Chancellor James Moeser said Friday that he met last week with representatives from the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, which first approached UNC in June.
Moeser said the discussion ultimately ended in an amicable but final resolution not to proceed with the project.
"Both the University and the Qatar Foundation held to a very high standard of excellence for the program, but at the end of the day Tuesday, we concluded the distance between the two positions was too far to negotiate," Moeser said.
Moeser said the disparity between the two positions was the result of disagreement on several points, including the amount of the management fee the foundation would pay to UNC and the size of faculty compensation packages.
"There was no one sticking point -- there were a number of issues, both financial and conceptual, that we were unable to resolve," he said.
Negotiations between UNC and the foundation had intensified in recent months, especially after University officials submitted a revised budget proposal to the foundation in December.
Robert Sullivan, dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School, said Friday that the projected cost for the program was $16 million to $18 million a year in operating costs, for which the University would be fully reimbursed by the Qatar Foundation.
One of the major requests that University officials added to the budget in December was more money for safety and security, although Moeser said security was not a concern when the negotiations concluded.
University representatives also had been engaged in discussion with Qatari officials about the possibility of including a pre-engineering curriculum as part of the General College offerings.