting talent from around the world, but in helping graduates move on to some of the world’s leading academic institutions.
