The higher education ecosystem has been impacted significantly by the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), creating uncertainty regarding the future of higher education (HE). The coronavirus has compounded the challenges the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is facing in actively producing knowledge capital. This article collects evidence from current scholarly literature regarding the newly emerging skills and jobs needed for building aknowledge society in the UAE. This article explores how higher education in the UAE has transformed its role and its modes of delivery in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, additionally, offers recommendations for how to address these challenges while moving towards aknowledge society. The recommendations coming out of this study are multifaceted, along three main lines:1) maximising the research potential of the UAE's HEIs by building partnerships between public and private sectors; 2) embracing technology in higher education;3) customising curricula, course delivery, and assessment by adopting online education models; and4) making lifelong learning accessible and affordable for all citizens. By cultivating institutions that are responsive to the changing needs of the labour market, the UAE and its citizens are poised to come out of the pandemic with atransformed higher education system.