Set in an all-female higher education (HE) institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this paper argues that a caring, teacher-student relationship, based on mutual interdependence working towards reciprocal relationship of self-as-other, is central to students' academic success. Drawing on an ethics of care we reinterpret mutually held misperceptions of western-educated expatriate faculty and the Emirati student population regarding expectations of the 'Other'. We offer contextualised insight into nuanced facets of teaching and learning in government-funded HE in the region. Recommendations that leverage the teacher-student relationship in order to maximise students' academic success, whilst offering an alternative way for expatriate faculty to conceptualise their relationship vis-à-vis Emirati female students' attitudes and behaviours are also made.