On a typical day at NYU Abu Dhabi, many students use their student IDs to complete on-campus transactions using Campus Dirhams. Whether it is paying for a quick caffeine fix in the morning, or for waffles at the marketplace later during the day, a typical transaction involves handing your student ID to the cashiers, and cashiers just swiping it for the payment to be complete.

Campus Dirhams are a part of NYUAD students’ meal plans. The current meal plan consists of 14 meal swipes a week along with biweekly Campus Dirham deposits of 346 AED that is added to the student ID card. Students also receive a 346 AED boost at the start of every semester. Campus Dirhams can be spent at various food outlets in the marketplace, as well as at Sushi Counter and Convenience Store. Even though the meal swipes expire at the end of every week, Campus Dirhams carry through the end of the semester.

Every outlet that accepts Campus Dirhams for transactions is reimbursed by NYUAD. Although students receive a generous amount of Campus Dirhams, they still have to consider if their remaining balance will allow them to eat at the marketplace instead of D2. Instances of students running out of Campus Dirhams and the Convenience Store’s prices have sparked debate over whether it’s real money or not.

“I think Campus Dirhams are a very important part of life here at NYUAD and of the financial package. I definitely see their value and their purpose and I see them as real money,” said Micheal Leo, Class of 2023. “We are allocated a certain amount of money, 346 Dirhams every two weeks, that is calculated based on how much they think we would spend on food and other household supplies. So I definitely budget them,” he added.

Afraah Shaikh, Class of 2023, shared that she uses Campus Dirhams to buy necessities which she would have otherwise bought from off campus retailers using cash. “I think of Campus Dirhams as real money because I use them to buy things that I would account into my budget for the month, but because I have Campus Dirhams and the Convenience Store, I can save that much money.”

“Personally since I don’t pay for [meal plans], I feel like it’s fake money … I don’t pay attention to any of the prices or anything because it’ll get filled up again anyway,” commented Fares Badwan, Class of 2023. Differing financial aid packages are one of the main reasons for differing opinions on considering Campus Dirhams as fake or real money. They are also the basis for debates surrounding the affordability of on-campus outlets that accept Campus Dirhams as a mode of payment.

When studying abroad, students go through a very different experience. The lack of Campus Dirhams forces students to use cash, deposited to their student IDs, to make payments. Regarding this, Sarah Kuleib, Class of 2023, said “When I went to New York for my [January Term], I found out that they don’t provide them with campus cash directly onto their cards. They have to go to machines that are located in their dorm buildings and fill their cards up with their own money.”

The debate on whether or not Campus Dirhams constitute real money is likely to continue as long as it remains a part of the meal plans and there remain students whose meal plans are not covered by their financial aid packages.