They must be. And they are understaffed and overwhelmed as well. It was stupid of them to move temporary resident visa applications from Pakistan to Abu dhabi. Everything was working fine until last year when they hadn't moved.
Anyway, I am enrolled in Master of Public Administration so School of Policy Studies' administrator told me that. My program involves so much networking through seminars, conferences, speakers, study tours and what not, beginning from mandatory orientation, so I have pretty much missed 2 weeks already. Stepping into 3rd week on Monday, even I am unsure whether I will be able to cover that much or not. That's why my administrator said that it will get difficult.
My Program Director told me as well that they have never refused previous applicants in my Program. I really hope that you get through before the end of September though.