On an annual basis, NYU Abu Dhabi provides a detailed, yet limited, breakdown of its finances through submissions made by New York University Abu Dhabi Corporation, a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation in the United States; this status excuses most charitable organizations and universities from taxation. Nonetheless, as a result of the status, organizations like NYUAD are required to fill the 990 form, which lists the totality and composition of the university’s revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities.

The latest 990 form to have been released comes from the 2018-19 financial year, which was published after The Gazelle’s previous reporting on the issue. The disclosures suggest that for the third consecutive year, the corporation spent as much as it earnt, reporting no positive or negative income. Both revenue and expenses increased by 17 million USD (62.4 million AED), or 9.2 percent from 183.97 million USD (675.7 million AED) to 201.05 million USD (708.3 million AED). This marks the highest revenue in NYUAD corporation’s history, and is the largest expenditure since 2013-14, when the Saadiyat Campus was being built.

The primary expenses of NYUAD corporation pertains to employee compensation. The disclosures also provide a breakdown of the compensation of officers, directors, trustees, key employees, highest compensated employees and independent contractors. In addition to those directly paid by NYUAD, this list of 21 individuals includes those paid directly by related organizations, such as NYU New York. The following is a breakdown of these compensations.

The highest earners in the above visualization were primarily paid directly by NYU, including NYU President Andrew Hamilton, NYU Provost Katherine Fleming, former NYUAD Vice Chancellor Alfred Bloom and Executive Vice President of NYU Martin Dorph. The highest earner directly paid by NYUAD in the 2018-19 financial year was Sehamuddin Galadari, who currently serves as the Senior Vice Provost of Research and the Managing Director of NYUAD’s Research Institute. A name that may be less familiar to NYUAD students is Antonello Barbaro, the former Executive Director of Advancement and Philanthropy, who according to Linkedin, has since moved on to become the Chief Executive Officer of H-Farm Education. In a sign of the flux at the institution, at least seven of the highest earners have left their positions between the 2018-19 financial year and the present-day, including Bloom, former provost Fabio Piano and former Dean of the Social Sciences Herve Cres. Kyle Farley, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, has also announced his plans to leave the institution at the end of the year. In comparison to liberal arts colleges of similar sizes in the United States, NYUAD's highest paid employees are generally better compensated. The Gazelle compared the 990 forms of NYUAD to the highest ranked National Liberal Arts Colleges in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. All of these institutions have similar levels of enrollment to NYUAD, ranging from 1,594 to 2,519 students. Williams College is the only institution in this group with higher pay for its top five employees. On average, NYUAD's five highest paid employees — excluding those paid directly by NYU — earned 4.4 percent more than the five highest paid employees at these liberal arts colleges.

NYUAD corporation also has a high fringe rate — which represents the total benefits accrued by employees divided by total wages — of 89 percent. These generous benefits are in stark contrast to those provided by other similar US institutions. For example, Williams College has a fringe rate of 36 percent and Amherst College has a fringe rate of 30 percent.

As was previously the case, government grants continued to be the predominant source of revenue for the NYUAD corporation. Such grants increased from 173.6 million USD (637.6 AED) in 2017-18 to 189.2 million USD (694.9 million AED), comprising about 94.1 percent of total revenue. The university also derived 10.2 million dollars (37.5 million AED) in rental income and 1.58 million dollars (5.8 million AED) in other income. The increase in rental income represented a 25.9 percent increase.

New York University Abu Dhabi Corporation’s expenses were entirely employee related for the fourth consecutive year. More detailed information on NYUAD’s financials can be found by reviewing aggregated statistics on Guidestar and ProPublica’s archive of 990 forms.