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Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Interesting longish followup. I also enjoyed seeing how George Mason Univ. continues to be a laughing stock (mentioned somewhere in there).

First batch has an SAT average of 1440, and about a third are from the US. Good to see they're bona-fide college students--unlike the drooling slack-jaws GMU had scrounged up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17abudhabi-t.html?ref=global-home

Citizenkane · Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 234 Location: Xanadu

Which just goes to show that educational institutions are global brands like any other, to be sold to the highest bidder.

This place reminds me a bit of KAUST in Saudi Arabia. An elite institutiion, with nearly all foreign students, and with little contact with the society around it. Makes you wonder if these unis are designed to improve the general level of education in the whole country, or just to flatter some sheikh's ego?

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

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

His Hiney must be kissed. So far, though, at least NYU seems to be doing something worthwhile. Were I a student I'd rather be studying in the Big Apple than the culturally sterile Abu Dhabi any day, but the latter location has its usefulness for some students and is a nice free ride.

Citizenkane · Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 234 Location: Xanadu

I'm sure it's a great opportunity for the kids studying there. I just wonder how much - if anything - it will do to elevate the level of education in the Emirates as a whole. The article said the campus was near the local 'branches' of the guggenheim and Louvre (?) museums. Another example of buying up prestige names with no connection to the local culture, in an effort to impress foreign tourists and investors? Personally, if I want to visit the Louvre, I'll go to Paris and queue up with the rest of the plebs.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Absolutely. I agree with every word. And just how much cultural freedom will find its way into those two famous museums in Abu Dhabi?? Give me a break. Oh, it might be OK now, but wait until they come up with something controversial.

2buckets · Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East

An art museum where religious themes and nudes are forbidden.

Go to any museum in Europe and I'd say 75% of the content is religious themes and nudes.

Art Museum for the blind.

D. Merit · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 203