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Daveyboy
Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 14
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 Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:10 pm Post subject: edit |
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edit
Last edited by Daveyboy on Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 12:35 am Post subject: |
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Purely my opinion based on... speculation... and watching both of them over the years.
Zayed has two branches only. It is newer than HCT and took a slightly different direction. Basically they have managed to get more of the top students... and best teacher applicants over the years. HCT has always leaned towards the British system while ZU was started by some Americans from UAEU. Not that either of them are purely one or the other, of course.
I suspect that most of the reason that ZU has remained a better place to work is that it is smaller and never became as horrendously "over-managed" as the giant HCT system has. At HCT the cure for every problem has been more management... when there have been too many layers of management since way back in the early 90s. IMHO the cure should have been cutting management in half thus freeing up the budget to hire more teachers and expand the curriculum. Through the years they have had some fantastic teachers with great ideas to improve the system... which have all been ignored while the management talked and talked and talked... mainly coming up with ways to make the teachers' jobs more difficult without ever improving the standards of the education the students received.
VS |
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secretsquirrel
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
Posts: 73
Location: Next to Dick Dastardly!
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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| VS has hit the nail bang on the head. It's the differing management cultures that make them so distinct. HCT prefers 'fear and loathing' in all its forms and at all levels. And ZU don't! |
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Geronimo
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 498
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Noelle
Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 361
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Dear OP
I teach in the Gulf currently (outside UAE) with quite a significant number of ex-HCT employees and I can assure you I have heard absolutely nothing worth repeating here as it is all negative. There are a fewer number of teachers working with me who came from ZU, where they worked for 5 to 10 years between the lot of them, and their stories are much more positive. No surprise there.
Why did they leave ZU? If you could see where we currently work, you may understand. The grass seems to always be greener on the other side of the border. But it was not because ZU was a bad work environment. Were I given the choice between these two employers, I would beg, starve and decompose on the streets before I would choose the former over the latter. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Noelle wrote: |
| Were I given the choice between these two employers, I would beg, starve and decompose on the streets before I would choose the former over the latter. |
That made me laugh.  I'm sure someone would pick up the remains rather quickly and mail them back home.
That is just a bit extreme. I do still have friends who have been there many years and while they would be the first to tell you that things were better in the past, in their opinion, the good still outweighs the bad... for them. Of course, it all depends on which branch one teaches in...
As always, it depends on personal tolerance for management silliness...  The stuff that convinced me to leave after 2 contracts were considered inconsequential to most of my friends that stayed. But, yes... some branches are a nightmare..
VS |
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