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KME0050
Joined: 02 Jun 2010
Posts: 87
Location: U.S.
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 Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:33 pm Post subject: Dutch CINOP out and Canadian Niagara in?? |
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Hello Everyone--
Niagara College has a new CoE job posting for a campus principal job (female) in Al Ahsa and I am hoping someone can shed a little light on what is a rather curious turn of events.
Niagara has come under heavy fire locally for operating a single male-only college (Taif) in a country with a wretched human rights record and many organizations were calling for Niagara College to pull out of KSA. However, unlike so many other CoEs, the Taif college has been turning a profit and meeting its targets.
I found an August 29 announcement on the Niagara College's website stating that the college has "finalized one-year agreements to assume operations of the Al Ahsa and Majma’ah women’s campuses."
The Al Ahsa and Majma'ah CoEs belonged to CINOP. What happened? Did both of these colleges fail? And if they've handed them over to Niagara, what's with the one-year agreements?
I am interested in the posted position and would appreciate hearing from anyone in the know, that is, anyone who worked for CINOP or who is currently working for Niagra in either of these locations. In fact, I would be interested in hearing about anyone's overall experience working in either of these colleges, for either employer.
Thanks!
KME |
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Balzac
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 266
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| Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 4:11 pm Post subject: Re: Dutch CINOP out and Canadian Niagara in?? |
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| KME0050 wrote: |
Hello Everyone--
Niagara College has a new CoE job posting for a campus principal job (female) in Al Ahsa and I am hoping someone can shed a little light on what is a rather curious turn of events.
Niagara has come under heavy fire locally for operating a single male-only college (Taif) in a country with a wretched human rights record and many organizations were calling for Niagara College to pull out of KSA. However, unlike so many other CoEs, the Taif college has been turning a profit and meeting its targets.
I found an August 29 announcement on the Niagara College's website stating that the college has "finalized one-year agreements to assume operations of the Al Ahsa and Majma’ah women’s campuses."
The Al Ahsa and Majma'ah CoEs belonged to CINOP. What happened? Did both of these colleges fail? And if they've handed them over to Niagara, what's with the one-year agreements?
I am interested in the posted position and would appreciate hearing from anyone in the know, that is, anyone who worked for CINOP or who is currently working for Niagra in either of these locations. In fact, I would be interested in hearing about anyone's overall experience working in either of these colleges, for either employer.
Thanks!
KME |
Yeah Niagara seems to be an exception to the CoE rule e.g. they and a handful of others have been able to make a profit and presumably provide a decent educational experience for their students where so many others have failed.
I too would be really interested to know what has happened to the Dutch management company CINOP. I was recently chatting online to a guy who worked at their Dairy Farming College in Al Kharj a couple of hours S East of Riyadh and when I asked about his experiences of working there (he had just left to go back to Holland) he clammed up. Strange.
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Amerrycan Muslim
Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 51
Location: KSA
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| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Certain providers have tried to play the system in terms of student enrollment and been caught out by COE... |
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Balzac
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 266
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:13 am Post subject: |
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| Amerrycan Muslim wrote: |
| Certain providers have tried to play the system in terms of student enrollment and been caught out by COE... |
Amerrycan Muslim,
yes, I'm sure there have been some who've been caught out. Are you allowed to share any more information?
There are also many who are cooking the books and with some pretty fancy creative accounting as well. They are providing a poor educational environment for their Saudi students which includes giving them only "self study" hours instead of providing a teacher to actually teach them. And while they are doing this, they are also claiming full attendance payments from the Saudis which is pretty fraudulent in my book.
You have to wonder why the Saudis are not really jumping on more of them and checking given the state of the Saudi economy and with the oil price so low? Admittedly it has gone up to around $50 a barrel now but that still leaves a huge dent in their finances and they are dipping into their reserves faster than Friar Tuck into his lunch box!
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babur
Joined: 10 Aug 2010
Posts: 178
Location: Dammam, Saudi Arabia
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 3:15 pm Post subject: Self study |
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| They are providing a poor educational environment for their Saudi students which includes giving them only "self study" hours instead of providing a teacher to actually teach them |
I attended a KSAALT conference. Self study was all the rage. Just give Fatima the book and she'll do the rest. It's like the Emporer's New Clothes. |
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Lord T
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 285
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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I believe the Guided Self-Study College(GSSC) of Riyadh started operating, under a different name of course, last month.
The timetable is in the public domain and shows just how popular having lessons without teachers is becoming these days. |
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Balzac
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 266
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 3:43 am Post subject: Re: Self study |
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| babur wrote: |
| Quote: |
| They are providing a poor educational environment for their Saudi students which includes giving them only "self study" hours instead of providing a teacher to actually teach them |
I attended a KSAALT conference. Self study was all the rage. Just give Fatima the book and she'll do the rest. It's like the Emporer's New Clothes. |
Yeah a cheaper version of the "flipped classroom" model. I'm also pretty sure they are not trying to emulate Peter Drucker who said in 1997, “Universities won’t survive. The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.” By distance learning, he didn't mean the students are doing self study in one room, and the teacher (if there is one) is somewhere else and never the twain shall meet!
Yep the emperor has been found wanting again and you have to wonder how long this system in KSA will last where money is being wasted on charlatans who are doing little more than a smash n grab on an industrial scale. Saudi students deserve better.
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Balzac
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 266
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 3:52 am Post subject: |
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Yes Lord T,
| Lord T wrote: |
| I believe the Guided Self-Study College(GSSC) of Riyadh started operating, under a different name of course, last month. |
I think I know where you're coming from 
| Lord T wrote: |
| The timetable is in the public domain and shows just how popular having lessons without teachers is becoming these days. |
I'm not sure who they are popular with as the students will be in trouble when exams roll around and it also compromises the colleges in questions. That's because they are beholden to the students and will be in a weak position when the camel trading comes around at the end of term when Ahmad or Sultan has failed and argues that he had no teacher for a significant part of his course! How can you then justify failing him?
I see problems on the horizon through this unethical practice.
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babur
Joined: 10 Aug 2010
Posts: 178
Location: Dammam, Saudi Arabia
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 4:27 pm Post subject: Self study |
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| Quote: |
| I believe the Guided Self-Study College(GSSC) of Riyadh started operating, under a different name of course, last month. |
Self-study in KSA is the blind leading the blind.
I thought Professor P. Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Blackpool Rock Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable Brrroooo Norman Michael Edward Thomas Moo... 'We'll keep a welcome in the...' William 'Raindrops keep falling on my....' 'Don't sleep in the subway..' Naaoooo... bushy tailed Banksy Brush had lost the debate and his seat after Graffiti Gate hit the headlines.
With salaries plummeting to under $3K a month, you'll only get bargain basement teachers.
Last edited by babur on Mon Oct 10, 2016 6:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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plumpy nut
Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Posts: 1652
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Lord T wrote: |
I believe the Guided Self-Study College(GSSC) of Riyadh started operating, under a different name of course, last month.
The timetable is in the public domain and shows just how popular having lessons without teachers is becoming these days. |
Saudi Arabia has a Guided Self-Study College? Such a Saudi college would have courses that are much less than Western online courses; Western online courses of course that are grounds for degree attestation ("no, not one") refusal by the haughty Saudis, am I not correct? The Saudi reasoning and cultural black hole has always been responsible for their failure to educate Saudis, not teachers without "credentials". |
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Lord T
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 285
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| Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry Plumpy, I was being a little sarcastic when I wrote of a Guided Self-Study College.
A college, often mentioned on this website, appears to not have enough teachers. Much of their timetable has started to include large chunks of GSS.
How the top people on the CoE Board will react to this will be of much interest. |
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