01 — University Growth
Two Decades of Expansion
How has AUS grown its course offerings from 2005 to 2026?
Course Sections Per Semester (2005-2026)
Each dot is one semester. Red dots are Fall, blue are Spring, green are Summer. The dashed line is the overall trend. A regular semester went from about 1,100 sections in 2005 to nearly 2,000 in 2025, a 49% increase. The busiest was Fall 2025 at 1,941 sections. Summer terms are much smaller (200-400 sections), which is why they sit in the lower cluster.
Total Sections vs Unique Courses
The blue line is total sections offered; the red line is unique courses. Both climb, but sections climb faster. So AUS isn't just adding new courses, it's running more sections of the courses it already has to fit more students.
02 — Subject Analysis
What Does AUS Teach?
98 subject areas spanning engineering, sciences, arts, and humanities.
Top 25 Subjects by Total Course Sections
Mathematics (MTH) runs the most sections of any subject, over 5,500 across 20 years, because almost every student takes several math courses. Civil (CVE), Mechanical (MCE), and Electrical Engineering (ELE) come next. AUS is an engineering school at heart, and the subject list shows it.
Top 10 Subjects: Section Count Over Time
The top 10 subjects, semester by semester. Most hold steady or grow. The engineering subjects tend to rise together, which usually points to programs expanding in step.
Course Sections Heatmap: Top 30 Subjects by Year
Each cell is the number of sections a subject offered in a given year. Darker red means more sections. The growth is easy to spot: most rows get darker from left to right.
03 — Academic Levels
Undergraduate, Graduate, and Beyond
AUS offers courses across 6 academic levels, from undergraduate to doctorate.
Course Sections by Academic Level Over Time
Academic levels stacked over 20 years. Undergraduate sections dominate at 70% of everything offered. Graduate courses have been here since 2005; the Doctorate program launched in 2019 and the Achievement Academy in 2011. Every level has grown, but it's the undergraduate base that keeps expanding.
Total Sections by Academic Level (All Semesters)
Across all semesters, undergraduate education dominates by a wide margin. Graduate is a distant second at 8,723 sections. The Doctorate and Achievement Academy are smaller, but both are growing.
Academic Level Mix by Subject (Top 20)
Which subjects teach across more than one level? The ones at the top have the largest share of graduate sections. MBA and several engineering programs carry a real graduate load, while MTH and PHY stay almost entirely undergraduate.
04 — Instructor Analysis
The Teaching Workforce
1,987 unique instructors have taught at AUS since 2005.
Top 30 Instructors by Total Sections Taught
The most prolific instructor has taught nearly 500 sections over their career here. Color shows how many semesters someone has been active: darker blue is a longer tenure.
Instructor Tenure Distribution (Semesters Active)
Active Instructors Per Regular Semester
Left: Most instructors don't stay long; the histogram piles up at 1-5 semesters. Even so, a sizeable group has taught for 20+ semesters (10+ years). Right: Active instructors per semester have grown from about 300 in 2005 to over 500 lately.
Instructor Teaching Diversity (Top 200 by Sections)
Each bubble is an instructor. X is total sections taught, Y is how many distinct subjects they teach, and bubble size is tenure. The upper-right is prolific and versatile: lots of sections across several subjects. Most people sit in the lower-left (a few sections, 1-2 subjects), and a handful of outliers stand well apart.
% of Sections With No Assigned Instructor (TBA)
Average Sections Per Instructor Per Semester
Left: The TBA rate is the share of sections each semester with no instructor assigned at scrape time. A high rate in recent semesters usually just means staffing wasn't final yet. Right: Sections per instructor per semester barely moves, sitting around 3-4. Workloads stay fairly even.
Instructor Recruitment & Departures Per Semester
Green bars are new hires (first semester teaching); red bars are departures (last semester before they vanish from the data). Of 1,650 instructors who have ever taught here, 501 are still active. Fall always brings in more new faculty than Spring, which tracks the annual hiring cycle.
Instructor Retention Curves by Hiring Cohort
Survival curves by hiring cohort: of the instructors hired in a given period, what share are still teaching N years later? The sharpest drop comes in the first year or two. Those who make it past about five years tend to stick around much longer. Compare cohorts to see whether retention is improving.
Course Ownership: Instructor Continuity vs. Turnover
Each dot is a course. Green dots, lower-right: "owned" courses, offered for many semesters but taught by very few people (high continuity). Red dots, upper-right: high-turnover courses, many semesters and many instructors cycling through. Dot size is total sections taught.
Longest Instructor-Course Pairings (Same Person, Same Course)
The longest instructor-course pairings in AUS history. Imad A Abu-Yousef has taught CHM 101 for 61 semesters straight. These are the courses where one name has basically become the class.
Team Teaching
The charts above credit each section to its instructor of record. AUSCrawl now captures every instructor on a section, so co-teaching finally shows up. 4.3% of all sections have two or more instructors.
Co-Taught Sections Over Time (% With 2+ Instructors)
Co-Teaching Rate by Department (Top 18)
Left: the share of co-taught sections each semester. Right: co-teaching is mostly an engineering and lab-science thing. Biomedical (BME), Materials (MSE), and Mechatronics (MTR) lead, where capstones, design studios, and supervised labs routinely put two instructors on one section. Lecture-heavy subjects rarely bother.
Most Frequent Co-Teaching Partnerships
The instructor pairs who have shared the most sections. These are long-running partnerships, usually co-supervising the same lab or capstone sequence year after year.
05 — Teaching Modality
How Is AUS Teaching?
Traditional vs. non-traditional instruction across 101 semesters. Overall non-traditional rate: 4.8%.
Teaching Modality Distribution Over Time (%)
How teaching methods have shifted at AUS. Traditional, in-person instruction dominates in almost every semester. The one big break was COVID-19 (2020-2021), when non-traditional delivery spiked. After the pandemic AUS mostly went back to in-person, though a little non-traditional teaching stuck around.
Non-Traditional Teaching Rate by Subject (Top 20)
Subjects didn't all move online at the same rate. This ranks them by the share of sections taught in a non-traditional format. Some subjects take to online or blended formats easily; lab-heavy engineering and science courses mostly stayed in-person.
06 — COVID-19 Impact
What the Data Actually Shows
AUS continued operating through COVID (Spring 2020 – Spring 2021). The shaded region marks the pandemic semesters.
Course Sections & Unique Courses Per Semester
Total sections barely dipped: Fall 2019 had 1450, Fall 2020 had 1398 (-3.6%). The real story is what came after. AUS climbed to 1678 sections by Fall 2026 (+15.7% vs Fall 2019). Course variety (red dashed line) fell harder, down 4.6% by Spring 2021, as the university trimmed its course list but kept section counts up.
Unique Instructors & Course Variety Over Time
Instructor count dropped from 420 (Fall 2019) to 394 (Fall 2020), a 6.2% decline. With fewer unique courses too, it looks like AUS kept sections running by concentrating teaching among fewer instructors on a narrower set of courses. That reads as a coping strategy, not a collapse.
Subject Sections Indexed to Fall 2019 = 100
Each cell is a subject's section count indexed to Fall 2019 = 100. Green above 100 is growth; red below 100 is contraction. In Fall 2020, 10 subjects shrank by 10%+, 5 grew by 10%+, and 12 held steady. Language programs (ELP, ARA) and media (MCM) took the worst of it; computing (CMP, COE) and sustainability (ESM) grew. The pandemic tilted things toward technical subjects.
Sections Without Assigned Classroom (%)
The most lasting COVID effect: sections with no assigned physical classroom rose from 12.8% (Fall 2019) to 8.0% (Fall 2026). Oddly, it didn't spike during COVID itself; it crept up afterward. That looks like a permanent move toward flexible or unassigned scheduling that outlasted the pandemic.
07 — Schedule Patterns
When Does AUS Have Class?
AUS follows a UAE schedule: classes run Sunday through Thursday, with Saturday occasionally used.
Schedule Heatmap: When Are AUS Courses Held?
How many sections land at each day-and-time slot, across all 20 years. The busiest are Monday and Wednesday around 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Sunday through Thursday do the heavy lifting (the UAE work week).
Most Common Day Patterns
Course Sections by Building (All Semesters)
Left: two patterns dominate, Mon/Wed (MW) and Tue/Thu/Sun (TRU), and together they cover more than half of all sections. Right: New Academic Building 1 hosts the most sections, then the Language Building and Engineering Building Right.
The Disappearance of Saturday Classes
One of the sharpest shifts in AUS scheduling. Saturday classes peaked at 532 sections (46.1% of all sections) in Fall 2005, then collapsed to near-zero by 2010. The latest semester has just 2 Saturday sections. In a few years AUS went from a six-day teaching week to five.
Day Pattern Mix Over Time (% of Scheduled Sections)
Scheduling patterns across the full 20 years. As Saturday classes (yellow) faded out, MW and TRU took over even more. Tue/Thu (TR, no Sunday) and single-day classes hang on as smaller slices. The daily (MTWRU) pattern is mostly summer and intensive courses.
08 — Curriculum Evolution
How the Curriculum Has Changed
3,533 unique courses tracked across 20 years of offerings.
New Courses Introduced Per Year
How many brand-new courses showed up each year. The peak was 2005 with 604 new courses. The early years (2005-2008) look inflated because the data starts in 2005, so courses that already existed get counted as "new" the first time they appear. Past that baseline, the rate is real curriculum growth.
Course Longevity: How Many Semesters Is Each Course Offered?
How long do courses last in the catalog? 986 courses (27.9%) ran for a single semester, usually special topics, experimental sections, or one-offs. At the other end, 332 courses have run for 30+ semesters (15+ years). Those are the stable core of the curriculum.
Most Consistently Offered Courses (by Semesters Active)
The marathon runners of the curriculum: the courses offered in the most semesters. Foundational math, English, physics, and engineering courses fill the list, because they reach the most students.
Courses Last Offered Per Year (Courses Not Seen After 2020)
Courses last offered before 2020 that had previously run for at least five semesters. That's 343 courses that look discontinued, dropped from the active curriculum. Spikes in particular years often line up with department restructuring or program changes.
09 — Prerequisite Network
The Dependency Web
2658 courses connected by 7962 prerequisite edges and 367 corequisite links.
Most Connected Courses in the Prerequisite Graph
Red bars are how many other courses list this one as a prerequisite; blue bars are how many prerequisites it requires. Intro math, physics, and programming sit at the top, with far more courses depending on them than the other way around.
Longest Prerequisite Chains
These are the longest sequences where each course requires the previous one. A chain of 19 courses means a student must pass 18 prerequisite courses before reaching the final one.
19 courses · COE 491
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 310
17COE 421L
18COE 490
19COE 491
19 courses · MIS 405
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 320
17MIS 303
18MIS 304
19MIS 405
18 courses · COE 490
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 310
17COE 421L
18COE 490
18 courses · CMP 49413
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 310
17COE 421L
18CMP 49413
18 courses · COE 423
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 310
17CMP 415
18COE 423
18 courses · MGT 380
1MTH 001
2MTH 102
3MTH 104
4MTH 111
5MTH 103
6MTH 101
7PHY 100
8PHY 101L
9PHY 101
10PHY 102L
11PHY 102
12COE 221
13CMP 240
14COE 312
15CMP 305
16CMP 320
17MIS 303
18MGT 380
COE Prerequisite Network (red = COE, blue = other depts)
An interactive map of every Computer Engineering (COE) course and its prerequisites. Red nodes are COE courses; blue nodes are prerequisites from other departments. Hover a node to see the course name.
Average Prerequisites Per Course by Department
Cross-Department Prerequisite Dependencies
Left: departments ranked by average prerequisites per course. Engineering and science carry the most complex requirement structures. Right: a matrix of which departments lean on which others for prerequisites. Most engineering departments lean hard on MTH and PHY.
Prerequisite Logic & Complexity
The graph above counts prerequisite links. AUSCrawl also parses each requirement into its full boolean logic tree, the AND/OR structure students actually have to navigate. 54.4% of courses with prerequisites offer at least one "or" alternative.
How Are Course Prerequisites Structured?
Prerequisite Logic Nesting Depth
Left: most prerequisites aren't a simple checklist. Plenty go beyond single-course or pure "all of these" (AND) rules, offering alternative paths (OR) or properly nested logic like "MTH 103 AND (PHY 101 OR PHY 102)". Right: how deep that nesting goes. Depth 1 is a lone course, depth 2 is a single AND/OR group, depth 3+ mixes them.
Toughest Gateways: Most Mandatory Prerequisites
Share of Gated Courses Offering Alternative Paths (by Dept)
Left: the toughest gateways, the courses with the most mandatory prerequisites (ones that must all be passed, setting aside optional OR branches). MBA 670 tops the list with 7. Right: which departments build in flexibility, measured as the share of their gated courses that offer at least one alternative path instead of a rigid chain.
Prerequisites Allowing Concurrent Enrollment Over Time
Some prerequisites can be taken concurrently ("may be taken together") instead of strictly beforehand, which is common for lecture/lab or theory/practice pairs. Overall, 25.5% of prerequisite requirements allow a concurrent course, and that share has moved around over the years.
Corequisite Analysis
Corequisites are courses that must be taken simultaneously. AUS has 367 corequisite links across the curriculum.
Most Common Corequisite Pairs
The most common corequisite pairs are lecture-lab combos, like a physics lecture with its matching lab. Pairing them forces students to take the theory and the hands-on part in the same semester.
Prerequisites vs Corequisites by Department (Top 20)
Prerequisite vs corequisite counts by department. Most departments lean on prerequisites, but lab-intensive programs carry a lot of corequisites too.
10 — Grade Requirements
Academic Rigor
What minimum grades do prerequisites require, and how strict are different departments?
Minimum Grade Requirements Across All Prerequisites
Each bar is how many prerequisite links require that minimum grade. C- dominates, since it's the university-wide standard pass. Next is C (no minus), then A-, which shows up in the more competitive programs.
Grade Requirement Distribution by Department (%)
Each department's bar is the percentage breakdown of grade levels it requires for prerequisites. Departments on the left ask for the strictest grades (A or B range). For most, green (C-) is the bulk of it.
11 — Course Attributes
Gen-Ed Tags & Classifications
231 unique attributes tagging courses across the curriculum.
Top 25 Course Attributes / Gen-Ed Tags
Course attributes are tags that mark courses for gen-ed requirements, major electives, and special designations. "Preparatory" and "MTH Major Elective" are the most common. Science, communication, and social-science requirements fill out the rest of the top of the list, about what you'd expect from a broad gen-ed program.
Gen-Ed / Course Attribute Categories Over Time
Attribute categories stacked over time. The rise in "Communication/English" and "Natural Sciences" tags tracks gen-ed requirements expanding. The overall jump in tagged sections mostly just follows the growth in total offerings.
Degree Requirement Mapping
The catalog tags each course with the degree programs it counts toward: an elective for this major, an option for that minor. Mapping those tags shows how courses get shared across programs.
Programs With the Most Elective Course Options
Most Reusable Courses Across Degree Programs
Left: which programs give students the widest menu of elective options. Right: the most reusable courses, the single courses that count toward the most distinct programs. These are the connective tissue of the curriculum: foundational and business courses that satisfy electives across many majors and minors at once.
12 — Course Catalog
Credits, Lectures, and Labs
3,046 unique courses in the catalog.
Credit Hours Distribution Across All Courses
Lecture vs Lab Sections Over Time
Left: most AUS courses are worth 3 credits. Labs, independent studies, and capstones are where the exceptions live. Right: blue bars are lecture hours, red bars are lab hours, by department. Engineering and science departments rack up far more lab hours.
Average Lecture vs Lab Hours by Department
The stacked bars are raw counts of lab vs lecture sections; the green line is the lab share. That share has held fairly steady at around 15-20%.
13 — Enrollment & Access
Section Closure & Enrollment Rules
What Banner reveals about demand and who is allowed to register.
A note on the data: AUS Banner never publishes seat counts or enrollment totals, just a binary "open seats: yes/no" flag captured at crawl time. For a completed term, that flag effectively records whether a section closed (filled up). It is not a true fill rate (enrolled ÷ capacity), which the source data can't give us. The term currently in open registration is left out of these charts, since its seats are still changing.
Section Closure Per Semester (Completed Terms)
Each bar is a completed semester, split into sections that still had open seats (green) and those that closed with none left (red); the line is the closure percentage. Closures have climbed steadily, from about 28% in the late 2000s to 51% lately. That fits a growing student body packing sections more tightly.
Section Closure Rate by Subject (% of Sections That Filled)
Subjects ranked by the share of their sections that closed (no open seats left). Higher bars point to tighter capacity and stronger demand, but keep in mind this is a binary snapshot, not a measured fill rate.
Fee Amount Distribution (Top 10 Fee Types, under 5,000 AED)
Course fees vary by college and course type. The boxes show the spread of fee amounts, and the tiers differ from one college to the next.
Average Fee Amount Over Time
Fees drift upward over time, roughly tracking inflation and rising tech costs across colleges.
Selective Enrollment Restrictions by Type
Each restriction is parsed into a typed include ("must be") or exclude ("must not be") rule. 90.5% of sections carry at least one restriction, but the chart sets aside the near-universal academic-level gates (every undergraduate course is "undergraduate-only") to surface the rules that genuinely narrow who can register. Rules tied to a specific college, major, program, or field of study apply to 23.5% of all sections.
Courses Most Restricted by Major / College / Program
749 courses carry a college-, major-, or program-specific rule at some point. The most-restricted ones are here: mostly senior capstones, clinical courses, and cohort-based graduate seminars held for students already in the program.
14 — Browse & Explore
Explore the Dataset
Search any course for its full profile and prerequisite roadmap, look up instructors, browse degree programs, or dig through the raw tables. Everything is cross-linked, so one click jumps to the next.
Course Explorer
Instructor Lookup
Degree Explorer
Recent Courses
Course Catalog
The 5,000 most recent sections. Use the Course Explorer above for full course histories.
Top subjects in this view, updating as you search or filter
| Subject | Number | Title | Instructor | Days | Time | Room | Semester |
|---|
Credit hours in this view, updating as you search
| Subject | Number | Course Name | Description | Credits | Lecture | Lab | Department |
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Search any course for its full profile — credits, 20-year offering history, usual times, instructors — plus its prerequisite roadmap, corequisites, and what it unlocks. Try:
COE 420
MTH 104
CMP 305
FIN 201
Search any instructor for their complete teaching history: courses taught (click any to open it in the Course Explorer), subjects, tenure, and career span at AUS.
Pick a major or minor to see the courses the catalog tags as counting toward it — its elective options and requirement-area courses — with one-click jump to each course's full profile.