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a.anas · Joined: 24 Jun 2014 Posts: 26 Location: Sudan

A quick update:

Some of my former students at UOB read the Arabic summary of my article and they are very upset. Some of them want to file a lawsuit against UOB on charges of fraud because it makes the false and unsubstantiated claim that it is affiliated with five European universities.

I am looking for more academic websites to post this article.

Any idea how i can send this to the Sultan. I did share the link to this article on his Facebook page and I sent it to his website.

I posted the same article on the link below.

http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Universities_to_fear

CANDLES · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:33 pm Post subject:

WOW! You've really taken it further than most. God help the returning teachers whose livelihood is now threatened by students and the various faculties!

Ironically some were trying to make a difference and teach!

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

omanoman · Joined: 11 Jun 2014 Posts: 140

The place clearly needs some improvement in probably every aspect but your poor experience is not necessarily the same as others. like Candles said, others are carrying on and doing their best hopefully to make a small difference.

So, number one, the assumption that your complaints will reach the Sultan are fairly ridiculous and not a little arrogant or at least naive. And secondly, this idea of actual fraud is also going nowhere since for what it is worth, whatever claim they have to being affiliated to the Austrian Unis is true enough I am sure to avoid any actual legal troubles - what the affiliation means in real terms is debatable but not fraudulent.

omanoman

a.anas · Joined: 24 Jun 2014 Posts: 26 Location: Sudan

omanoman · Joined: 11 Jun 2014 Posts: 140

Agreed, it is a 'work in progress" at the best of times it seems.

Still, these are your perceptions and standards and may not reflect a universal experience there. Most universities in the region are not up to your standards I would think. You should probably avoid opportunities here and elsewhere in the GCC as I think you will be forever disappointed and disgruntled.

best of luck.

CANDLES · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:26 am Post subject:

And so a.anas, what will be achieved (I know the answer), but what will happen this new semester when things are so dire with unhappy students and even worse unhappy teachers who've left their homes to come and work?

Unless UOB closes its doors today, it will still be functioning tomorrow with gloom and Buraimi will not have an 'educational' institution anymore. Students will have to either go to Muscat or Al-Ain to get any proper education. How many women students do you think will be doing that and how many men, especially the really dumb asses will go to all that trouble?

I think you and your colleagues have stirred the hornet's nest enough; you've done your hardest to dismantle the structure, put noses out of joints, now please go in peace and work and live happily.

Let the others try and pickup the pieces and bring something different and vibrant to the region; for students, teachers and the whole of Buraimi.

omanoman · Joined: 11 Jun 2014 Posts: 140

I think you are over-estimating the influence that any one of us has over our current and former places of employment. a.anas' technical and slightly pompous critique will fall on deaf ears. There may be some parts of the bureaucratic machine that may use whatever feedback he /she has given and reassess their performance and policy standards within the confines of the structure they operate in. Perhaps an attitude change here and there can be met with some courage and conviction to create change, step by step.

So, the efforts may not be entirely fruitless but they are hardly going to cause upheaval and close down an entire operation.

Good advice to go in peace though. What good can it really do to snipe away at people and places from afar? It only makes one appear bitter and vindictive, whatever noble intention they claim to have.

a.anas · Joined: 24 Jun 2014 Posts: 26 Location: Sudan

Many of my former students are still in touch with me and they actually asked me to help them in their efforts to bring about changes. So, I can't let them down at this point. Besides, as we all seem to agree, UOB needs to change to be able to serve the students. I wasn't personally wronged to have an ax to grind. I resigned because I did not want to be part of a set-up that is driven solely by profit at whatever cost. Let me assure you, it is not out of vindictiveness that I am doing this, but rather a sense that this could be turned around.

In fact, I had several talks with the director of CFS as well as the head of HR about these problems, but they would not listen. shortly before leaving, i made it clear to them that I would take whatever steps within my power to expose UOB. So, once again, they are fully aware of the problems.

I left Oman and the entire gulf for good. while many institutions in the Gulf might look like UOB, I know what's wrong with UOB and as such I feel responsible. with knowledge comes responsibility.

since it is possible to have a more or less genuine education, why go for fake one. I am just doing what I think is right and I can only hope that these efforts will bear fruit

CANDLES · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:54 am Post subject:

It took from 1970 to present and ongoing for the Sultan to modernise his country. Even he had to be patient!

With all due respect, you as a mere mortal, are not going to achieve that in a few seconds or minutes, however hard you shout. It will change over the years through Omani efforts (students and future students/citizens) and not an outsider. They (Omanis) are well aware of corruption, stupidity and gross injustice, but it will not change overnight, just like the students cannot learn English and pass all their exams overnight.

I think you need to step back and look forward to your future, wherever that is. Hopefully in the West!

MuscatGary · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:32 pm Post subject:

Nice to see the same old apologist arguments being trotted out.... "If I can help one student each semester then it's justification for ignoring the cheating, administrative incompetence and corruption, post hoc grade inflation and so on..." "It's their country and we should just stay quiet...."

The truth is that if the situation at Buraimi is as anas describes it and it is obvious to the teachers then continuing to work there makes them complicit in all of the above. They become part of the problem by lending their academic credibility to the sham.

Anas is performing a valuable service by raising the issues and maybe warning potential teachers off.

CANDLES · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:48 pm Post subject:

Oh great! That's all we need - another bleeding heart who's now sitting comfortably in Spain?? or somewhere in Europe adding to the mire created by a.anas and his ilk!

Do you think the other teachers are/were stupid and not concerned about the educational system and that we/they didn't/aren't trying to rectify the problems? No-one is justifying or condoning what is taking place, but as the saying goes: you don't crack a nut with a sledgehammer!

Look what's happened to the educational system in the UK: Grammar schools and Comprehensives dismantled to provide an 'equal society' where 2nd best or 3rd is good enough and the 'normal' ambition of an average child is to have 5 minutes of fame, or be a hairdresser or a footballer!

So please MG and others of the same, do not patronise! You escaped and didn't do anything, so please, give it rest!

balqis · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 373

I also agree with dr a.anas and deem his case and courage very noble, and the few comments added lately - such as ''these are your perceptions and standards'', ''pompous critique'' and such like of the similar ilk - corrupt and in their underbelly nasty.

Hope all will be fine with you dr a.anas.

MuscatGary · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 2:00 pm Post subject:

Get real. People work in the ME for one reason and one reason only; MONEY. Everybody knows it's broken and everybody knows it will not be fixed before the oil runs out. Once the oil goes the money goes and so does the pretence of an educational system and the ex-pat teachers. Everybody has their own limits, for me it was seeing a student who cannot speak, let alone write in, English at all. being allowed to graduate with a B.Ed. in English and therefore qualified to teach English in the state system. I should have left sooner but prostituted myself for the money. The old ME saying of keep quiet and bank the money is the norm but some need the old chestnuts I quoted to diminish the cognitive dissonance they experience of trying to reconcile a belief that they are a professional teacher with the knowledge that no real professional would work in such a situation.