"Survey of UAE construction firms raises serious doubts over worker welfare at University of Birmingham Dubai", 22 May 2019

The discovery of industry-wide poor practice, detailed in On Shaky Ground: Migrant workers’ rights in Qatar and UAE construction calls into question the ability of the University of Birmingham to ensure its new £100 million Dubai campus will not be built, at least in part, by migrant workers experiencing a range of exploitative practices, such as late or no payment of wages, restrictions on their freedom to change jobs, heat stress, and dangerous living conditions... given the sector-wide nature of the problems revealed by the BHRRC report, the lack of publicly available information about the nature of the assurances the University has received and how they will be independently verified, it remains unclear whether it will even be possible to build the new Dubai campus without serious worker exploitation...

In February 2019, the University was accused of putting profit before principle when it announced the second phase of its controversial Dubai campus would be built by the TECOM group [a subsidiary of Dubai Holding LLC, majority owned by the Ruler of Dubai]... In November 2018, Birmingham UCU members voted unanimously to support an academic boycott of the University of Birmingham’s Dubai campus... after the University repeatedly refused to engage with us over serious concerns about staff and student safety, academic freedom and the welfare of the migrant construction workforce... To date, the University has refused to meaningfully engage with UCU and the other recognised trade unions over the Dubai campus.