Job Discussion Forums

[lmbeharry]

Here are some generalities:

I worked at Hartford Institute from July 2007-January 2008. They were seeking business lecturers. In order to teach business, the Raffles group requires "a Master's degree." I am a 42 year old idealist and I am often (still) naive. But I assumed that the business lecturers would have MBA's or CPA's or some qualification suited to teaching business. (I have an MBA from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA; I have one year of Law School from William & Mary; and I possess the all-powerful BA from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University). I am qualified! These guys at Hartford - all they can do is read slides and take attendance.

Basically, it goes like this. They hire you and require that you teach 24 hours each week for twelve-week sessions (that's four classes). The syllabi they provide are for graduate level courses. Generally, the syllabi were prepared by some PhD's somewhere (basically a la carte variety syllabi). And the syllabi come with examination materials. Get this, one instructor there - Reno - seemingly never changes the accounting tests he gives his accounting classes (term after term, year after year). Basically, he gives the test, comes up with some hokey grades for the students (whose parents, seemingly, can purchase an "A"), submits three test grades to home office: high score, low score, and median score (AS QUALITY CONTROL). Oh, the students can never retrieve their test. Reno locks them up in a closet in the teacher's office. TALK ABOUT LACK OF TRANSPARENCY!!!!!

Need I go on???????

If a student misses five classes, according to Reno, head of academics, that's an automatic failure (unless, of course, the parents of the student come up with the money to buy a passing grade). The school does not even allow instructors to specialize. I'm a finance guy, yet the school asks me to teach marketing???? Books are scarce!!! And I had to tell these PhD's in Singapore (senior management) that they were pushing graduate level (MA and PhD) textbooks on the 18 and 19 year-olds. They had been doing it for years in Mongolia - and likely elsewhere! CAN YOU IMAGINE? The senior staff can't even pick out appropriate course material for their students!!!!!!!

Basically it seems that the company is engineered around marketing a shell game. Selling "the first international degree in Mongolia" to unsuspecting nuveaux riches and extorting as much as they can while continually avoiding to produce any value whatsoever!!!!!! In fact, the senior officers seemingly pride themselves for their uncanny ability to abstain from value creation. Rather, their aim is theft of wealth. They are typical socialists - unable to make anything so they steal it from producers.

You may find information about Raffles (Singapore) here. The thread is about schools in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. If you need information about corporate, I can give you the gory details. I have both sent and received emails from corporate officers. In general, they are non-supportive and either clueless (in which case negligent) or criminal (extortionists taking money from students' parents):

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=629115#629115

You'll need to scroll down to see my info on Hartford. The link takes you to a remark about Santis school (aka Satans - I did not start that one, that's what the English teacher's call it).

One more thing, and this is important. The Hartford/Raffles school goes by many different names (as part of the shell game trick). It may be Raffles, Hartford Institute, and in China, they use other names as well.

Man, I just hate it when corporations don't fulfill their mission. It means that senior management is incompetent. And when senior management is incompetent, the whole system degrades...

Contact me at [email protected] if you need the skinny.

But just stay away from this place!!!!!

[lmbeharry]

Contact me at [email protected] for the skinny.

Sorry for the typo. My head is pounding these days. I am just so sick of UlaanBaatar culture. This place is killing me.

Regarding Mongolia - yeah, the countryside is BEAUTIFUL.

Just GOOD LUCK finding the combination of employment and money that will afford you the time to visit the countryside.

Oh, one more thing about Hartford Institute/Raffles University that occurred to me. School policy: After the course is over, instructors are not permitted to give students their grades. Have any of you ever attended a college or university where your professor could not provide your grade after final exams? I never have. In every single school of higher education I have ever attended, professors deliver grades to the students. But at Hartford, the instructors submit grades to the school and the school (after review and likely extortion of parents for additional moneys) gives the grades to the students...

Is the world becoming more insane as I grow older????

If these people would just do their job. All senior management has to do is to create the culture of a proper university. That means 1) screen your instructors for credentials and ability; 2) go ahead and do random sit-ins in your instructors classes; 3) student reviews of instructors OK, but also peer review; 4) DON'T ASK FOR INSANE TEACHING HOURS (Hartford/Raffles boasts as their mission statement: The University aims to deliver high quality teaching through a curriculum that consistently emphasizes:

* Creativity and innovation.
* Enterprise and entrepreneurship.
* Relevance and employability.
* Professional excellence.
* Socially responsible professional practice.

The University will deliver its programmes through an extensive international network which provides the opportunity for its students to gain a competitive edge in the global economy.) THEN WHY THE HELL DON'T THEY DO IT???????;

By insane teaching hours: Business School is not about reading slides to students. Business school is about analyzing cases; teaching spreadsheet applications; teaching linear programming; teaching accounting THE MODERN WAY, WITH SPREADSHEETS; students working in teams to learn group dynamics and also so the students can isolate their specialties, etc.

HOW CAN YOU PROVIDE QUALITY IN BUSINESS EDUCATION IF YOU WORK YOUR INSTRUCTORS FOR 24 HOURS OF TEACHING?????? WHERE IS THE TIME TO ACTUALLY CREATE THE CASE ANALYSIS? FROM WHERE DOES THE TIME COME???????? WHAT ABOUT WORKING WITH STUDENTS TEAMS??????? FROM WHERE DOES THE TIME COME???? AND CREATING ORIGINAL EXAMS AND INNOVATIVE TEACHING STYLES???? AND RESEARCH????? FROM WHERE DOES THE TIME COME????? SHOULD I PULL IT OUT OF MY BEHIND???????

CLEARLY, AGAIN, IT'S A SHELL GAME. THESE GUYS HAVE NO INTEREST IN QUALITY!!!!!!! ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS MOVING MONEY FROM MONGOLIA TO SINGAPORE - AGAIN, BECAUSE IT'S A SHELL GAME WITH ONE EXPRESS PURPOSE. STEAL MONEY FROM NOUVEAUX RICHE MONGOLIANS AND SEND IT TO SINGAPORE. AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THESE SINGAPOREANS ARE SOCIALISTS. THEY CAN'T CREATE ANY VALUE SO THEY STEAL IT!!!!!

5) DON'T BE AFRAID TO FIRE INCOMPETENT INSTRUCTORS! DON'T BE AFRAID TO RELEASE INCOMPETENT SENIOR MANAGEMENT!


These guys (senior management) are conducting a business school and they don't even understand BUSINESS ETHICS and MANAGEMENT!

OH - RENO'S ARGUMENT AGAINST ME: HE SAYS: IT'S YOUR (LYNDON'S) OPINION!

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens 2: DID IQ'S SUDDENLY DROP WHILE I WAS AWAY????

IS THIS GUY SO BLINDED BY THE CORPORATE SYSTEM THAT HE CANNOT THINK RATIONALLY??????

I WON'T POST AGAIN. IT'S LIKELY NOT GOOD FOR MY BLOOD PRESSURE.

AND I AM SICK OF ULAANBAATAR CULTURE ANYWAY.

I HAD LEFT KOREA TO FIND A WIFE. THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME IN MONGOLIA. I HAVE A WIFE NOW AND TWO CHILDREN. I MAY BE HEADING BACK TO KOREA IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS TO TEACH WITHIN THEIR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN: KOREANS VALUE EDUCATION!!!! THAT'S WHAT MADE THEM RICH!!!

[lmbeharry]

This is a draft of the final Letter to the Editor I sent to the UB Post in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. But I doubt that they will publish it. The word through the grapevine is that UB Post is influenced by some corrupt government officials, some of whom are investors in the Hartford Institute scam...

Anyway, for you all, this is the letter:

Hartford Institute / Raffles Education Corp. is violating its mission statement!

Hartford/Raffles boasts as their mission statement:

The University aims to deliver high quality teaching through a curriculum that consistently emphasizes:

* Creativity and innovation.
* Enterprise and entrepreneurship.
* Relevance and employability.
* Professional excellence.
* Socially responsible professional practice.

The University will deliver its programmes through an extensive international network which provides the opportunity for its students to gain a competitive edge in the global economy.


This is the Hartford Education Corp. mission statement:

We prepare our students to be future business leaders by providing an education distinguished by its practical relevance and passion for excellence. We focus both on undergraduate education that emphasises a personalised learning environment and on selected masters, doctoral, and other graduate programmes that provide students with specialised educational experiences. We aim to provide an unequalled education that will serve our students for a lifetime, and meet the needs of our wider community in all the countries we operate in.



The truth is, the company is a degree mill. By this I mean, the company places little emphasis on quality, and even less emphasis on education.

To introduce myself, I have an MBA from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA; I have one year of Law School from William & Mary; and my final trump card: I possess the all-powerful BA from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University. I have over thirteen years of professional experience with Fortune 500 companies and smaller firms. I have been teaching professionally and as a volunteer for twenty years (one-on-one and with groups in excess of 30 persons). I worked at Hartford Institute (a Raffles company) from July 2007-January 2008 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. They were seeking business lecturers.

In order to teach business, the Raffles group requires "a Master's degree." I am a 42 year old idealist and I am often (still) naive. But I assumed that the business lecturers would have the requisite credentials, business experience, teaching experience, and creativity to produce value through education. Yet Hartford seemingly requires the bare minimum from their lecturers: 1) read PowerPoint slides to the undergraduate students (that�s the testimony of the students, as I had never had the chance to review a peer�s lecture); 2) promote the school through various marketing ploys in Ulaanbaatar� Furthermore, the school promises to provide the teaching materials (read on below).

The workload at Hartford Institute (a Raffles company): four six-hour classes (24 hours of lecture time) each week for twelve-week sessions. The course materials are often non-existent, or late in arriving after the term starts. The company cannot even invest a modicum of money into course materials. The tuition in Mongolia is in excess of $7,000 USD per annum. Bear in mind that the per capita income in Mongolia is under $2,100 per annum � and this is an anomaly caused by the crash of the US mortgage market and the world system pushing up the price of gold. (*Per capita income in Mongolia was approximately $2,100 in 2006, according to Wikipedia*).

Following are a few examples of typical corporate support for lecturers: For six months I had regularly asked the Director of the Ulaanbaatar Raffles Hartford Institute to invest $75 (that is seventy-five dollars USD) to purchase some additional computer memory storage in order that I might have shared business materials, business films, and business/stock market games with the students. This guy, a Director of Raffles refused! $75 dollars! I thought then, and I believe now, that my request was entirely reasonable!

Raffles University provides graduate level syllabi and texts to 18 and 19 year-olds whose English is a second language. I checked the publishers and the websites for the books just to make sure I knew what I was talking about. But beyond this, textbooks are scarce! I had to raise the question of the appropriateness of the course work and the texts to the PhD directors in Singapore (senior Hartford Institute management). The Ulaanbaatar school had been doing it for years in Mongolia - and likely elsewhere! Can you imagine? And they became angry with me for pointing it out. They urged that I should find appropriate books and submit it to them prior to use for screening. My argument to them was: When will I have the time to read a 400 page textbook? I was lecturing 24 hours a week, four twelve-week sessions each year (that�s 48 weeks out of 52 weeks in the year). With a break of one week between sessions to grade finals and papers, and submit scores to home office, and then (hopefully) get a few days to review the courses they had assigned me for the succeeding term (to write original exams, prepare an appropriate syllabus, and find appropriate and challenging ancillary materials for the students). Where would I find the time to do their job and review appropriate course material? I therefore asked Singapore to select the books for me. They refused. Rather, they terminated my contract (within a matter of hours)! Coincidence?

They may have purchased, borrowed, or scammed the syllabi they pushed on the lecturers. These were basically a la carte variety syllabi, and definitely not individually catered for each class. The syllabi came with examination materials. One instructor there seemingly never changed the accounting tests he gave his accounting classes (term after term, year after year). Basically, he gave the test, graded them, and submitted three test scores (high, low, and median) to home office to satisfy in-house �quality control.� His students can never retrieve their tests. This head of Ulaanbaatar�s Raffles/Hartford academic department locks students� tests in a closet in the teacher's office. Is this transparent? To me, this seems very suspicious. My thoughts on this: these are final exams for undergraduate accounting - not someone�s thesis that has to be reviewed by the academic board!

This same academic director (or maybe it is Raffles Singapore�s directive) made the decision that if a student misses five classes, he will earn an automatic failure � even if the student had been ill. I find this suspicious. It seems that this rather subjective standard gives the school an opportunity to extort money from parents to secure a pass mark.

The Raffles/Hartford school does not even allow instructors to specialize. My specialty is finance, but the school required that I teach marketing (economics, strategy, and after my first two terms � directly before they terminated my contract, corporate finance).

The Raffles/Hartford school promised the Mongolian students that upon graduating, Hartford�s New Zealand partner, Central Queensland University, (who guarantees the international accreditation) would issue the diplomas. This past January, my students complained to me that Raffles/Hartford issued their diplomas (basically the diplomas carry Hartford�s endorsement). This is clearly misrepresentation.

Following are a few more examples of questionable Raffles/Hartford school policy: After the course is over, instructors are not permitted to give students their grades. Have any of you ever attended a college or university where your professor could not provide your grade after final exams? I never have. In every single school of higher education I have ever attended, professors deliver grades to the students. But at Hartford, the instructors submit grades to the school and the school gives the grades to the students... As an instructor, I never had the time to check whether the schools� grades matched the grades I had submitted.

It seems that the company is engineered around marketing a shell game. Their business model revolves around a simple marketing campaign. They are selling the dream of "the first international degree in Mongolia" to unsuspecting nouveaux riches!

The Hartford/Raffles school goes by many different names (as part of the shell game trick). It may be Raffles, Hartford Institute, and in China, they use other names as well. I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but of late I have had to draw the conclusion that this is a purposeful part of the scam to insulate each brand name from the misdoings of the others (to stupefy parents, students, and instructors). If I had a quality program with good brand equity, I would not want to dilute it across many different named entities. I would consolidate the brand equity into one. Wouldn�t you?

When corporations don't fulfill their mission and senior management is incompetent, the whole system degrades...

I have come up with some possible solutions to these dilemmas. The Entity should focus on fulfilling its mission statement (or create a new mission statement that accurately reflects their mission and vision). To solve Raffles/Hartford corporate culture dilemma, senior management should focus on the following points. If senior management cannot cope with the issues, the investors should change senior management and find proper qualified persons. I�m giving this advice for free. It�s very valuable (obvious to me) and they should use it:

1) screen your instructors for credentials and ability;
2) perform random sit-ins in your instructors� classes;
3) require peer review of teaching standards and instructor qualification;
4) institute rational teaching schedules and a curriculum focused upon developing your student body so that each course builds up upon the prior ones. Rip up the hodge-podge lessons plans currently in place. In Education you may provide quality or quantity � but not both. It seems obvious to me. So I guess Raffles has to choose what it wants, quality or quantity� Business School is not about reading slides to students. Business school is about analyzing cases; teaching spreadsheet applications; teaching linear programming; teaching accounting the modern way � with spreadsheets, and accounting software; forcing the students to question their perceptions about marketing and business in the modern world; enforcing a system whereby students work in teams to learn group dynamics but also so the students can isolate their specialties, etc.; and above all else, the instructors must lead by example � that means instructors must behave in an ethical manner (see peer review above).

How can you provide quality business education if you work your instructors for 24 hours of teaching per week? You are hiring these guys to teach Business � not English conversation� Where should your instructors find the time to actually create worthwhile case studies? From where does the time come? What about working with student teams? From where does the time come? And creating original exams and innovative teaching materials? And research? From where does the time come?

It�s obvious to me. The Directors of Raffles Education Corp. need to choose. Are they selling quality or quantity? Don�t lie � basically, your present mission statement is a misrepresentation. If Raffles/Hartford is not fulfilling the mission upon which investors infused capital, and upon which parents pay tuition, Raffles/Hartford has committed grave misrepresentation.

5) In business, do not hesitate to fire incompetent employees. Do not hesitate to remove incompetent managers and/or Directors. (But make sure to review each situation in turn. Don�t jump the gun, and weigh each situation objectively. The ultimate aim: maximize stakeholder value. Make a good product. Create positive brand equity. President Truman had a plaque on his desk: The Buck Stops Here! That means that the senior officer is responsible for misdoings under his/her charge!)

These guys (senior management) are conducting a business school and they don't even understand Business Ethics and Management!



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I had made these points time and again in staff meetings, to no avail. That is precisely the reason I am currently so irate! This was the Academic Manager�s (Hartford Institute Ulaanbaatar) argument against me: He said: It�s your (Lyndon�s) opinion! He said that if I wanted to teach, I should go to a public university and that Raffles/Hartford was not the place for someone who wanted to teach. (This last sentence is a paraphrase as I cannot recall his precise language.)

My thoughts at the time flashed back to Sigourney Weaver in Aliens 2. Quote: Did IQ�s suddenly drop while I was away?

Is this guy so blinded by the corporate system that he cannot think rationally?


To current investors and prospective investors:
Please fix this place! It�s your money and Raffles is abusing it.

Conversely, you may wish to ask Raffles to change their mission statement to something that more closely reflects the truth:
Raffles University�s (and affiliates) mission is to market a fictitious education program to unsophisticated buyers, extort their money, and repatriate ill-gotten earnings to Singapore. We feel that this is a noble endeavor because we desire to all be rich without expending too much effort in producing value for society. We feel that we deserve more power and some fancy cars, a few penthouse apartments, and perhaps a yacht at the expense of the students.

I�ve been around long enough to see many corporations come and go. And I guarantee this! If Raffles does not change radically (and begin to produce some value for the shareholders and the other stakeholders), it is doomed! It may take one year, five years, or ten years. But it is doomed. But the longer it takes, the more thousands of young persons you will have disillusioned. These are young people who otherwise could have been producing value for society. So, basically all Raffles is doing is stealing from two separate generations and postponing development in Asia. How criminal is that?!

To the parents:
Sue the corporation to retrieve your money! (Raffles management had promised that the degree certificate would reflect the New Zealand University: Central Queensland University � not Hartford/Raffles. That is misrepresentation and you should get your money back!) They stole it from you and your kids are worse off now than when they started their education at Raffles!

Hartford has violated its own Service Guarantee:
Hartford Institute is committed to constantly meet our customer's needs by providing consistently high quality products and services through a customer-oriented quality management system, and by continual improvement of the effectiveness of the quality management system.
Hartford Institute is dedicated in supporting the development and professional growth of our students and staff by providing high quality training, seminars and workshops in a variety of creative ways and by enhancing students' education experiences through creative brainstorming.
Hartford Institute is committed in life-long learning accessibility either through a virtual setting such as e-learning, or through the traditional classroom approach blended with the latest proven technologies and creative ideas.
All the education programmes and services provided by Hartford have one goal: providing quality learning environment and services without compromising the integrity and the high standards set by our University partners and by operating with Professional practices.

[oyunaa_86]

Reading your posting, i have a feeling that you are a ungracious and ungrateful person. It looks like the whole world is against you, or you are against the whole world. Where in one stroke, belittle the country (mongolia) that your wife and children are from, and u go on to say that the people are corrupted. Why don't u go home? Reading from the article i have a feeling that u were sacked by hartford institute in mongolia? Incompetency?

Oyunaa B.

[lmbeharry]

Hi Oyunaa. I'm glad you actually wrote on the thread. Firstly, those that call me friend always say that I am a gracious and generous person. The kind of guy who, when he sees poor children on the street, walks them into Khaan Buuz buys them about 5,000 tugrik worth of food, teas, and juices. Then leaves, so they may eat in peace.
With regard to Hartford Institute, apparently I was not very clear in my posting.

1. It (Hartford Institute a Raffles Education Corp. Company) hired me in July 2007 to teach Business subjects.
2. The books they provided are for graduate students: That means that the books and syllabi were designed for PhD level studies in a Western University. So, by default, the "prestigious" Raffles Education Corp. had instigated a means to justify failing Mongolian (English is definitely not their first language) undergraduate (18-20 year old) students (keep in mind that in America there is a huge difference between 18 year-old vocabulary and world experience and 25 year-old vocabulary and experience - so all the more deleterious trying to teach 25 year old PhD material to Mongolian 18 year-olds) in order that the "prestigious" Raffles Education Corp. could extort more money from parents. (And if you want proof, email me. I still have copies of the recommended syllabi from Raffles.)
3. I told the local staff in UB Mongolia that the books and syllabi were wrong. Because of my own education background, I have a high degree of competence to measure the value of education materials. I am extremely proud of my personal achievements in education. I possess a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins (15th in the world according to Times Education in London); a Master's in Business Administration (finance concentration) from George Mason (definitely not a U.S. charm school); one year of law training at William & Mary (oldest English Uni in the U.S. Maggie Thatcher is the Head of the Board of Regents); plus over 15 years of professional business experience (in large corporations and smaller firms); plus 20 years of experience in education (community volunteer and salaried professional). The local staff of Raffles Education Corp. asked me: "Can you tone it (the material) down?" Bear in mind - this school charges over $7,000 (US) per year. 'Can I tone it down?' My query: Why the hell can't these alleged professionals, who have a business model centered on education, create proper education materials and find proper books?
4. I wrote diplomatic emails to corporate requesting proper materials.
5. I prepared my own proper materials. My weekly workload ranged from 50-90 hours. I sought books, case studies, ancillary materials from education websites, and film, and other audio-visual aids. I spent tens of hours - maybe hundreds of hours - preparing original objective tests! I downloaded material on my own PC at home, screened the material and then made material available to my students at no charge. I even bore the cost of cds when I burned something for my kids.
6. I worked straight - no breaks from July 15 - January 10 (weekends, christmas, new year's day).
7. UNGRATEFUL?? How's this for ungrateful?? I was teaching - I never abrogate my responsibility - while my wife was giving birth to my first child - my son in November!!! Did the Director even query if I wanted time off??? NO!!! He did not! [I'm ungrateful?]
8. I finally requested that corporate select an appropriate textbook for Marketing class in January. I sent emails. I spoke with director.
9. The night I received my termination (by email) I was reading corporate finance at about 11:30 p.m. (The night before - Wednesday January 9, I had read until 2:00 a.m. in order that I could complete an appropriate syllabus and begin writing exams over that coming weekend.) I sent my final email to Director on Thursday January 10 requesting a proper text for the Marketing class. He terminated me by email. I said: Thank you. I appreciate it. Am I not gracious? Didn't I thank him well enough?
Why is it that people assume that "corporations" are always in the right????

Me. I'm just a good educator trying to produce some value for my students. This was business education, after all. How can I teach business ethics to a class where the company which employs me behaves in an unethical manner. And the students laugh at the corruption of Hartford. They make jokes about their own school! What's that about? You are entitled to your opinion. I am entitled to mine. Bottom line: I am a professional. My goal: fulfill the terms of my contract and provide value for society as a whole. I don't have time for malfunctioning corporations. Especially after I have exhausted 6 months trying to work within their system to turn something bad into something good.

10. If it (Raffles Education Corp.) is fortunate, it may repair itself. Otherwise, the public at large will figure out the sham and shut it down. Me - I have no desire that it be shut down. I would rather that senior management get off their duffs and fix it. It is poised in Asia, and could actually produce some benefit. Senior management just needs to a) hire outside consultants to create a proper curriculum that builds from stage to stage; and b) maintain bonafide standards while hiring qualified instructors and give these instructors an opportunity to actually teach instead of simply reading slides.
Me. I would never work for it again. I never go back. I negotiate, I advise, I negotiate, I advise, I negotiate, I warn, after that - what's the point. It had already decided that it did not want me.

With regard to my quality - well, I'm still in Mongolia. The guy that terminated me, well it seems that corporate moved him elsewhere (chances are that the corporation did not fire him. He knows too much about the scam, but the corporation might have paid him off). So what do you conclude the corporate heads decided? That I'm incompetent, or that I was a threat to its continued extortion of moneys and its compromise of education ideals for a quick marketing dollar? Consider this, and it is a very unfortunate state of affairs. Corporations are full of incompetency - that is, people who tow the corporate line for a steady salary. The competent ones, well, they usually leave. They either start their own business, or move on to a more benign environment.

With regard to going back to the U.S., like I said, competent people move on to a more benign environment wherein they may produce...

Lastly, with regard to whether I am angry at the world. Definitely not. I love the world. And I love the good that people may do in the world. In fact, that is one of the reasons I like to teach. I try to impart that positive spirit of morality, ethics, social responsibility, and responsible capitalism to my students. What I don't like: incompetency in performance, lack of diligence, recklessness, and bad ethics or corruption - particularly in management. And bear this in mind: I am a harder judge on myself than I am on others. No. I am not angry with the world. I just have higher standards than most. In education, that's a good thing. Would you rather that future generations of community members be incompetent corporate stooges, or well-educated leaders? I'd prefer that they be leaders!

P.S. I truly hope that I do not have to hear "its" name again. I would prefer never to come back to a discussion about Hartford Institute of Mongolia a Raffles Education Corp. Company - ever again!

P.S. Edit: About leaving Mongolia? Let me tell you how this culture has treated me since I arrived in December 2005.
1. My first attempt at a teaching position was with University of Humanities to teach English. 1) The staff actually locked me up in the library for about 30 minutes. (By the way, I consider locking someone up without cause for five minutes: that's a joke. Locking someone up without cause for six minutes: that's a bad joke. For seven minutes: that's a sick joke. For more than 10 minutes: That's a CRIME! (For which University of Humanities is lucky that I did not inform the U.S. State Department!)
By the way, I'm a Virginian (like Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, George Washington, and John Marshall before me: so you better believe that after screaming out [ten minutes after I discovered that I had been locked inside], I tried to force the doors. Finally, maybe 20 minutes later, someone arrived with a key...)
Have you studied law? Do you know about wrongful detention/false imprisonment??! Would you like to be locked up for no reason?;
b) Contract negotiations: $600 per month less 20% taxes less $150 per month for apartment fees (apartment without kitchen) -and I'm trying to negotiate money for what? -so I could buy a computer video projector TO DONATE TO THE SCHOOL - Because I know that they would not purchase one.
2. I also tried working at Santis School - my second attempt at employment in UB. Elsewhere you may find separate postings about this particular establishment (from other posters and from me).
3. My third attempt at a teaching position: Institute of Finance and Economics. a) the school would not help me acquire a working permit in Mongolia; b) I worked for two months. First month $80; second month $0 because I did not have a working permit (so I was basically volunteering anyway - worse because I could feed neither my family nor myself); c) the school gives me "accommodations": one dormitory room with no kitchen facilities, broken windows; shared squat toilet (truly not very sanitary) for me, my Mongolian wife, and our Mongolian daughter, AND everyone else on the floor. Not that I don't like roughing it. But c'mon. Aren't my education credentials meritorious? Shouldn't my degrees have earned me a little bit of respect? Doesn't the institute even have the sense of decorum to welcome a fellow Professional Instructor?
{With regard to UB's State Funded Education system. Well, I'm a nice guy, and I prefer self-reliance - like my ideological forbears. I tend not to go crying to the authorities when something goes awry. I just bear it. If, on the other hand, I were to draft a letter to, say, Georgetown University - that might have direct repurcussions on U.S. federal programs to the UB University system. Georgetown, in tandem with U.S. State Department funds grants for American professors to come to UB. In fact, just last month I applied for their teaching fellowship in UB, and passed the first phase. The problem: I'm an American expatriate and I have no desire to return to the U.S. for orientation in DC - at this particular time. So after applying through Georgetown and sending emails back and forth, I withdrew. Now, if I were to inform Georgetown of the unprofessionalism of these UB schools, they might reconsider their fellowships to UB Universities and colleges. I imagine they might inform their fellows about the schools in UB. Or I could contact The Johns Hopkins University network (I do actually have access to JHU portal in the internet) and tell JHU volunteers to be careful about working in Mongolia. Or I could use the JHU network to advise United Nations about the practices of these UB universities; or perhaps I could write to the U.S. Department of State via the local UB U.S. Consulate and let them know that University of Humanities locked me up for no reason whatsoever.}
(Man, I still have a hard time actually believing it. But it really happened. They locked me up - about 10:00 a.m. - in broad daylight and during business hours on a weekday. What if there had been a fire?) But like I said in the opening, I'm a nice guy, and I prefer to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
But in my experience - these Universities with Mongolian state funding - with regard to me (an extraordinarily qualified American citizen with extraordinary education credentials from among the absolute best international Universities): they behaved at best, criminally; at worst: they tried to destroy my spirit. And, if I was not so generous, I would warn any professor sponsored by the American government to stay away! Like I said before, the city [not necessarily the citizens] but the city is way, way corrupt! A very sad remnant of Socialism in Mongolia - where people trust no one - not even the most qualified of us with the best intentions!

And to be honest with anyone who reads this board - I cannot for the life of me figure out why these people have treated me so poorly. I have a stellar reputation. I have never done anything untoward anyone, neither student, nor peer! I'm not perfect, but I never did anything to deserve this level of disrespect. Maybe people don't appreciate the fact that I am self-reliant and I don't play games. My father once told me that people don't like me because I am too honest. But I ask the question - since when is honesty a crime?

4. My fourth attempt at a teaching position: Ulaanbaatar Elite International School. My contract year went exceptionally well. Except: a) the school demanded 26 teaching hours with a mix of classes from 4th grade to 12th grade (26 teaching hours + 26X2 hours for prep = 72 hours per week. I like to work, so it wasn't that bad). I held up pretty well - changing my game face to entertain 8 year-olds to instructing 17 years-old in a five minute transition time. Imagine doing that for nine months. Thank god the teachers they hired had good personalities, otherwise some of us might have gone wacko; and b) I even tried to renew that contract. I loved the kids. I told the Director of this facility that the school would get more advantage from me by allowing me to coordinate and teach the College Preparatory curriculum. Basically, I did not want to babysit the pre-junior High School students for another year.
How's this for Elite School's business sense, rather than increasing my salary from $900 to $1200 a month and permitting me, a proven asset, to produce more value for his program, the Director decided that it would be more cost-effective to lie to me about the renewal terms and disallow my attempts at negotiation, fly an unknown entity in from abroad, pay him/her possibly more money, and take the risk with an unproven asset. [Am I insane, or was that a bad business decision? I am not insane, and the Director made a terrible business decision. And to further destroy the students' education - this was the second year in which the school experienced 100% turnover of Western teachers. I was the only one with the will to even try to stay on. What's wrong with this picture?] To add insult to injury, after I refused Elite School's terms, the Director held my pay for hostage; he demanded that I, my wife, and our daughter vacate the apartment before paying my final salary. Bear in mind that my family had no place to stay, so the school basically threw us onto the street. Now, don't get me wrong, the apartment was not mine, it was provided by the school. But don't you think that it's just a tad bit petty to hold my final pay hostage because I offered the school an opportunity to keep me on, provided that I would not teach students below 6th grade, and he sticks it to me because I would not teach the 5th and 4th graders?
The Director's last penalty upon my person: He (negligently or through malice) failed to inform the Mongolian authorities that I and the Ulaanbaatar Elite International School had severed our relationship. Well, apparently in Mongolia this is a really big deal. So I had to pay a fine of $300 to the Mongolian authorities in September 2007 - otherwise the government would not have permitted me to work under another contract.

After these experiences, why shouldn't I question the culture of Ulaanbaatar? I mightn't question this place if I had ever seen some justice. For instance, if the Foundation that sponsors Ulaanbaatar Elite International School had removed this Director for incompetence. Or if the Mongolian Authorities actually gave a damn about their own progeny and their future!

5. My last attempt at a teaching position in Mongolia: Hartford Institute of Mongolia, a Raffles Education Corp. Company - and I have gone into enough detail about this place.

6. And by the way, I even recently went back to Institute of Finance and Economics to give them one more opportunity. The school asked me to teach business English. I found an appropriate text, and made multiple copies for the students. The assistant they assigned to help me (translate etc.) went AWOL. The class ran amok (over 20 adults!) I tried to restore order (I asked one student to leave the class because she was just too rambunctious. -As I say this I feel as though I am referring to a 5 year-old child.) Next day, the head of the department told me that the students do not like me, and that my services were no longer required. Can you imagine? Since when do Universities bow down to students' whim simply because the instructor tries to maintain a professional class focus?

Well, that's UB for ya!

So I ask you... If, after 2.5 years and 5+ attempts to make a life in Ulaanbaatar, I conclude that Ulaanbaatar culture is corrupt , excuse me for my misconceptions. I am an honest man, a professional, like I said. I keep my word about contracts and I try to live up to high standards. Should I lower my standards to suit Ulaanbaatar culture? I refuse to lower my standards for anyone. I tried that once for a corporation in America. And they nearly destroyed my mind. I will never do that again. I prefer to run away and find an environment wherein I may produce - like I said before. I have high confidence in the well-planned and well-executed retreat. Sun Tzu (Art of War) would probably advise the same if he were faced with a similar scenario!

As of now, I am on the verge of concluding that UB is antithetical to honesty in general. I could possibly make a cogent argument that an honest man could not possibly succeed in the UB culture.