Job Discussion Forums

[veiledsentiments]

Back to our original topic for the moment. Here is another interesting article that pre-dates the closure of the University of Michigan by a month or so:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleId=2466

Here is the most interesting paragraph:

George Mason's failure hasn't deterred others from establishing campuses, but it serves as fair warning of the oversaturated nature of higher education in the Arabian Gulf: according to a recent study of higher education in the UAE by The British Council, there are just over 91,000 college-level students in the UAE, but nearly 100 colleges and universities in the country vying for their tuition, including 48 international higher education institutions.

And, of course, many of the 91,000 are not really in the market at all since they will attend government institutions like UAEU, ZU, and HCT for free. (with the best and brightest being sent overseas at government expense.) Not to mention the ones that are either not interested or not suitable for university education... no less paying for it.

VS

[Sheikh N Bake]

Yes, well, institutions in Dubai need tuition income, but wealthy Abu Dhabi foots the bills. AD buys names like the Louvre and NYU as the latter look great on visitor brochures. They can be added to the PR campaign on CNN and other networks that suggest it's the world's most dynamic innovator in culture, technology, education, ecology and commerce! Think I'm immersing myself in hyperbole here? Look at those commercials again.

They even seem to eclipse the Koreans as shipbuilders! Uh-huh.

You know my thoughts on the laissez-faire GMU, whose idea of international education was to literally sell RAK a sign board that said GMU.

[Eisenhorn]

[bje]

From where are these rumours originating?

[Eisenhorn]

[Sheikh N Bake]

I was there when the mean-spirited, arrogant, wicked witch of the East (SS) ran the sham campus of GMU even further into the ground while having the multitasking skills to sack good people right and left.

She didn't even know me and basically suggested to me that I was just another ESL nerd fixated on schoolteacher petty concerns. Yeah? At least I had an advanced degree in higher-education administration in addition to the usual EFL stuff. She should have solicited opinions more, listened more and kept her stupid assumptions to herself--let alone her wacky ideas on why to fire people.

%&$* her, she couldn't manage a box of pencils.

[bartowel]

I have just left UAE, after 3 years on faculty at a good university in Sharjah - I worked as an external consultant to a new MA program to be offered at AURAK - I worked pretty hard on the program, got it accredited and then AURAK 'dumped' it - No skin off my nose except previous President, SS, failed to honor AURAK side of the contract and still owes me a considerable sum - fed up chasing it and now back in US to begin new faculty position - I was offered (and nearly took) a position at AURAK, but alarm bells rang when they started to shaft me over the contract - who would work for such an organization if that is how they treated 'outsiders' - my fear was once I was on the payroll it would be worse - lucky escape for me - But, I too would not like to see the place close as I think it could serve the Northern Emirates if managed properly - hopefully it will develop.

[LuxorHouse]

Here's an update from The National: http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100728/NATIONAL/707279864/1041

[Sheikh N Bake]

The new director was a director on the admin side in the opening days of GMU. He once told students if they didn't like the dorm and other inadequate facilities, they could always leave the school.

He talks about recruitment in the article, but recruitment was NEVER even attempted properly from the days the campus opened as GMU in 2005. It still isn't and neither will it ever be.

Who knows what "overpaid" means in the article. We were considered overpaid by the Indian bean counters at Dh. 12,000 a month.

American University of RAK is about as American as chicken buriyani.

American universities don't offer "MSc" and BSc" degrees. (Admittedly, that could be the reporter's usage.) Those are British and Indian degrees, not American. In US parlance they are M.S. and B.S. degrees. As for the content professors...uhm, any westerners, let alone US faculty, there?

[dunteslin]

To Bartowel ('AURAK stuffed me too') you have my sympathy. They cheated me out of money when I was there in its George Mason incarnation. I am not one to say a good word about SS; but finances were strictly held in the hands of the Subcontinentals. Your financial losses are more likely to have come about at their hands. But they were certainly shoddy, dishonest operators.

Both you and Sheikh n'Bake say that you have no particular desire to see AURAK close down. I am of the opposite opinion. RAK has a network of shadowy, inter-related institutions, most with Indian connections, operating out of the RAK Free Zone. Contracts are worthless. As are claims to recognised accreditation. University of the Seychelles? American (!) Institute of Medicine? Royal College of Applied Science and Technology? RAK Medical and Health Sciences University? The latter was being planned and set up while I was still there at George Mason, by the same 'George Mason' franchise administration.

Anyone who has been to Ras al Khaimah knows how small the town is.
How can a place that size support so many self-proclaimed universities and colleges? In the words of a real American icon, in his early days,
"...somebody better investigate soon!" (Dylan, 'Oxford Town', if you didn't get the ref. If not, maybe you are too young; and if so, good luck to you. )

I have great affection for the Emirate of Ras al Khaimah. It is a beautiful place, I love the local people there. It deserves something better than what is happening there. I don't use emoticons, but if I did I cannot find one to adequately express my disgust at what has been happening. As my username indicates, I am at the end of a language teaching career in which I have taught English in five universities around the world. When I look at what has been happening in RAK, I really have to cry to keep from laughing!

[Sheikh N Bake]