Job Discussion Forums

[thebigeasy]

I have a Ph.D. Had one for years. Currently working for HCT. Never put my Doctorate on my CV. That has proven a smart move for all kinds of reasons - mostly to avoid having to take the kind of position where I'd end up working alongside the types of Ph.D.'s they employ at HCT. Without exception, back in their home countries, they are all failed academics where clearly mostly failed at being human too. Full of themselves, disconnected from the realities of teaching, mercurial, pontificating and all together wrong, just plain wrong. In short, it amazes me that they cannot see it is *them* who are killing HCT while everyone else who has to deal with their short-sightedness and self interest sees it so plainly.

Still, if you are serious about being employed by HCT (and from all you have posted by way of replies, you do not seem so interested in the opinions of HCT'ers far and wide which you solicited) I'd keep that Ph.D of yours a secret because for sure it is the worst possible thing to put on your CV when applying to HCT. As another poster said 'you'll be sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrry'. Yes sir, you sure will.

[helenl]

One of the most idiotic instances of HCT managerial prowess was when they forced (on penalty of dismissal/non-renewal) a PhD in Computer Science to complete the Mickey Mouse ICDL (which anyone with a heartbeat and access to the help menu while taking the "test" can pass).

Noticably a member of the Royal Family (a member of the same faculty in that Emirate and well qualified - but no ICDL or PhD) was not required to complete the ICDL (she could have done it standing on her head while drinking tea but that point is moot).

[Vancouver Vic]

Agree with helenl that some of the decisions made at HCT by so called academics are ludicrous and I also heard about the ICDL incident. Another one was to make all subject teachers sit IELTS on the pretext that it would help them to understand what students went through when they sat this assessment. Of course, most instructors simply ticked any old box after about 20 minutes because it was sooooo boring plus it was during our preparation time. I believe it was to try and weed out any instructors who had poor English. Of course that failed because no-one took it seriously. This was another one of the stupid ideas brought into effect by a Head (affectionately known as the Skull). The most laughable thing too, was that the Skull brought in a PhD (Sri Lanka) to teach faculty about using Bloom's Taxonomy. Her English was so poor that no-one could understand a word she said plus everything she said was completely out of date. After many complaints by instructors the whole thing was eventually dropped but not before many, many hours were wasted. Faculty believed that the whole exercise was research for the Skull's PhD.

Agree that you should not say you have a PhD, a master's is more than adequate. Unless of course you have a PhD from the sub-continent, that's fine and no threat to anyone.

[Middle East Beast]

So typical of HCT...anything but lesson prep and classroom instruction.

Window dressing...they've got the priorities right!!!!!!

MEB

[Vancouver Vic]

Exactly MEB. Sharjah colleges spends more time running exhibitions, conferences and seminars etc in fact anything rather than teaching (bums on seats comes to mind). And all the supervisors suck up and rush around like blue bum flies trying to get their faculty to do more and more and more and more so that they (the supervisor) look wonderful for Farid. And teaching suffers. But hey, teaching? That's not what we're here for!

[veiledsentiments]

What this demonstrates - and has since the early days in the 90s - is the top heavy over-management of the system. With all those layers of management - pulling in the big bucks - it is only this ridiculous window dressing that justifies their existence. They have nothing else to do but have endless meeting where they come up with crap like this which fills the teachers' time and only detract from actual teaching... which to them is nearly irrelevant to their jobs.

Not that it is any justification to anyone who thinks about it for more than 5 minutes. While it seems obvious to all of us teachers that the emperor has no clothes, things up in the ivory tower just stagger further and further into fantasy. I suspect that a large number of them agree, but they are being paid well to play the game.

VS

[mousette]

Hi all:

I know that there have been many changes over the last few years in the HCT system. I also know many people screwed over by HCT. I left DWC in 2009 to complete my Ph.D. degree, but really did not wish to leave. I liked my colleagues very much, we had a very interesting curriculum going at the time, and I even liked the Chair of my department. I was very sorry to hear about what happened to HCT because my experience was positive.

Just throwing it out there

[It's Scary!]

FLOP!

It's not moving!

[uaeobserver]

the master's program is a show...

You still can't even find HCT grads who can configure a home router, let alone a corporate cloud computing array.

It's a great gig if you like to observe MoU signing ceremonies. It's unlikely that you'll be all that busy - but when it comes to students - just remember - they defy modern mathematics ---- they are all above average.

The good news is - you'll meet a lot of VIPs......

[veiledsentiments]

What's MoU?

Ministry of ??

VS

[helenl]

Memorandum of Understanding - which I believe are kept in a separate comic catalogue at Stanford, MIT, etc, from the believable MoUs.