Every year, NYU Abu Dhabi provides a detailed, if 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 designation allows charitable organizations and most universities to be excused from taxation. As part of the designation, they are also required to submit a 990 form, which lists the totality and composition of the university’s revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities.

Since The Gazelle’s prior reporting on the 2016-17 990 forms, the university’s 990 form for 2017-18 was made public. The disclosures suggest that for the second consecutive year, the corporation reported no positive or negative net income, as revenue equalled expenses. Both revenue and expenses increased by 12.4 percent from 163.73 million USD to 183.97 million USD. The historical progression of the university’s revenue and expenses can be seen below.

The financial 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 the compensation of these individuals.

Apart from individuals who were primarily directly paid by NYUNY — such as President Andrew Hamilton and then-Vice Chancellor Alfred Bloom — the highest paid employee of New York University Abu Dhabi Corporation was Sunil Khambaswadkar, who was then serving as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer. According to his LinkedIn page, Khambaswadkar left NYUAD in 2018 and now serves as the Founder and Principal Consultant of an HR consulting firm in Canada.

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.

On average, NYUAD's five highest paid employees — excluding those paid directly by NYU — earned 76.9 percent more than the five highest paid employees at these liberal arts colleges.

Moreover, the occupational composition of NYUAD's best paid employees is different from similar institutions in the United States. In particular, NYUAD's list of 21 key individuals only includes one faculty member in a non leadership role — Professor of Economics John Wooders. In comparison, the five highest paid employees at Pomona College and Swarthmore College are all professors.

As was the case in previous years, the predominant source of revenue for the university listed in the 990 form was government grants. These grants increased from 153.6 million USD (564 million AED) in 2016-17 to 173.6 million USD (638 million AED) in 2017-18. As a percentage of total revenue, government grants increased from 93.8 percent in 2016-17 to 94.4 percent in 2017-18. In 2014-15 and 2015-16, government grants had constituted 100 percent of the corporation’s revenue.

For the second straight year, the university reported rental income — which the IRS defines as the “value of property or services one receives for the use of real estate or personal property” as a source of revenue. However, despite the overall increase in revenue, rental income actually decreased from 8.2 million USD (30.1 million AED) to 8.1 million USD (29.8 million AED).

New York University Abu Dhabi Corporation’s expenses were entirely employee related for the third 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.