Job Discussion Forums

[mouse5]

AVOID THIS PLACE!!

The Professional Development Institute (PDI) at the American University of Afghanistan is looking to expand its roster of instructors from the large pool of talented individuals residing in the Kabul area.

We have an immediate need for English teachers to lead courses for Afghan professionals. The English courses are usually taught two days a week in the evenings between 5:00 - 6:30. The courses last 4 weeks.

Salaries are negotiated in conjunction with the Professional Development Institute. Transportation costs to and from the American University of Afghanistan are provided.


The American University has a terrible reputation! The "Professional Development Insitute" is just window dressing. The fees are extortionate by Afghan standards.

Salaries are not paid on time, especially to freelancers. The staff are certainly not treated with respect. They've just fired 10 staff who all signed a petition requesting the Academic Director, Mr J, step down. He didn't.

[dime a dozen]

I hear the same from people working on my project in Kabul.

Our organiztion was looking at enrolling a few generations of students before sending them offshore for post-graduate study, but we just keep getting more and more bad news about this place.

I heard that the staff is paid through a 3rd class bank while the top managers are paid through a world-class international bank, and that the salary of a professor was simply lost in remittal. Nothing has been done about it, and she asks for help on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the Finance Director can't be troubled with it and dismisses her.

She is really distressed, and what is most meaningful to us is that the guys in charge do not seem to care very much about their people. hence, we decided it wouldn't be wise to develop a relationship.

Reports of sacking are disturbing; are you sure? It's not like they are overun with applications.

Do you think USAID knows what is happening here with their funding?

I'll ask my friend and see if I can find out what happened with the petition you mention.

[dime a dozen]

The American University of Afghanistan is an unhappy place to work; anyone thinking of working at AUAF should take heed of the warnings.

The information posted by Mouse5 needs correction, however; the vote of no-confidence was against the President, not an Academic Director. Also, the number of people recently fired is two, not ten.

Nevertheless, departing teachers number about ten. Two fired, then there are several teachers not having their contracts renewed. Further, once they�ve escaped, other teachers are likely to not come back from summer vacation because this is such an unpleasant place to work and because they are seeing that management breaks contract regularly. A contract there is meaningless.

Regarding the petition Mouse5 mentions, the faculty has no respect for its president, and a majority vote of no confidence was moved against him late last year. The faculty says that he fails do his job as a fundraiser, that he doesn�t preside but is a stranger, that he wanted an armored vehicle so is thought to lacks guts, and that he is not trusted because they think he has lied. Hence, the faculty sent their vote of no confidence to the Board of Trustees to address problems of mismanagement. The BoT has done nothing about it.

This inaction of the BoT is consistent with a lack of leadership at AUAF. The mission objective of the USAID funded American University of Afghanistan is to build the future leadership of Afghanistan, but there is no leadership in the organization. Instead, there are workplace issues that are reported to be chronically abusive. There is said to be bullying.

For example, there are reported incidents of verbal abuse and workplace harassment. This is a place where shouting staff down has gained institutional currency as a regular management tool. There is documentation of a Chief Academic Officer who shouts expletives at staff, and there are even reports of death threats shouted in the corridors last week before about 20 witnesses, staff and students; so much for guiding the future leader of Afghanistan.

It is unclear whether contracts are not renewed because of the vote of no confidence, but in the absence of any explanation, faculty speculates it is condemned for raising problems and then forced to leave. This is how management addresses problems at AUAF. Given the bullying, one wonders just what sort of despots should be the future leaders of Afghanistan, if not, that is, a compliant herd of lowing cattle.

[mouse5]

Sorry I didn't get the facts quite right. My source, now here in Pakistan, is a former Afghan employee at auaf. Some of her friends still work there. She presumably got the story in Dari. It sounds like auaf is definitely not the place to be, especially if you're an EL teacher. Mind you most educational projects supported by USAID, and the countless other NGOs in Afghanistan are dodgy. The lion's share of the "aid" money is swallowed up in administration expenses incurred in setting the whole thing up. Visiting professors are flown in Business Class just to nail a plaque on the wall.

[mouse5]

While many Kabulis were enjoying the sun, green grass, and fresh fruit of an Afghan spring, this week AUAF students were in the midst of exams, bringing to a close the Spring 2008 semester at AUAF.

The semester got off to an auspicious start: in January 2008 AUAF�s enrollment climbed dramatically from the previous semester, with over double the number of students registering for classes in the University�s two "core" programs: the Foundation Studies Program and the Undergraduate Program.

No mention of how the semester ended is there?

Meanwhile it is rumored that the

President Dr. TS & Vice President Mr. JB

have kindly volunteered to stand in for the Foundation Studies Program teachers they fired.

[mouse5]

It would appear that the other Afghan universities are even worse. No proper contracts, no health insurance, no accommodation provided, no tranportation to work, and you're lucky if they remember to pay you. I doubt they give you hazard pay either.

You'd think a country that has just asked for another $15 billion in aid would have some cash left over for a few EFL teachers.

[lizard]

I am one of several people who have recently left FSP - the Foundation Studies Program - at AUAf. I would like to add my voice to the discussion here as one who lived the horrors of that workplace.

If any of you consider yourselves to be professionals but don't listen to the warnings and join AUAf anyway... be prepared to be treated like the disposable EFL instructor that you are. You will be seen as just another instructor - one of many whom they feel they can easily recruit - and will be compensated as such. In fact, if you survive your first contract and think that you might want to stay for a second one, be prepared for a pay cut and fewer benefits to be offered to you... or you may be promised that a new contract is on the way for months and then get a 'thank you but goodbye' letter instead. Rather than keep the experienced professionals who want to stay, the management would rather bring in new faces who don't know the history of the institution.

Although few people may agree, Afghanistan is a great place to work. The students are amazingly wonderful and teaching them is both rewarding and frustrating. However, when your management is a group of non-academics who have not stepped foot in the classroom for 20-30 years, and they are making decisions based more upon finances than what is best for your students, the overall experience is more frustrating than anything else.

Money runs the world, it runs the rebuilding/aid efforts in Afghanistan, and it - along with the VP of Finance - runs AUAf. But be aware - as the lowly EFL teacher that you are, you won't be getting much of it.

[mouse5]

Take a look at these two folks. The first one is a joke. The second one ain't.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCw0YApy8as

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4009843.ece

Wonder if USAID's auaf is anything like this one?

[veiledsentiments]

That youtube bit is supposed to be funny? I'll admit to not watching too far into it since it was obviously made by the usual infantile racist 'hate the raghead' set and the humor of that escapes me.

The article pointed out the obvious historical fact that Afghanistan has never tolerated occupiers... and won't this time either.

VS

[mouse5]

Another sweeping statement from the infamous Ivory Tower Inc . who obviously only had time to �skim and scan� the article.


From The Times
May 27, 2008

Afghanistan: Secret Taleban cells spread lessons of jihad in Kabul University

Jeremy Page, Kabul
To his professors and peers at Kabul University, Abdul is the epitome of a model student.
The 21-year-old law undergraduate takes copious notes in class, always finishes assignments on time and hopes to become a teacher when he graduates.

What they do not know is that when class is over he spends his time on less wholesome activities - watching videos of bomb attacks on American troops and plotting to overthrow the Afghan Government.

Abdul is not just a Taleban sympathiser: he is a member of a secret Taleban cell at Kabul University that claims several hundred members and is a worrying new sign of the movement�s expanding influence.

�At the time of the Taleban there was security and basic justice and prices were not as high as now,� Abdul told The Times. �There also was not as much corruption. Lots of aid money comes to Afghanistan and disappears. We want to liberate our country, to remove these authorities and do something for the people.�

The university cell does not fight but is ready to take up arms if called upon by its leaders, according to Abdul and another member, who gave false names. �I�ll fight until I die but I won�t do suicide because it�s forbidden in Islam,� said Abdul, who claims to have recruited nine other students.

The university cell illustrates how the influence of the Taleban has spread beyond its traditional support base in the south - and right to the heart of Afghanistan�s most prestigious educational institution and its largest with 12,000 students. It also shows how the movement appeals to educated young Afghans as well as the poor, illiterate farmers who make up the bulk of its fighting force.

At the same time it suggests that the Taleban is divided between extremists, who target civilians and reject all forms of modernity, and relative moderates, who want development but oppose foreign troops.

Abdul said that he was recruited by a Taleban �representative� from his region a month after he arrived at the university last year. One of his motivations was a Nato air raid on his village in the eastern province of Paktia, which he says killed 25 people, including several cousins, last year.

Javed, a literature student, said that he joined the Taleban after three months at the university, angered by the death of a 19-year-old woman in a house raid by American troops in his village in the southeastern province of Khost. He said that he had since recruited 16 other students.

Javed and Abdul said that they did not know the identity of their ultimate leader on campus because the cell was structured to prevent members from informing on one another. �Everything is very secret. Everyone knows one or two people,� Javed, 25, said.

�We don�t know how many we are because we don�t get together in a conference hall. But there are hundreds and the numbers are increasing.�

Several other students and teachers said that they were aware of the cell but refused to discuss it with a foreign reporter. Abdul Azim Noorbaksh, a university spokesman, admitted that Taleban activity was a problem on campus but said that the university authorities had no power to stop it.

�We try to teach students to choose some better alternative,� he said. �If they join a political or religious movement, that�s their own business. It is up to the Government to respond.�

The Interior Ministry said that it was keeping a close eye on the campus, where political activity is banned, but did not yet regard the Taleban cell as a serious problem.

�Their ideology is very different from those fighting the Government,� Abdul Hakim Asher, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said. �They are ordinary students. They are not a threat.�

Abdul and Javed agreed that they had no sympathy for Taleban militants who killed civilians, used suicide bombers and burnt down schools. �They are supported by the Pakistanis,� Javed said. �We are with the real Taleban, who only target foreign troops.�

The pair also said that their leaders, while wanting to introduce Sharia, tolerated music, films, men without beards and women�s education.

They said that there was nothing moderate about their hatred of President Karzai and the international community, which they said had brought nothing but corruption to Afghanistan. �They haven�t done anything in seven years,� Javed said. �The international community isn�t here to bring peace and security, but to destroy our country and to kill Muslims.�

[veiledsentiments]

See... exactly what I said... they have never tolerated foreign 'occupiers' - even if they give them a university.

VS

[mouse5]

"they" never gave them a university. I visited the place in 2004 just after the Taliban left. It's Afghan. You've obviously never been anywhere near it.

[Stephen Jones]

Kabul University is Afghan. The American one is the AUAf. The Americans ignored the university of Kabul to such an extent that when a group there tried to get an EFL teacher they had to wait months until somebody at the British Council volunteered to tutor them free of charge.

[veiledsentiments]

[dime a dozen]

VS: As yet, I am unable to verify any evidence of "cells" at the American university of Afgh. However, AUAf is certainly exposed to the open market, which is probably worse.

There is the story of the student who was offered in the vicinity of 20,000USD to compromise an international by bringing him to a place where he could be picked up; this was in the same week there was the story of the cleaner (salary less than 100USDpm) at the hospital next door who was called by an Urdu speaker and offered 30,000USD to plant a box in a place frequented by internationals.

It is certain that approaches are being made to compromise the safety of internatonals. The afghans stand to win big payments, but the gains would be offset by the risk of being grilled by the Min of Interior.

The main point to reiterate is that with such a poor management running AUAf, a management that has demonstrated hostility and indifference to staff, English teachers that may be recruited need to be warned of the history and the risks.