The Nigerian man charged with attempting to blow up a US passenger plane on Christmas Day studied at the campus of an Australian university in Dubai just months ago.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was studying for a master's degree in international business at the University of Wollongong's campus in the United Arab Emirates.

He took classes at the campus, which is affiliated with the Australian university, for about seven months until the middle of this year.

University of Wollongong vice chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, says the campus is licensed by the United Arab Emirates government as a stand-alone institution, but is connected to Australia.

In further developments today:

Professor Sutton says lecturers had no clue about Abdulmutallab's background.

He says he took classes for about seven months until the middle of the year when he disappeared, and was later excluded from the university for not paying his fees.

"He commenced in January 2009 but disappeared from the residences around the middle of the year and was excluded from the second semester around August, September, October on the basis of non-payment of fees," he said.

"He was a normal student, a student that was passing his subjects. We had no background on any of his activities outside the university."

Abdulmutallab is charged with smuggling explosives on board and attempting to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

The device failed to detonate properly and Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers and crew.

Abdulmutallab, who comes from a prominent Nigerian family, is now in a Detroit jail.

He has reportedly told US investigators that Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen supplied him with an explosive device and trained him on how to detonate it.

Between 2005 and 2008 he was an engineering student at the University College London. Before that he was enrolled at the British School in Lome, the capital of Togo.

This morning Mr Obama vowed to hunt down those behind the failed attack.

"We are doing everything in our power to keep you and your families safe and secure during this busy holiday season," he told Americans in a televised address from Hawaii, where he has been on holiday with his family.

"Those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than simply strengthen our defences."