Job Discussion Forums

[jmrabet]

Which of these two relatively new women's colleges is better to work at? Salary? Housing? General day to day grind? Anyone know?

[meri]

One of my Saudi colleagues used to work in Effat College, she had nothing good to report, although she lasted there quite a while. The students/parents are the customers and are always right. You have to be on campus between 8 and 5, even if you are only teaching a few hours. The staff turnover is very high, but since Dar el Hekma is their rival, you can usually get a job there when Effat College sack you for non-compliance. The sight of weeping colleagues is commonplace.

[jmrabet]

Thank you very much for that information.

[Cleopatra]

[Imdramayu]

I (a man) interviewed for Effat College at TESOL Arabia. They mentioned there were 9 men teaching there.

How can they hire men to teach women in a college? Do they have elaborate classroom facilities (for example: male instructors are sitting in another room and teaching the women (a one-way mirror is separating them)? If is this so, it seems like a great cost to do this. Why don't they hire more women?

[meri]

I don�t know if there are male sections in these colleges, but this system is used in other Saudi institutions. The ladies receive the same lecture as the men over a speaker system with accompanying slides etc. projected onto a screen. Women may also see the male lecturer via a video link. I have never heard of this being used for language teaching though.

The students at these colleges are reputed to be so spoilt that it may be to your advantage not to have to meet them. Maybe it is so the fathers of your students can berate you in person for not giving them full marks, that�s what they expect for their money.

[trapezius]

When the women's colleges in the Kingdom, and the women's sections in universities are not able to find women to teach certain courses (usually technical courses), they have men come and teach them until they can find suitably qualified women.

[lall]