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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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 Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 2:50 am Post subject: Offer from Taibah University, Madina-Your help? |
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I need you help in making a decision:
I received an offer from Taibah University, Madina. I have a Ph. D (US) with four years teaching and research experience in the US. The chairman has asked me if I could join their department. I didn�t apply for the position yet. He offered me the following package:
1- Base salary SR 5600 + 30% increase = SR 7280 (I asked him to raise the base salary)
2- SR1600 (4 years experience)
3- SR 600 transportation
4- SR 25000 housing
5- SR 13000 furniture
6- 4 round tickets (my wife and two kids)
I hear about the low salaries in Madina, but I am not sure about this offer. Is it really low salary? Is the life in Madina so cheap?
Any information about the life in Madina is appreciated.
Thank you. |
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Van Norden
Joined: 23 Oct 2004
Posts: 409
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:11 am Post subject: |
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| gold wrote: |
| 1- Base salary SR 5600 + 30% increase = SR 7280 (I asked him to raise the base salary) |
Boy, that was generous of them!
If you're a native speaker with a whitey passport and you're coming here for work (not religion) then it's a derisory salary IMO. Especially for someone with a Ph.D. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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So you are getting a salary of SR9480 plus a housing and furniture allowance.
On the low side for a PhD but only the private universities offer significantly better.
What speciality? |
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007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 8:44 pm Post subject: Re: Offer from Taibah University, Madina-Your help? |
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| gold wrote: |
I need you help in making a decision:
I received an offer from Taibah University, Madina. I have a Ph. D (US) with four years teaching and research experience in the US. The chairman has asked me if I could join their department. I didn�t apply for the position yet. He offered me the following package:
1- Base salary SR 5600 + 30% increase = SR 7280 (I asked him to raise the base salary)
2- SR1600 (4 years experience)
3- SR 600 transportation
4- SR 25000 housing
5- SR 13000 furniture
6- 4 round tickets (my wife and two kids) |
The above salary is for an Assistant professor with a PhD, and is within the salary scale of the Ministry of Education.
They used to give extra 50% for Westerners with PhD, you have to check with them for this?
| Quote: |
I hear about the low salaries in Madina, but I am not sure about this offer. Is it really low salary? Is the life in Madina so cheap?
Any information about the life in Madina is appreciated. |
I guess you are a Muslim, if not you will not be able to enter the Madinah city centre (the limits of Harram).
The life in Madinah is cheap, and you will not have any problem with food.
The housing price are cheap if you rent outside the limits of Harram. |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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Boy, that was generous of them!
If you're a native speaker with a whitey passport and you're coming here for work (not religion) then it's a derisory salary IMO. Especially for someone with a Ph.D.[/quote]
Thanks, Van! I have the Green Card only. |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
So you are getting a salary of SR9480 plus a housing and furniture allowance.
On the low side for a PhD but only the private universities offer significantly better.
What speciality? |
Stephen,
Thank you. It seems to me that the salary is low even after SR9480 plus housing and furniture. I am not sure about the private universities when it comes to research. I hear they care about teaching only. I could be wrong.
My field is chemistry. |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 10:05 pm Post subject: Re: Offer from Taibah University, Madina-Your help? |
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| 007 wrote: |
| gold wrote: |
I need you help in making a decision:
I received an offer from Taibah University, Madina. I have a Ph. D (US) with four years teaching and research experience in the US. The chairman has asked me if I could join their department. I didn�t apply for the position yet. He offered me the following package:
1- Base salary SR 5600 + 30% increase = SR 7280 (I asked him to raise the base salary)
2- SR1600 (4 years experience)
3- SR 600 transportation
4- SR 25000 housing
5- SR 13000 furniture
6- 4 round tickets (my wife and two kids) |
The above salary is for an Assistant professor with a PhD, and is within the salary scale of the Ministry of Education.
They used to give extra 50% for Westerners with PhD, you have to check with them for this?
Thanks 007! Do you mean the 50% added to the SR 5600?
| Quote: |
I hear about the low salaries in Madina, but I am not sure about this offer. Is it really low salary? Is the life in Madina so cheap?
Any information about the life in Madina is appreciated. |
I guess you are a Muslim, if not you will not be able to enter the Madinah city centre (the limits of Harram).
The life in Madinah is cheap, and you will not have any problem with food.
The housing price are cheap if you rent outside the limits of Harram. |
It looks to me that the life is really cheap in Madina. I should be able to enter the limits of Harram.
Do you think that the people in Madina are nicer than anywhere else in KSA?
Any information about the parks and so will be appreciated. I have two daughters (8 and 14 years) who were born and raised in the US. I am afraid that it might be a shock for them since they traveled only once to the ME (Egypt) but they liked it very much. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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| What makes you think research faculties at Madinah will be better than in the private sector? |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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The chairman has promised with SR 500,000 as a grant to do my research. Also, he mentioned some instruments to continue my research. The instruments are too expensive for many places even in the US. ~$3 M. They already have some of the instruments, and published a few papers.
What is puzzling to me is that they are looking for research, and they have or willing to buy the instruments, but most of them if not all don't do research-WHY!!!??? |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:12 am Post subject: |
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| Saudi Arabia does not boast of many centres of academic excellence. Nor is it at the leading edge of scientific research. |
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trapezius
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: Land of Culture of Death & Destruction
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:27 am Post subject: |
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Far from the leading edge, it is very close to the trailing edge!
A lot of poor countries produce a lot more original research than SA does. |
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007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| gold wrote: |
The chairman has promised with SR 500,000 as a grant to do my research. Also, he mentioned some instruments to continue my research. The instruments are too expensive for many places even in the US. ~$3 M. They already have some of the instruments, and published a few papers.
What is puzzling to me is that they are looking for research, and they have or willing to buy the instruments, but most of them if not all don't do research-WHY!!!??? |
If you can read a liitle bit of Arabic, you can check their web site at: www.taibahu.edu.sa
They have a MSc in Chemistry
Because it is a new university, they will have modern labs and instruments, but I doubt if they have a scientific research environment as in the Western universities, in addition, you will have more time for your research as an individual efforts!
The other thing you have to take into account is when writing papers, you have to expect (probably) to write the name of your HOD or the Dean, even though they may not contribute (directly) to your paper!
They have a centre or Deanship of Scientific research.
Their web site is in Arabic (no English version yet!):
http://www.taibahu.edu.sa/Deanships/researches/Forms.html
I doubt about the grant given to you, I do not think you can get that number in one shot! I guess it is SR 50000 and not � M ?? If you look at their funded research projects published in their web site, the higher grant was SR157000,and was concerned with �Study of Bacterial Resistance �in the waste waters in Hospitals..� (see the Arabic link below):
http://www.taibahu.edu.sa/Deanships/researches/Researches.html
Their main research are in Agricultures (mainly dates), Chemistry, and Medical applications.
The majority of resarchers are foreigners, mostly Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Tunisians, and few Saudis. And the majority of their research are published locally, and very very few which can be accepted in International peer reviewd jornals.
Because it is a new university, and if you are very active in resaerch, you will have the opportunity to order new instruments for your research, because each year they allocate a budget for these things.
The local people of Madinah are nice and much better than Makkah's one.
Anyway, Madinah city is a multi-national city where around the year you will meet people from different nationalities who come to do Omrah and Hajj. There are some nice parks with playgorund for children. Just you have to check for international schools if they exist in Madinah or not? If not you will be obliged to put your children in normal government/private schools. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| What about educational allowances for the children ? Schools ? |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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| trapezius wrote: |
Far from the leading edge, it is very close to the trailing edge!
A lot of poor countries produce a lot more original research than SA does. |
I agree with you. SciFinder Scholar search on Taibah University produced a very small number of articles. They are way behind after all.
Last edited by gold on Sat May 26, 2007 9:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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gold
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| What about educational allowances for the children ? Schools ? |
I will negotiate this issue with them once the chairman gets back to me on the salary increase. No salary increase to the level I want no reason to suffer! |
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