Job Discussion Forums

[helmsman]

This article from the Gulf News says HCT considering reducing enrollment to 14,000 from 16,000 due to financial belt tightening.
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Education/10192874.html
What might this mean for their instructors? a hiring freeze, reduction by natural attrition, or layoffs? ZU and UAEU also affected.

[veiledsentiments]

This from a country that is literally drowning in petrodollars (deflated as they are) and is spending billions on indoor ski slopes and luxury construction on man-made islands - and replicating the Louvre.

Talk about grossly misplaced priorities...

As I read the article, it is the MoHE pointing out to the public that the reason that some of their kiddies are not getting into their preferred tertiary institution is because the government is pissing the money away on... (see above)... rather than upping the education budgets.

I see no effect on teachers. It appears that they are trying to raise/maintain teacher's pay and benefits by cutting student numbers. This is a 'demand' to loosen the purse strings by the appropriate Emirati officials... and likely good news for teachers.

VS

[helenl]

They go through this every year.

1. Enrollment is capped
2. Colleges may make some adjustments to staffing.
3. Students who have denied entry complain to their local sheikh and 4. Voila - come late August/early September the colleges are told they must allow all those who qualify to enroll/attend and hey, we found the money to do it.
5. Colleges then scramble to
(a) find room in crowded facilities (especially in smaller colleges)
(b) find someone to teach these students

Repeat of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 ......

[Afra]

The debate at the FNC seems rather more serious than the usual no money so fewer students tale. It will be interesting to see if the HCT are recruiting at TESOL Arabia - the word is that they probably won't be and that teacher numbers will reduce by resignations and non-renewals.

[veiledsentiments]

[helmsman]

Having these so-called lawmakers bring the issue out into the open is definitely a good thing. What makes the situation urgent and different from previous years is the recent rise in inflation. Housing is one area where these institutions are having great difficultly ensuring quality for instructors.

Also, as the article states, salaries are not being kept competitive.

The loss of trained Emirati staff to other public employers does not make it easier for them either, as they have to keep recruiting and retraining locals.

All of this indicates to me that education is not truly valued by the highest leadership, despite what they may say.

[veiledsentiments]

[uaeobserver]

With thousands of students attending non-federal institutions, I'm guessing decision makers question the utility of free (subsidized) education. After all --- students appear willing to attend non-federal AND pay tuition --- which is often rather substantial.

Add to that some questions about the quality of the federal system ---- and you get a funding crisis.

The UAE isn't the first place this has ever happened. Private universities are all over the UK, Canada, and the USA.

[Dedicated]

The UK only has one private university - the University of Buckingham.
Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, which have significant endowments, almost all UK universities rely on Government agencies for peer-reviweed research grants in support of teaching and core research needs.

I digress from the OP...........sorry!

[younggeorge]

[mishmumkin]

Young george returns!

[Longton]

There are some non-British private universities. For example, US and Canadian universities in London

[veiledsentiments]

[Ed Dueim]

Enrollment for public HE institutions is forecast down for next acad yr. However, demographic data suggests UAE pop bulge coming with large no's of HE aged people coming �nline". Catering for these new clients will stretch system to limit & it has major implications for paltry emiratisation efforts in private sector when the bulge starts to graduate.
Petrodollars are still dollars i.e depreciating by the hour... Price of oil when adjusted for historical value & inflation still to reach record highs of 70's when Europe & US suffered & 3rd world economies died. Gulf govts know that oil windfalls = windfalls; lucky unpredicted periods of plenty which can't be projected very far into future. Gulf demographics in general are frightening in terms of strains they will eventuate for future infrastructure - physical & social. UAE Min of Finance has been on stringent cost control fetish for several years now...most successfully in HE funding area....generally Min of Fin is peed off with what it sees as "Black Hole"of UAE Ed...billions disappearing in there with little tangible returns...Min of Fin would like lot more measures of accountability, productivity etc...those buzzwords beloved of beancounters.
Anyway....complex situation a little more involved than self pitying whining ill-informed analysis of well paid ex-pat college teachers might suggest.

[veiledsentiments]

Since when have the beancounters had any control of the way that money has been wasted in the UAE. In the 20 years I have been following the Emirates economy, in relative terms, education has been the least wasteful expenditure. (granted that it has been obscenely wasteful, but I'm speaking comparatively)

Education is how you keep the young people occupied and out of trouble. They can't afford to turn loose too many of their adolescents if they don't want to have real problems. And it is an age bulge that has just begun to affect them...