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alien-resurrection
Joined: 30 Jun 2010
Posts: 16
Location: UAE
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 Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:02 pm Post subject: NEWS FLASH!!! UGRU TO REMAIN INDEFINITELY!!! |
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NEWS FLASH!!! half an hour ago.
UGRU to remain open for business indefinitely.
Provost Rory Hume and Vice-Chancellor Khanbashi must have egg on their faces now!!!
Another typical UAEU humiliating turn around and *%& up!!! |
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helenl
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1202
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| They might have egg on their face but wanna bet the MoHE and various minions who thought this was a good idea will come out as the "voices of intelligent reason" for the latest decision? |
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Neutrino Girl
Joined: 01 Apr 2010
Posts: 128
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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| They have said that they are still going ahead with the UAEU / HCT partnership, but they have some issues to work out first. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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Ya think? 
At least this moved the ax hanging over the heads of the teachers a bit further away so that they can plan their lives.
Major changes in an education system can not be done in a couple months. It is like someone gets a semi-sensible idea and rather than plan it out... someone yells "GO!" As was said before... they made the change before HCT had any time to prepare for a large influx of low level students. Nor were students and parents (this is probably where the "STOP!" came from) prepared for the sudden change.
If I were a mouse in the corner, I would suggest that UAEU start charging for everything but courses and texts for all foundations students. They would have to pay for their room and board in the hostel and transport from their home to the university. (I'm assuming that this is all free now... am I right?) But, of course, if they stayed at home and went to the closest HCT branch, there would be no out-of-pocket costs to the families.
This could have the foundations course disappear in a more controlled way... say with the goal of 5 years +/-. Once it was down to just Al-Ain kids, the final push could be made.
VS |
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Gus Barkley
Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Posts: 78
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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Yippee! 
I am very happy for my friends. It's unfortunate that there's been a year of hell. I'm also happy for selfish reasons: The instructors in UGRU are the lifeblood of the ex-pat community (not my colleagues in the faculties).
Now if they'd only bring back the poor souls banished to Fujairah... |
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uaeobserver
Joined: 05 Feb 2007
Posts: 236
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:09 pm Post subject: Re: NEWS FLASH!!! UGRU TO REMAIN INDEFINITELY!!! |
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It's all about math......
The institution gets a certain amount of money for each student enrolled.
No UGRU - fewer students ---> less money ....
| Vice Chancellor wrote: |
| wallah? |
(Arabic for "say what?")
Add to that a lot of majlils chest-pounding from parents who don't want their brilliant child attending a second-rate institution...... and you get "mumkin fil mushkil8...." |
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Gus Barkley
Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Posts: 78
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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Agreed... parents with wasta and money. UAEU already gets the highest per student fee from the government of the three federal institutions (housing and transportation is expensive, but it would be higher even if there weren't those costs).
To eliminate all of those students and hope to get MORE money was simply not going to happen. I doubt UGRU's expenses per student are anywhere close to the cost of per student in the colleges. |
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Neutrino Girl
Joined: 01 Apr 2010
Posts: 128
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| The partnership with HCT only seems to be delayed, not thrown out altogether. It will probably buy us all another year, but I'm not getting my hopes up for any more than that for sure! |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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I'd say that is a realistic look at the issue NG.
I don't think the budget is the issue for delaying it. It is just that both sides were completely unprepared... including unable to deal with complaints of too many people with wasta.
It wasn't just the teachers who were blindsided by the whole process.
VS |
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Neutrino Girl
Joined: 01 Apr 2010
Posts: 128
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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| The budget was most likely a big factor...there were quite a few unforeseen expenses, or so I heard. I think that the financial aspect of the partnership has been the driving force behind it. Without going into details or repeating what may simply be rumor with little or no truth to it, I'll just say that it appears to be much more financially complicated than what we had initially heard. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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That is all rather laughable to a large extent... after all, it is the same Ministry... same government. We are just changing pockets. 
Amazing how they jumped into this feet first with so little thought... not surprising though. So it goes from the fellows in the education hierarchy who are making the big bucks!! 
VS |
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Neutrino Girl
Joined: 01 Apr 2010
Posts: 128
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Iamherebecause
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 427
Location: . . . such quantities of sand . . .
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| Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:07 am Post subject: |
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Here's a snippet from the article:
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| Abdullah al Khanbashi [said] the scheme would not be expanded further until at least September. "UAEU and HCT have agreed to do further work on three main programme elements," he wrote, including working with local schools and the alignment of the HCT foundation programme with that of UAEU. |
This is a particulalrly telling quotation:
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| Mark Drummond, the provost of HCT, agreed that the differences between the two institutions' foundation curricula were a major stumbling block. |
Funny that they didn't think to check in advance whether the needs of 2 institutions which offer very different programmes could be met by students doing a unified foundation programme. |
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Ka-CHING!
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 102
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Iamherebecause wrote: |
| Funny that they didn't think to check in advance whether the needs of 2 institutions which offer very different programmes could be met by students doing a unified foundation programme. |
Not quite HA HA funny.
The other quote that caught my eye was this one:
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| Other teething problems included student transportation and financial aid. |
When I was at HCT in prehistoric times, all the students arrived with their "drivers" except for a few who drove themselves. It sounds like the new foundations students are expecting to get delivered each morning to the college by some sort of bus? Had they been providing any transport for students previously?
VS |
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