Job Discussion Forums

[Eisenhorn]

apparently is hiring everyone.

http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000713858-01

But then again, if you look at their current teachers, there are only 3 western names on the entire campus registery...
http://www.aurak.ae/about_AURAK.asp?sid=JNKQKNP4&id=JODRMQE0

So to get it straight...
George Mason opens and gets run into the ground by SS.
SS is fired

George Mason pulls out of the deal because of the incompetence

SS is brought back and the school reopens as AURAK

SS is fired again for incompetence and has run the school into the ground again.

Almost all westerners are fired
and now they are hiring again...

But they have lower standards (look at the positions seeking librarians, assistant librarians, PR folks, registars... they all require a bachelors degree (not in the field) and the applicant be bilingual.

whew....I'm glad I didn't take a job there when it was offered a few years back.

[diodeone]

[veiledsentiments]

I'm confused... the job link to the chronicle is for the Canadian University in Dubai. What does that have to do with RAK and the ex-George Mason University debacle and its current form as AURAK?

As to the list of faculty and staff at AURAK... I wonder if any of them hold a US passport. Rather makes a travesty of having "American" in the name I'd think. As a student I would think I'd been tricked...

VS

[Eisenhorn]

Sorry.. My mistake. I put in the wrong link.

Here you go to for the job adverts for aurak/ western india rak or whatever they are calling themselves this year.

Deans
http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000711898-01

Vice Chancellor
http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000711902-01

Everyone else
http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000711906-01

Registrar/librarian/media/pr (who don't require anything beyond a bachelors and being bilingual (english and arabic)
http://www.aurak.ae/about_AURAK.asp?sid=JNKQKNP4&id=JODRFNP8

So my point is still valid... I just posted the wrong links. So you were saying? They are hiring for everything, including the kitchen sink.

[Badar Bin Bada Boom]

In any case the only English-related position listed here is a PhD in English--i.e., content/literature.

GMU-RAK for its first two years was a disaster run by Indian bureaucrats who worked as contractors for the RAK government, not GMU. GMU just sold its name to the campus and sent over a teacher-trainer as head of the intensive English unit. Then with the failure to recruit more than 30 or 40 students after two years of operations, GMU first fired SS and then folded the campus altogether. Indian bureaucrats promptly rehired SS to mismanage the new "American" campus and then re-fired said SS. Personally I can't see the school being more than a third-rate ripoff any time soon.

[dunteslin]

I agree with most of what Badar BBB says: but the full story is even more entertaining. Both the first head of the English unit, RR, and the despised SS were classic examples of a type--the Ugly American. They were two culturally insensitive, arrogant, boorish women, who were clearly unsuitable to deal with the inevitable problems bound to arise when setting up an American university campus in an Arab country. What could George Mason have been thinking in appointing either of these people? But then GMU never did its due diligence. It was always going to end up with egg on its face.

One of the few sensible things Mason did do was to sack the Indian administrator, SM, presumably for incompetence. After the changeover to AURAK, he was brought back. A palace coup was mounted, SS was dismissed, to be replaced as 'President of American University RAK' by--wait for it--Indian administrator SM! A year later, this Indian administrator of an 'American' university was dismissed again, and went back to India, to be replaced with--an arab Emirati.

Clearly, the story still has some way to run. In the meantime, I've got to cry to keep from laughing!

[Badar Bin Bada Boom]

Oh, gee, personally I thought it was fun to have weekly meetings being lectured on how not to teach. And it was inspirational to accept any warm body off the street as a classroom seat-warmer. When the "students" rebelled in class at the notion of learning and got out of control, we were told we weren't inspiring the little dears. Oh, and the English head (who was a teacher trainer, which meant, of course, that we had to be taught how to teach all over again) even tried to tell PhD mathematicians how to teach. Understandable, you see, because only ESL administrators know what's best for us. But then I've said it before many times on these pages: that administrators with ESL/EFL teaching backgrounds are the worst managers I've ever seen. Hey--they want professional development?? Let them all get rigorous MBAs and then come back and earn their bossing rights.

[veiledsentiments]

Even just a measly management course would be immensely helpful!!

VS

[ecocks]

All these schools seem to go this route. Even the private tech schools in the US (Phoenix, DeVry, ITT, Barnes, Broadview, National, etc.) are run with more academic integrity and marketing honesty than any of these I have seen so far overseas.

[adorabilly]

A little bird I know that works at AURAK says it isn't that doom and gloom. They stay it is getting better than it has been in years and the school is expanding because they have high enrollment numbers. Just to set the record straight.

[veiledsentiments]

Hey adorabilly... long time no see!

How many native speakers do they teaching English there now?

VS

[adorabilly]

I've been told it is 3 or 4 and they are hiring for all those positions because they have a higher enrollment than before.

Who knows if it is really happening, but that is what my informant says.

(long time no type VS.... I have been away to keep my head down because some employers in the UAE won't hire you if you post on daves and they know who you are.... even if you only say good things. Go figure.)

[It's Scary!]

[veiledsentiments]

[adorabilly]

Well unfortunately for me, the places to teach at in RAK are rather limited and most of them know who I am IRL. I didn't think I needed to hide my identity, especially since I haven't been bad mouthing anyone/anyplace.