Job Discussion Forums

[Jim Bigelow]

Dear Colleagues,

After speaking to a friend this evening he made Sharjah seem a very appealing place to work!
Would those of you have some knowledge in this regard advise me where I could start to contact schools/centres in Sharjah.

Many thanks

[veiledsentiments]

Hi Jim

Sharjah has a big education complex that includes 3 different universities. There is the American University in Sharjah which is sexually integrated and has a pretty good reputation. They require an MA and a few years of experience.

Then there are two segregated institutions. There is a branch of The Higher Colleges of Technology split into men's and women's. You don't hear anything bad about them on this board, so I guess that are OK. But, when you apply to HCT, you have no say in where you are located. They don't require an MA, but they have a killer interview process - very demanding.

The last is Sharjah University - men's and women's branches. It has had some terrible growing pains. I hear that it is better than it was a couple years ago, but I would want to communicate with a few current teachers to hear the latest. I'm not sure of their requirements.

I haven't heard about any other colleges there, but there may be some. Sharjah is not one of the more pleasant Emirates to reside in, but Dubai is close as long as you like traffic.

VS

[JCMach1]

Jim,

Sharjah is great if you like a slightly slower pace than Dubai. Having said that, Dubai is VERY close by if you need some excitement. I teach with AUS and University City is a wonderful place to work. AUS hires people every year. It looks like this year will bring quite a few hires because of increasing enrollment.

Also coming on line soon in University City is ETISALAT University. I don't know if it will be completed for next Fall or not.

[veiledsentiments]

Hi JCMach1

ETISALAT university? Is it going to be mainly IT or something? Have you heard anything about it that you can share with us? I am going to check and see if it has a website yet.

Thanks for the info.

and Jim-

If you wants to see some pictures of AUS, check out this posters website. Click on the www circle on his message.

VS

[JCMach1]

Here is the link for ETISALAT.

http://www.etisalatuniversity.ac.ae/index.htm

I believe the facility will be completed this year... so look for hiring with either FALL 2004, or SPRING 2005 in mind.

My relatively new website is http://www.usa2uae.com/

[veiledsentiments]

JCM: Thanks for the link.

Whew, I was almost overcome by the rhetoric - such perfection of goals and ambitions. While the website gave little more information than projected majors and construction photos galore.

Not much useful to a prospective teacher yet. I would think that if they are planning to start courses by next fall, they should be well into the hiring process. Not to mention organizing the courses, which should have started already - not at the same time as the new faculty is arriving along with the students. Guess we'll have to just watch this space.

From the photos in the banner, it appears that it will be sexually integrated. Where is the campus located in relation to the other campuses in University City?

I am still confused about the use of the 'Etisalat' name. I'm not sure what the word means, but since this is the name of the phone company, it just seems --- strange? --- not terribly appealing? --- or perhaps it is just me.

VS

[Truth Hurts]

VS

Etisalat is derived from the Arabic verb: itassala, to call, telephone, to communicate.

Etisalat is the plural form of noun 'communication' hence communications.

TH

[veiledsentiments]

Thanks TH - that seems a good name for a telephone company then.

But, that doesn't help make the name of the new university make any more sense to me, but then my opinion isn't really worth all that much to them, I don't suppose.

VS

[JCMach1]

I believe the ETISALAT University project is loosely affiliated with the state run Phone Company.

The campus is site is directly next to AUS as you come in the main entrance and through the clock tower roundabout. I think it will (ultimately) end up being the 'poor man's' AUS in terms of an engineering education. The AUS School of Engineering can be quite difficult to get into. It is yet to be seen whether the new University can be a cut above HCT. We shall see



About hiring... I can't imagine that they will let the facility sit for a year. The campus should be completed by Spring/Early Summer 2004 I suspect. Also, they may not take a large class the first year as they ramp-up the school gradually.

Keep an eye open though...

A better option is to take an AUS job. There should be 3-4 new jobs in English language and translation this year (+ more if anyone leaves). Also, IEP hires every year.

[veiledsentiments]

Thanks JCM

When I have friends looking around who are qualified, I always recommend AUS highly. I would expect that they will continue to have a expanding student base as long as the US continues to make it darn near impossible for an Arab to get an education visa or any other kind of visit visa.

As to hiring teachers early at Eti U, they would certainly not be doing nothing. Most all sensible new universities hire at least a group of experienced teachers before a university opens in order to set up the department, curriculum, choose texts, order texts, etc. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done before the students arrive or you will have absolute chaos. I recall when SQU started, I believe that they had about 10 or so teachers for months working on setting up the department and writing the texts. Especially since Eti U seems to be affiliated with a dozen different universities around the world. It is not like AUS, where they had chosen an American system and contracted with one university to come in and organize things. Here you will have competing systems American / British / Canadian / Australian - which English teaching system will be chosen?? Perhaps they have already fought this question out, but their website doesn't suggest it yet. Looks a bit scary to me

If I were job hunting (which I am not), I would definitely try AUS and I would avoid this new place for at least the first 2-3 years. But, that is just because I have seen what can go on at these places if they don't know what they are doing. For instance, SU comes to mind. AUS probably had the most seamless start-up of any new Gulf university - to their credit.

We will count on you to be our reporter from the inside as the story of Eti U unfolds.

VS

[Cleopatra]

tI'm surprised o hear you say Sharjah is one of the least pleasant places in the UAE: in fact I thought it sounded pretty good. I know it's very conservative but seeing as I'm a veteran of the UAE's larger neighbour to the East, then I'm sure there'll be nothing I haven't seen before...

Dubai seeems to be where everyon wants to go but to me - I could be wrong - it seems very superficial and soullless - hough that last could be said about just about anywhere in the Gulf, I suppose.

VS, you spoke of HCT's horrendous interview process: sounds nasty! Please expand if you would!

[JCMach1]

Cleopatra,

University City is one of those places that has the best of both worlds. It takes nearly as long to get to downtown Sharjah as it takes to get to Deira because of traffic.

The facilities, for the most part, are excellent and at AUS living together creates a rather unique sense of community (some people might not like it).

Keep in mind that most of the Dubai Universities will be moving to the new Academic City within a few years. There is a link to the most recent article on this in my website. Once this occurs, University City might actually be a bit closer to Dubai than this new facility. If you know the site, it is kind of 'out there'.

I like Sharjah, but then I am a rather quiet family person. Although, a quick trip to Dubai every couple of weeks is not out of order. If you land a job here, you have the best of Sharjah and Dubai relatively close at hand.

As for HCT... my source in the campus here seems to think that things are improving... inshallah...

[veiledsentiments]

Hi Cleo,

By least pleasant, I wasn't suggesting that it is horrible. Sharjah is just sort of blah - boring looking. I can't think of anything there to see other than the new big 'souk' and that would only warrant a visit a couple times of year if you were rug shopping. (personally I prefer the smaller neighborhood shops where you can get to know the owners) It is one of those kind of places that you could live in the Abu Dhabi for years and you would never say 'gee, let's go to Sharjah!!'

University City is quite an interesting place. I find this idea of clumping all the universities together inside a fence to be an odd Middle Eastern phenomenon. (actually just in the UAE I think) Does it stem from the traditional souq where all the trades bunched together? Or is it a way to politically control the students by having them all in the same place? That way they can have their little demonstrations and no one really knows. Personally I don't much like it.

And Cleo -- as to the HCT interview process. I am one of the few that managed to get hired without it, but it is just one of those group grilling kind of interviews. They tend to like people who can spout TEFLbabble and quote sources - though personally I have never found those that are able to do it to be particularly outstanding teachers. I have known many outstanding teachers who have failed this interview and they never really know why. As is the norm with this sort of thing, it depends on who you end up with on the interviewing committee. Many do it long distance (videophone is it?) and that would seem to me to be difficult from the standpoint that as an applicant, you can't really tell how people are reacting to your responses.

VS

[JCMach1]

I have to say that I disagree with some of the sentiments expressed below.

[Mark100]

VS
I have to say that i found the interview process for HCT very intense.
I had a panel interview and they asked a lot of questions about conflict and conflict resolution and run ins i had with colleagues and bosses etc. quite unnerving really.
They also asked a lot of questions about latest ESL methodology and projects and CAL.
Can you design a web based lesson? etc
What was interesting for me was that when i asked what level most of the students were they reluctantly revealed elementary to lower intermediate.
Many of the questions that they had previously asked were now redundant as for these lower levels the skills they were asking about were not really needed.
They were very elusive when it came to the subject of salaries and what one could expect.
They refused to say what the criteria was for setting salaries....
I also asked to be considered only for Dubai and Abu Dhabi locations which seem to shock them that i had the temerity to be slective about my location.
My impressions were of a very bureaucratic organisation that were looking for "yes men".
Maybe i have been in Saudi too long but i couldn't handle the bullsh**t.
BTW My rejection e mail arrived promptly the next morning.