Job Discussion Forums

[manonatrain]

if you want some real heavy hitters see
the website I listed under FYI under the General Middle East Form...

It seems this Uni is headed by a verrrry powerful and connected Shiek...

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nuhayyan
Ministry of State for Foreign Affairs :Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
Presidency of Council of ministers :Members of Council of Ministers
UAE Red Crescent Society (RCS) :President of UAE Red Crescent Society
Abu Dhabi University :Chairman of Board of Trustees of Abu Dhabi University

Board of Directors of ERWDA :Deputy Chairman of Board of Directors of ERWDA

Past Occupation
1990 Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (UAE)

[kaw]

Having read about all the horrors going on at ADU - I (unlike many people) can't say that it comes as the greatest shock in the world. I know this stuff goes on, having experienced it for myself at a certain 'educational establishment' in another GCC country.
Whether things will get better remains to be seen although it is fairly unlikely.
Apart from all the 'political' problems what were your other conditions like with regard to pay/housing/holidays etc........

K

[Saffron]

Regarding housing: they will show you slums - if anything at all. The housing allowance is ridiculously low for accomodation in Abu Dhabi. (35 thousand Dirhams for MA holders; 50 thousand Dirhams for PhD holders). There is talk that they have raised those amounts by 5 thousand Dirhams - neverthless, rents went up this year and those amounts DO NOT provide decent clean housing.

All other expenses - phone, electricty etc - are paid by the person who rents the apartment. Another warning: it takes a LONG time to get the required papers for a person to be able to apply for a land-line. ADU "imports" people to work there and then leaves them limbo when it comes to processing in and lettting them set up their lives - other than work 10/12 hours in the "warehouse", ADU does nothing. You are not supposed to have a life outside the warehouse. Family? Forget it. Dr. Muthana actually laughs if anyone dares mention "family" or "family responsibility".

Holidays: I really don't know - yet. When they recruit, they don't inform you that summer holidays are only 6 weeks long and that teachers have to work in the summer - being paid half rate of part-timers - which comes about to 3 US dollars per hour. Teachers were only informed of this several months after having already been working there without any previous knowledge of this insanity. (I have been told that a waitress in the USA earns more than that per hour). This again, ie.e being paid half of what part -timers earn, is ridiculous as in most places, summer work is paid double.

Holidays during the academic year: if a National holiday falls on a working day, be prepared to work on a Thursday (one of the 2 weekend days). This too will NOT be told to candidates.

As for other academic schedules: be prepared to make NO plans in your personal life. Even for the Holy Month of Ramadan, ADU - who apparently did not remember that Ramadan comes every year - came up with 3 or 4 schedules. They ended by making students come in to attend 30 minutes of classes - even though many students had to travel 45 minutes to arrive at the place. Management? Mis-management? Or.... are those people at ADU simply running on some secret drugs????????

The reality of that warehouse and the people in charge is far from any other reality. It is not just at the level of sheer incompetence and hallucinating lies about everything; no. It is far worse.

No matter how much you may need a job and actually do speak English - please respect your sanity and beware of their LIES. They will hire just about anyone who speaks some English (no matter if students cannot understand their heavy non-English accents and regardless if they have teaching qualifications or not). And when they do hire people with qualifications, these people are insulted, de-promoted and fired - not to mention how they don't get paid for work and expenses which they incurred in name of ADU.

Saffron

[Kunja]

Saffron, your word about management being hired, demoted, fired, ---Sami Anwar, mentioned in an earlier thread, has been sacked as Director of the Language Institute (ADU ESL Programme). Seems that "Dr." Sami, as he is known, was quietly relieved of his administrative duties between semesters. Not that he deserved to remain as an administrator. My ear to the Middle East ground tells me that this is the same Dr. Sami who has made a career of messing up people's lives (students as well as faculty) throughout the region. He is well-known for his bumbling antics, lying with a straight face, telling anyone whatever they want to hear at the moment, then changing his story and denying all. Typical Egyptian mafia-type, eh? (No slam against my Egyptian brothers, just the E-schmucks who have a toehold in running academe in some parts of the region). His whiny voice is legend, too. Just ask former colleagues at ADU, UAE University, and universities in Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait. They know Dr. Sami by his antics, lies, and distinctive whine.

Word has it that Dr. Sami was the subject of some formal criticism by Owen F. Cargol, ADU Acting President. (I say Acting because since my first posting on the ADJU subject, I have learned that Cargol is really the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Acting President).

Given Cargol's sordid nature and sexual proclivities, Academic "Affairs" is the right post for him. Some of the other postings in this thread attest to his "Acting" as a president (as opposed to actually serving as one). (Per the previous thread, is anyone in the hierarchy of ADU paying attention to this)?

Can anyone shed some light on Cargol's UAE past? He was at Sharjah College last year. Did he have any "behavioural" problems there? How did he get his post at ADU? Surely not "wasta," not for his kind of depravity. (See previous posting). My guess is that he carefully hid his past, being halfway around the world from the scene of the crime.

If I were to meet the man, I woud definitely keep my arse to the wall (if you know what I mean); and guard the family jewels, bigtime.

[Cleopatra]

I have been following this thread with a growing sense of horror!

thank god for places like Dave's where teachers can find out reliable info about such rip-offs! I may be job hunting myself in the not too distant future, so I might have become one of those unfortunate teachers at ADU if it weren't for this board!

I find it incredilbe that this Cargol guy was hired. don't the UAE pride themselves on their thorough background checks on all work visa applicants? In a country where overt homosexuality is a major no-no, how on earth did this guy get such a responsible job?

And how does a 'warehouse' get to become a university? I thought that there were strict procedures to go through before any place can call itself a university? Obviously, in this case, wasta won out.

Thank god for whistleblowers! Kepp up the good work, Saffron et al (on this board, I mean, not in Abu Dhabi "university"!)

[Retro201]

Thanks for your reply, Cleopatra.

I agree that this forum is an invaluable source of info. for people thinking about a move to the UAE.

As for ADU - forget it! Faculty hope beyond all hope that things will eventually improve. Yet the owners continue to retain people like Muthanna and this Dr. Owen character in the University's Administration.

So much for "universal knowledge", "timeless truth". (These are official slogans of the university). The reality of the place is a long way from these ideals.

[Saffron]

A brief reminder of "management" style at ADU:

Early in the academic year, when the place was already showing signs of utter disappointment (e.g, female staff had to write memo after memo for a long time before being granted a female washroom; when there was NO coordination among teachers and the different levels - let alone between the 2 campuses - and anything that teachers suggested was refused by this character Dr. Sami Anwar, when students were spending more time out of the classroom than inside and still passing with inflated grades, when part-timers were working a great deal more than the legal hours etc etc), some teachers received a memo ordering them to wash everyday and to change their clothes everyday. The teachers who received this memo were so outraged with this demeaning insult, that they managed to stop its complete circulation.


Towards the end of the last semester, word was out that Sami Anwar would not be Director of the Language Institute for much longer - instead he would be focusing on the graduate courses. Please note the expression "word was out" - at ADU staff are never informed - merely ordered or threatened. Nevertheless, owing to the general disgust and horror the majority of staff are experiencing and knowing that there is no other way to receive information but to pass on bits of information from more or less reliable sources and then put the peices together, staff are able to predict some managerial decisions - or at least wait until they happen.

And so Sami Anwar's resignation - or other - from the position of "Director" was not a surprise. However, before he left, Sami Anwar left staff with one more deception:

Staff were recruited to work from 8am to 4pm - regular working hours for many teachers in the UAE. But not at ADU. In face of general disgust on part of the staff, Sami Anwar decided to cancel all morning courses and now teachers must all teach the evening shift. This implies that teachers with families will not be seeing their chidlren during the day at all - except after 8:30/9pm - when most children will be or should be in bed (school days begin early in the Gulf). Not only families suffer: teachers who already have their committments and schedules in other areas of their lives are affected by this insane decision.

The blind leading the blind? A ship of fools?

NO.

The degree of incompetency, insult to professionals and sheer stupidity surpass any metaphore or references.

Because, the best is still to come: the students who attended classes in the morning have still not been told of this knee-jerk managerial decision. On the other hand, there is a strong possibility that they may not mind - they will find sufficient excuses not to attend classes - some of these excuses being that once having failed a course, they then take a placement test (Sami Anwar's precious claim of academia) and not only pass the placement test but then actually get bumped up a couple of levels. Hence taking a course is a waste of time and money - students know that either way they will pass and continue doing so, as long as there are NO standards, NO accountability and teachers who are too afraid of introducing/imposing standards - I refer NOT to the well qualified and experienced teachers at ADU - but to those who are incompetent at several levels and cannot get a
"university" post elsewhere.


As for warehouse - YES. ADU is operating from a furniture warehouse in Abu Dhabi which was previously "The One" (a shop similar to Ikea). It was refurbished but still lacks the basic conditions for both staff and students. It takes more than walls dividing space into classrooms to make a building into an educational institution. Teachers have to work in small grey cubicles - some of them with appalling poor light. These cubicles are neither appropriate for teachers to work in nor to receive students. Tutoring - if such a word can be applied here - is carried out in the following way: teacher in the cubicle, student/s in the doorway/corrider. And naturally, there is NO privacy as there are no ceilings to these cubicles, so if a teacher is busy marking/writing exams etc, that teacher will also have to endure other staff's phone calls, students, mobiles etc.

Colleagues, "whistle-blowing" is not my nature nor something I ever imagined that I would have to do.

Yet the degree of harm at both the professional and financial level, that this so called "university" has caused to so many professionals, just has to be known to anyone who may consider applying.

The Gulf is not an easy place to work in - but nor are many other places in the world. It is a matter of individual adaptation and how an individual may be able integrate in a certain culture, contributing positively towards the challenges of that culture, thus enriching both his/her personal experience in life as well as that particular place in time.


ADU is NONE of the above, nor an example of the majority of educational institutions in the Gulf. ADU is a the epitonomy of any academic's nightmare.

[shebab]

Yet the sad thing is that despite all these warnings, they will still probably get people to come work for them next semester!

[GlobalDawg]

In that I have stayed up way past my bedtime finding this thread to be quite entertaining, I would like to make a brief observation.

It is my opinion that the bottom line to this situation is to realize that neither the Sheikh, the governing body nor the students are overly concerned about how this school is being managed. One must consider for whom this school is made available. This environment appears to be suitable for the typical ill-prepared student who is found in large numbers thoughout the ME; particularly in the UAE. It appears that the student population is comprised of students who are only there because they don't know what else to do with themselves until they eventually sell off a couple of camels in order to get married. For the most part, the intentions of these students is not to get a college education. In most cases the majority of them were failures in high school and this warehouse of learning is just a stepping stone or holding place until they can get that managerial position at Etisalat.

I would guess that the only people who are truly concerned about the state of affairs in this situation are the westerners who hold much higher standards for education than what is intended at this institution. Unfortunately, they are the ones who are suffering because they have uprooted themselves from the comforts and security of structured academic work environments to now find themselves in this hellish predicament. Common sense dictates that the best decision at this time is to GO HOME as quickly as possible.

Good Luck
GD

[dmb]

I only have experience of one institution in the ME. But it seems that the students have given up, the management have given up and so the only way to keep your sanity is to join them and give up, then pick up your pay cheque at the end of the month. If you try to be professional and do your job you'll just end up banging your head against a wall.

[grand fromage]

GD, how simplistic and sterotypical can you get? Glad I'm not in your classroom. Contrary to what you posted, and to their horror I am sure, ADU students are paying, non-local students who want to make a difference for themselves. Know anyone wanting to waste their own money? Local students have HCT, Z.U., UAE U. etc. Clearly you know nothing of what you speak!

[Justice_Seeker]

As the ADU debate apears to have resurfaced, the purpose of this post is to place the thread near the top of the UAE category. It contains some pertinant information.

JS

[safroot]

well it's an interesting thingy!! i'm a student in this so called university warehouse!! i need some documents about this stuff to close down the university or at least change the whole fleet of staff... hope that u cooperate with me in that issue!! send them to my e-mail [email protected]
take care

[sevig2]

There have been a lot of very negative postings about Abu Dhabi University in the past (including one of my own), and I must say that a good deal of what has been said was quite true. However, I must also say that since this new academic year began (2004-5), there have been a lot of very positive changes and the whole atmosphere (at least in the Language Institute) is MUCH better. To begin, many of the very negative players are out of the picture. This includes both faculty and administration. Secondly, the Director (Dr. Davis) has implemented a new curriculum that, although the kinks aren't all worked out yet, is far better than the old one. There's a very effective computer-adaptive placement testing process in place and students will have to pass a standardized/objective/professionally-produced test to progress to the next level each term. We have new textbooks, which work a lot better than the old ones. There are clubs and activities for the students. And, on the Abu Dhabi campus there is a new building just for the Language Institute. I would say that most of the negativity is gone. It's a new program, so there are, of course, still some hurdles to jump over, but with a whole new positive environment, most everyone has incentive to work together to make the program work. I would say that if you don't mind a little bit of inevitable disorganization (ADU is, after all, only one year old), it is now "safe" to apply to ADU!

[veiledsentiments]

Could we please post any comments on the "Call for Submissions" thread so that we have all the updates on one thread?

VS