Job Discussion Forums

Iamherebecause · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:56 pm Post subject:

Actually they aren't targetting people with new contracts - I know people who have been here one year and others who have been here 11 years who are reassigned. And all stops in between. Nor do they seem to be looking at skills: key people from ESP are being reassigned as are quite a number of the IELTS examiners - don't know how they will manage all the exams next year. Some are hard-working stroppy types and others hard-working
under-the-radar types.

I can't discern any method in the madness.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

merry_prankster · Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Posts: 27

I know of some people who had just signed a new three-year contract that were sent and of others who had only one year to go. Also, some had successfully kept their heads down over the years while others may have been more outspoken. Likewise, some were former HCT employees and others had never worked there. No real ryhme or reason...just the fact that they were single/couples without children apparently.

What will be strange now is how much of this plan actually goes into place during the next year or two. There are so many variables. RAK, for example, was pulled off the table at the last minute. Who is to say the Sheikh won't say no again next year. What also of the serious wasta in AD and Dubai? If they don't want to send their kids (who were accepted into UAEU) to HCT, it isn't going to happen. In addition, what of the HCT campuses that have no facilities to deal with the influx (e.g. Al Ain Women's College)? Suppsedly, one plan is to rent out the old UAEU men's campus to HCT so they can deal with the extra couple of thousand female students. Moreover, is the provost sincerely truthful when he says no contracts will be renewed (I'm told ESP will remain in some form or another) and no more help will be offered to current UGRU employees in transferring to HCT? Alternatively, wil they re-neg and force people to stay or to transfer to HCT...nobody knows? Lastly, and perhpas most importantly, what happens when the students don't get their IELTS 5-5.5 in one year of this new curriculum at HCT and can't come study in their national university? Is the provost serious when he suggests they can fill the empty slots with high-acheiving Indians, Jordanians, Egyptians and other nationalities? Lots of ramifications and possibilities if you ask me!

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

All issues that we have brought up here. But we also all know that planning isn't their strong suit. There is nothing wrong with the idea of moving foundations around the country rather than housing all of these students in Al-Ain... it is very sensible actually. But this is a project that requires years of planning, construction and re-organization. Any person of normal intelligence can see that it can't be done... immediately or in a year or two. New facilities for this many students even when they are now living at home requires facilities... which requires bids and construction... 3-5 years of transition at least. This would be required at a minimum of 8 of the HCT facilities.

Or is it going to be acres of portable classrooms for years? Rolling Eyes

TESOLArabia is going to be a nightmare next spring.

VS

Suede Oasis · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 6:47 pm Post subject:

Oh, the potential for bucketfuls of shadenfreude-inspired entertainment here is immense. This is surely going to be one of HCT's most spectacular cock-ups. Hopefully, it will be the one that sends the Vice-Chancellor, TK, into his well-deserved and long overdue exile - or retirement.

Incidentally, I'm putting together a blog about HCT and all its mistreatment of teachers, its awful managers, and its overall general nastiness. Please PM me your stories of woe and pain, whichever college you are working at!

Middle East Beast · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree

Iamherebecause · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:17 am Post subject:

merry_prankster · Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Posts: 27

merry_prankster · Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Posts: 27

Well, its official. This came from the UAEU website this week:

http://www.uaeu.ac.ae/students/docs/2010/05_july/20100712_partnership_faqs.pdf

celticbutterfly · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 41

Very interesting pdf. I wonder if anyone has told the HCT's this...
The new 2-year foundations program at HCT is looking like a 150lb turkey, from all accounts. Nobody is looking forward to teaching it as it will be basically rote learning by textbook, and the planners have hopelessly over-estimated the learning ability of most Emirati students. It MIGHT get some of the higher-level students to the IELTS 5.5 required for university, but the majority of inbreds starting at level 1 will have no hope in Hades of finishing. This will actually do more harm than good, as all the failures could have been siphoned off into Diploma programs at HCT to give them at least something useful to do. These programs are being discontinued, so there will be nothing for the girls, especially, to do except return home to vegetate.

I would say the mass failures that will start appearing come the end of the first year of the new program will cause ire in the higher echelons of power and a complete re-think of the whole system. One hopes. UGRU could once again rise from the ashes?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

bje · Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 527

[quote="veiledsentiments"]

merry_prankster · Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Posts: 27

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/595314-four-mideast-universities-in-worlds-best-500

I find it interesting that the only 2 Gulf universities that made the 'real' university rankings have large and thriving language support programs whereas our great leader has deemed them unimportant and irrelevant at UAEU, which didn't even crack the top 500.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

It is not that the language support has disappeared. It has just moved to a different set of government colleges... and keeps the students living at home rather than having to house and feed them all in Al-Ain.

There is nothing wrong with the idea... the problem is in its implementation.

VS

merry_prankster · Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Posts: 27

True to an extent, but wouldn't you agree that the language support being offered at UGRU would have prepared the students to handle the courses they would take at UAEU better than a hastily-designed 1-year intensive program at HCT.

I would also point out that WH additionally wants to get rid of UGRU's ESP program (although many locals in admin think it will stay) as he thinks there should be no need for any language support in any shape or form. This was stated at his meeting to announce the closure of UGRU. According to his vision, there will be no UGRU and/or language support at the university whatsoever and he and his partner in crime have typically boasted of its unimportance and irrelevance in a research university on a number of occasions.

Anyway, just pointing out some 'food for thought'. Doesn't really matter to me much at this point. Its their country. They can reinvent the wheel as many times as they like. As far as I'm concerned I've been given a year's notice and then I'll be movin on. That is a great situation to be in considering the way things sometimes shake out in this part of the world.