Job Discussion Forums

[millie18]

Has anyone heard if the college has renewed its contract with the State?

Friends have said that the government is sending young unemployed Qataris for training in various programs at a certificate level - how's that rolling out?

[Lonesome Dove]

No word of renewal. It's over a year and a half overdue.


The new Community College of Qatar opened its doors on the 26th; enough time has passed now to take an early reading on how things were developing. Some interesting things may or may not be between the lines.


http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/middle-east/127500-community-college-plans-evening-classes.html

Quote:
'The official said plans were afoot to launch short-term courses as well as job-oriented courses....
�In the next two months we will hold discussions with senior officials of leading companies to know their requirements about job-specific programmes,� said Hansen.'

So much for any thought of the new college staying off ground already trod by CNAQ. Isn't this going head-to-head and toe-to-toe against CNAQ in the one area in which they have been most successful�contract training? Clearly, the new CCQ is not just about university prep; they are also going to be a technical and vocational college.

To make it a bit worse for CNAQ, the stories say CCQ is going to retain its current campus in West Bay after they move to their new campus on C Ring Road. Both campuses are going to be significantly easier for the average student from industry to get to than CNAQ.

A mark of the arrogance and anti-consumer attitude of CNAQ that they never arranged for classrooms more accessible to the workforce�a no-brainer for most community colleges everywhere.

The two-month deadline suggests CCQ are planning to have the first such contract programs up for January.

I see a head-to-head competition oncoming between CNAQ and CCQ, and one strike against CNAQ from the outset.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=388896&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Quote:
'The newly-established Community College of Qatar�s (CCQ) courses are internationally certified and will allow the students to join any university in Qatar or abroad to complete their bachelor degrees, a top CCQ official said yesterday.'


There's their opening sales pitch, and it's brutal. CNAQ has few articulation agreements anywhere. How about that�ANY university in Qatar or abroad. Where would you want to go? Where would you want to send your kid?

Internationally certified from the very launch of the institution; from the very first day. Isn't it odd that CNAQ did not do the same thing? Why not? They did not, apparently, because they could not. The programs and, more importantly, faculty qualifications at CNAQ are not up to international certification standards. Most certification authorities require of instructors a Master's degree with 18 credit hours in the subject being taught. Most instructors and even administrators at CNAQ lack such qualifications, at least outside the EFL department. Most have no Masters'. Those who do generally have an M. Ed., not a higher degree in the subject taught.

Count one more strike against CNAQ in the Qatar college bowl.

Quote:
'...as well as Work Advancement or Employment and Certificates or courses for training and personal development. ...

�We are talking to Qatar Petroleum and RasGas and we will be visiting in October all corporations in Qatar to offer our services�, he added. '


QP and RasGas? CNAQ's two largest contractors. No respect for turf there. The TPP programs for QP and RasGas are the one area that has been growing lately at CNAQ. Take those away, and how much is left?


Quote:
'...their [CCQ's] Associate in Applied Sciences degree, which now offered business and computer technology programmes.'


Among the academic programs, business is the bulk of CNAQ's business. IT is also CNAQ turf. What's left? There's Health Science, but that looks like something U of Calgary might be prepared to take over. No need for a third player. What's left? Security?


Quote:
'�A total of 1,330 candidates had taken the placement test but two-thirds of them preferred afternoon and evening courses,� she said, adding �in January we are going to launch evening classes for the working students and we still have another 2,000 students on the waiting list, who still haven�t taken the placement test and need some orientation�.'


Qatar is not a big place, especially when you are thinking Qatari nationals. A total population of 200,000 or so, as I recall. How many students actually graduate from high school in a year, and how many are left once University of Qatar and Education City take their pick? Heretofore, CNAQ's uptake has been something like 1,800 per annum. There probably aren't a lot more prospective student out there. Yet 3,300 are trying to get in to CCQ, and have been essentially promised spaces over the next year? That's about the total enrolment of CNAQ, all years, isn't it? Frankly, with a projected intake that large, this has to include lots of students at CNAQ jumping over to CCQ as soon as this becomes possible. And it looks as though it becomes possible some time over the next year.

Looks like CCQ is also prepared to offer evening classes in their regular programs, something of obvious value to the community that CNAQ was arrogantly not prepared to do. Another big strike against CNAQ.


Quote:
�What is good about CCQ is that we have small classes, a comfortable personal relationship with professors, ...�


As far as small classes go, CNAQ surely already has that. Probably rather smaller than they had planned. If there is any point to this comment, it is that CCQ will offer a friendlier relationship between students and professors.

This rather looks like a criticism of CNAQ's attitude, and it rings true. They have been learner-hostile. Largely staffed with people trained and experienced in teaching elementary and high school, they tend to act �in loco parentis� and to treat Arab students as if they were disobedient children. Cultural differences are seen as simply bad behaviour. Teachers who are sympathetic to students are not supported. Campus rumor has it that at least one very popular instructor was bundled on the plane home last semester for the unforgivable crime of being �too close to the students.� The student union ran a petition to get him back, but was rebuffed by the administration.

You don't do things like that without getting a certain reputation. And a reputation for hostility to the consumer tends to have market consequences once one no longer has a monopoly. Even if you straighten up at that point, there is a certain burden of residual ill-will that can be hard to overcome.

Another strike for CCQ, and against CNAQ, assuming the new kids follow through.


Quote:
�The first day showed commendable organization and preparations which were reflected in the separation of male students from females at the entrance and the classrooms.�


Commendable indeed. So�CCQ is going to have segregated classes. CNAQ's classes are all integrated.

This is another strong market advantage for CCQ, surely. The typical Qatari parent of a daughter is probably going to be inclined to send her to CCQ, where her virtue is protected.

This was another bit of CNAQ arrogance. Rumour has it that they went to the wall to insist that classes had to be integrated, something that had never been done in Qatar before.

Why? For pedagogical reasons? Hardly. Studies show pretty clearly that both men and women learn faster in segregated classes. For financial reasons? Obviously, if you segregate classes, you will often need two instructors where one would have done otherwise. However, this should not have been a financial problem for CNA, since they are paid a commission on each instructor's salary. Just the contrary�it would have been in their (and Canada's) interests to hire more teachers, if that is what the Qataris wanted. No; surely it was a pure case of arrogance, of assumed cultural superiority; and of insensitivity to the local culture. The Canadian way must be imposed on the backwards heathens.

Score one more point for CCQ.

Then too, the comment about how orderly the registration process was, for a college just opening, might also have been an implied criticism of CNAQ, with its reputation for poor management. In eight years, why hasn't this technical college yet developed the technical expertise to allow students to register online?

What's our score to date? I count CCQ 6, CNAQ 0.

Of course, being new, and therefore being news, CCQ is also hogging the headlines, and getting all the publicity. That might be another point in their favour, in marketing terms. To be fair to CNAQ, let's hear their account of the new semester as well:


http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/127792-cna-qatar-gets-new-president.html


The headline is the fact of a new president. That's good news--but only given the subtext that the administration of CNAQ up to now has been a problem. This story is evidence that this is assumed by all parties: the college, the reporter, and the paper's readers.

While a new president may help the situation internally, it does not inspire one to choose CNAQ rather than CCQ as one's community college. It says that CNAQ has a bad rep; whether it will now get better is only speculation.

I think we're up to CCQ 8, CNAQ 0.


Quote:
�Our state-of-the-art facilities, industry responsive programming, focus on applied learning, and dedicated staff and faculty�

This is apparently CNAQ's unique sales proposition�going head-to-head with CCQ's �articulation with everyone.�

Which one speaks to you? Wouldn't you expect, as a matter of course, a community college backed by a government as rich as Qatar to have state-of-the-art facilities, industry-reponsive programming, a focus on applied learning, and dedicated staff and faculty�? Is there anything here that distinguishes CNAQ from CCQ, or indeed any other community college anywhere? Isn't it just �heck, we're as good as the next guy�?


Quote:
'This year has seen an enrolment of over 1,800 students in the areas of Business Studies, Engineering Technology, Health Sciences, Information Technology and Industrial Trades and Language Studies and Academics, reflecting an increase of six percent over the last year�s figures.'


That sounds good--growing at six percent a year. But it would be interesting to see a breakdown of those figures. The last two years have shown similar growth. But it is not hard to get growth in Qatar; the population is only 25% Qatari, and 75% resident alien. CNAQ, like most educational institutions funded by the Qatari government, is meant to serve nationals, not resident aliens. But, if enough nationals do not come, it is a simple matter to open up seats to non-nationals to make up the difference.

That is exactly what accounted for the growth on paper in the last two years�numbers of Qatari students in the regular programs actually declined. It does seem, anecdotally, that perhaps 50% of the seats in a typical classroom in the college's regular academic programs are now being occupied by non�nationals. The Qatari government may be okay with that so long as they have to pay instructor salaries in any case; that is, to the end of the current contract with the Canadian parent college. If nothing else, it saves face. But there is no future in it.

So all might still look as if it is ticking along nicely�right up to the moment when the current contract between the Qatari government and CNA runs out, and there is no renewal.

Not to say CCQ can't screw this up. But it looks as if the game is theirs to lose.

[veiledsentiments]

Very interesting analysis LD...

Do you know if the funding situation with CCQ is similar to CNAQ? How about student costs? I presume that any expat students would have to pay tuition.

Did I read correctly that credits from CCQ would transfer to US institutions and possibly elsewhere? And... this is not true of CNAQ?

VS

[misterkodak]

What? QP outsourcing the TPP program? It's about time that happened, The in-house produced texts were horrible! The testing department was just as bad! Alot of direct hires and senior "supervisors" must be wetting themselves. The arrogant incompetence there has gone on too long.

[millie18]

Thanks for the color commentary Lonesome Dove - one acquaintance at CNAQ is feeling a slight sense of unease about the future. I understand more clearly now why.

[RDRD]

Yup, the main teaching site at QP is a ghost town after half the teachers (mainly those who were not native speakers) got fired last month. The contractor is down to about 15 people. Rumor has it the new big boss realized how much money was being grossly wasted and decided to mainly out-source and keep just a few teachers, who will get fired or given direct hire once the current contract finishes. Makes for quite a jolly workplace atmosphere!

[ntropy]

[Lonesome Dove]

[veiledsentiments]

Thanks LD... do you have any idea how their tuition costs compare?

VS

[millie18]

LD mentioned the new president at CNAQ. Any word on what actions he's taken since his arrival in Qatar?

[millie18]

Bumping this up in hopes that someone on the ground can provide some insight:

Has the contract between CNAQ and the state of Qatar been signed?

CNAQ has a new president - any word on what his direction for the college is since stepping into the saddle (gosh that's a bad mish mash) in late August?

[veiledsentiments]

I am trying to picture "stepping into the saddle" ...

VS

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[millie18]

Just had coffee with my CNAQ friend. Latest is pres is praising, among others, HR for filling in while key roles were vacant.

HR just sent out message (on day $$$ was to be paid) for some payroll issues, that there would be a "slight delay" no other particulars provided.

Facilities will have a Q & A session soon.

Interesting to watch - from outside the circus

Still no word on the contract

[kellygreen]

Latest on the contract from a dean: - no word on the contract

Two emails from the new president last Thursday - Both are on the eve of the week long Eid break. One concerning leave requests and the second about two committees formed to guide future college initiatives and/or top down decision making - neither of which includes the person generally perceived to be the most influential over the past 4 - 5 years.

No word directly from the president (or either committee) on the contract.