Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Two years ago, when he was asked what had made him decide to move to the Persian Gulf to lead an effort to turn a local public university into one of the world's leading research institutions, Wyatt R. (Rory) Hume's reply boiled down to one thing: money.
Mr. Hume had been assured he would have access to the kind of money he needed to make big changes at United Arab Emirates University.
Those assurances seemed solid: They came from Sheik Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, this country's long-serving minister of higher education and a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. He is also chancellor of UAEU.
"He wants to lift it to the level of Michigan, Berkeley, or the University of North Carolina," Mr. Hume told The Chronicle after he was appointed provost. "He's prepared to put the money behind it, and he's persuaded me that he's serious and committed to rapid change."
Shortly after he arrived, Mr. Hume, a former provost in the University of California system, pledged that, if he got the funds he needed, he would transform UAEU into one of the world's top 100 research institutions within five years.
Now, nearly two years later, Mr. Hume's once-grand plans for the university have yet to be realized.
The money Sheik Nahayan promised has not yet come through, administrators have laid off faculty and staff members to salvage their efforts to transform the university, and many faculty members who remain are growing demoralized.
In the oil-rich UAE, with its difficult-to-penetrate local culture and mysterious politics, faculty members and other observers lay much of the blame for the university's dashed expectations on Mr. Hume's outsider status. He had admirable ambitions, they say, but didn't understand how things really work in the Gulf.
Out of the Shadows
Back in 2008, many in the UAE recognized that it was time to do something about the country's relatively weak higher-education sector—one of the most significant factors holding back the development of the seven emirates that make up this country.
Abu Dhabi's rulers had pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to entice top American universities like New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to establish or help build showcase campuses. The rulers even attracted the Louvre to build its first overseas branch.
In Dubai the publicly financed Zayed University moved into a gleaming new campus and announced that it had become the first university in the Arab world to receive accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
But UAEU, the so-called national university, languished in the shadows as newer, more Western-oriented institutions took the limelight.
"As these new institutions were being created, UAEU was rotting," says Christopher M. Davidson, an expert on the politics of the UAE at the University of Durham, in England, and a former lecturer at Zayed University. "Literally, its buildings were crumbling."
Originally modeled on Cairo University, UAEU had been the country's only university for most of its three decades of independence.
But its 800 faculty members, many of whom were Arab expatriates, struggled with heavy teaching loads, out-of-date facilities, and a byzantine bureaucracy. For most of them, research was a luxury.
So when Mr. Hume pledged to lift the university into the top research ranks, it seemed to the faculty that the new provost had made a promise that would be very difficult to keep.
"I mean, anybody working in this field just started laughing," says Abdulmajeed Saif M. Al-Khajah, the assistant dean for research in the College of Science and president of the association at UAEU that represents the 180 or so Emirati faculty members.
But the rest of the world seems to have taken notice. The university had not even registered on any world-rankings lists before Mr. Hume arrived. Yet last year, the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings placed it at 374, what some faculty members refer to as the "Hume effect."
Now Mr. Hume says the rankings pledge was more of a management tactic to kick-start his changes than a promise: "It's realistic to set yourself a fast time frame, because otherwise you think you've got longer to do stuff," he says. "Imagine if I had said this will take 20 years."
Notwithstanding their skepticism over Mr. Hume's timeline, Mr. Al-Khajah and other Emirati faculty members wanted a stake in whatever process was going to unfold.
"Please, please, we are here to help you," Mr. Al-Khajah says he told Mr. Hume as he moved into the provost's office in the concrete office block that serves as UAEU's administration building.
But, Mr. Al-Khajah says, his offer fell on deaf ears.
Instead, Mr. Hume populated the top administrative offices with expatriates like himself—including Nancy Dye, a former president of Oberlin College who became UAEU's vice provost for undergraduate education, and Rene Dennis, who followed Mr. Hume from the University of California system to take the position of deputy provost for executive affairs.
Such a strategy is not uncommon. Universities and governments in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and elsewhere have recruited globally for top talent as they try to move their higher-education systems into the international elite. But at UAEU that strategy rubbed some people the wrong way.
"With all respect to Mr. Hume, I don't agree with the way he has run the show," Mr. Al-Khajah says. "The nationals are demoralized. They're not supported, and we're not consulted with."
Mr. Hume says he has worked closely with Emiratis at every step, including Abdullah Al-Khanbashi, the university's Emirati vice chancellor. And he says his Emirati colleagues, including the higher-education minister, have helped him understand the "unique and very admirable" culture of the Emirates.
A $917-Million Plan
Mr. Hume and his team got to work. In the first six months of his tenure, he says, he consulted with the "university community," with administrators at other universities in the UAE, and with international consultants.
In February 2009 he unveiled the 18-point action plan that he believed would bring UAEU out of the academic shadows.
In part, it was a series of administrative reforms that decentralized decision making and held faculty members accountable to internal and external peer reviews.
It also sought to improve the experience for undergraduate students by creating a more cohesive program and developing residential colleges similar to those at Yale University, including the replacement of cafeterias with "relatively formal dining halls."
But perhaps most bold was the plan's research strategy, which centered on the establishment of eight new "global-quality" research institutes in areas like information technology and energy, environment, and water.
To support the research centers, the plan proposed hiring clusters of new faculty members and establishing UAEU's first Ph.D. programs, tailored to the country's needs.
The latter was especially significant, given the lack of doctoral programs in the region. As a result, relatively few Emiratis hold Ph.D.'s. To get the transformation rolling, the university would need a staggering amount of money: an additional $917-million during the first three years, to be exact.
Mr. Hume had clearly taken Sheik Nahayan's promises to heart.
Controversy Begins
In the spring of 2009, Mr. Hume unveiled the plan, called "Transforming the UAEU," to faculty members in a series of town-hall meetings.
"When I first heard him speak, I was really excited about this plan," says a faculty member who did not want to be quoted by name for fear of being punished or even fired for speaking out. "I believed what he said about the research-intensive university. I believed he was serious."
"But a year later, I can tell you that we have not seen positive change since he came," the professor continues. The first signs of resistance came about a month after the plans were announced.
Many Emirati faculty members were particularly against Mr. Hume's proposal to "rebrand" the university with a new name and, perhaps more important, his call for an end to the preferential treatment that the university had, at least unofficially, given Emirati faculty members.
Several expatriate faculty members say it was a politically clumsy move in a society where status is extremely important and many Emiratis believe they deserve preferential treatment.
They are outnumbered by expatriates, three to one, and many Emiratis quietly fear that foreigners have edged them out of the country's most ambitious jobs. A discussion about equal status for all residents of the UAE is simply a nonstarter.
Many members of the National Faculty Association were furious with the proposal. They convened a rare public meeting to discuss their concerns. Stories appeared in the local Arabic-language newspapers.
Before opposition could spiral out of control, Mr. Hume responded to the concerns by scrapping the name change and declaring that the university would officially prefer to hire a qualified Emirati professor over a non-Emirati.
"We won that fight, and the two issues were solved," Mr. Al-Khajah says.
But the initial resistance from Emirati faculty members exposed the much deeper problem at UAEU: Emiratis felt cut out of the reform process at an institution that was supposed to be their national university.
"How can you develop a national capacity for research when 80 percent of the administrators are expatriates? When all of the top administrators [Mr. Hume] brought here are expatriates?" Mr. Al-Khajah asks. "When they make these new policies, they don't understand the background. They don't know the history."
In his rush to build the university's ability to turn out research, Mr. Hume's plan relied on hiring and generously supporting "clusters" of researchers, Mr. Al-Khajah says, who could only have been found abroad. And while that might provide a kind of "ready-made" research capacity, Mr. Al-Khajah says those researchers would most likely come to the Emirates for a few years and then leave rather than fostering the Emirati talent that will stay in the UAE for life.
But Mr. Hume plays down the concerns that Mr. Al-Khajah raises, saying they come from only a "small group of Emirati faculty."
"I believe that the great majority of our Emirati faculty are supportive of these changes," Mr. Hume says.
And to be sure, a significant part of Mr. Hume's transformation plan focuses on establishing Ph.D. programs that will focus on turning out Emirati academics.
"I don't disagree with his mission," Mr. Al-Khajah says. "I disagree with the way he wants it to run."
Budget Limbo
Although Abu Dhabi is widely regarded as one of the world's richest cities, UAEU has always found it challenging to secure financing.
The university depends heavily on the national government of the emirates for its annual budget, which underwrites the full tuition costs for students. And because the seven emirates, or city-states, that make up the UAE control their own finances, the national government has a much more limited budget than, say, the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The rumors of impending layoffs began circulating in February, almost a year after the transformation plans were announced.
By April it was clear: The federal government was not going to give the university any of the $535 million in extra funding Mr. Hume's transformation plan had sought in 2009 and 2010. In fact, the core support the UAEU is set to receive this year is exactly what it received in 2009, Mr. Hume says.
When asked if he is disappointed that the money hasn't come through, Mr. Hume replies that, the way he sees it, he has not been denied funds.
"Please be clear, this was not a request for funding. It was a request for need," Mr. Hume says. "I've not gone to the federal cabinet and said, 'Give me this amount of money.'"
In fact, he says that the 18-point plan was simply a set of "guidelines or suggestions for discussion."
Still, Mr. Hume decided that in order to move ahead with some of the doctoral programs and to hire new faculty members in "research clusters," he was willing to make cuts in other areas. Mr. Al-Khajah explains that most departments were asked to find ways to save 7 percent on salaries.
Last month, in what the university called an "operational decision," it laid off approximately 60 staff and 18 faculty members.
"It was a huge shock," says one of the laid-off professors, who did not want to be quoted by name. "And I don't know how they're going to cope. At my specific college, we already have a high teaching load—I had 14 credit hours last semester.
"Now, the other faculty members are worried about what's going to happen next," the professor continues. "Nobody feels secure."
Mr. Hume says that the transformation plan is still moving forward, but on a modified scale.
One of the four research institutes, in information technology, has opened "in concept," he says. Financing has not yet been secured. And the master plan for the campus has been reviewed, although money for construction has not yet arrived.
Mr. Hume is also beginning to look for financial support outside of the national government, and he is building relationships with potential donors in the corporate sector.
"Everything we said we would work to do, we are doing," he says, although he acknowledges that it is unlikely the university can move into the ranks of the top 100 in the next few years.
The Power of Politics
Of 10 faculty members contacted by The Chronicle for this article, most refused to be interviewed, saying they were afraid that speaking out would lead to their firing.
As for the faculty members who have not been laid off, their support for Mr. Hume and his proposed changes is disappearing fast.
When Mr. Hume announced his plan, "there were town-hall meetings, and you would see him around the campus talking to people," one professor says. "But now," the professor says, the provost "doesn't know what to do."
The 39-page "Transforming the UAEU" document recently disappeared from the university's Web site.
So why is it that Abu Dhabi can spend millions helping New York University build a branch campus or pay MIT to develop the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, yet keep financing flat for its largest public university?
Mr. Hume says it's because the university "hasn't been able to persuade the country that what we are doing is of value to the country."
But it may also be a matter of domestic politics, says Mr. Davidson, the University of Durham lecturer.
"These flagship projects, like the Louvre and NYU, are all being funded at the individual emirate level by the crown prince," Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahayan. "He controls the oil surpluses, and they will go to his projects first. And Sheik Nahayan [the higher-education minister] is being bypassed."
Although Sheik Nahayan is a member of the ruling family, he comes from a branch that does not have control of the seemingly limitless Abu Dhabi oil wealth, Mr. Davidson says. That means he must persuade the national government to finance projects like the transformation of UAEU from its more limited budget.
And so it seems that Sheik Nahayan, the man who promised Mr. Hume he would have what he needed to make big changes at UAEU, has not been able to deliver.
"His plan was really ambitious. It needed billions of dirhams," Mr. Al-Khajah says of Mr. Hume. "But now that the money isn't available, what happens? I don't think he ever thought he would need Plan B."
Andrew Mills, The Chronicle's Middle East correspondent, teaches journalism at Qatar University.
Comments
1. drogheda - May 23, 2010 at 07:16 pm
I note that Andrew Mills teaches journalism. I assume the following are some of the techniques he passes on to his students.
Firstly, get the facts wrong. Dr. Hume took up his position on September 1, 2008, not two and a half years ago.
Secondly,make sweeping unsupported assertions: "As for the faculty members who have not been laid off, their support... is disappearing fast." It is not clear how many of the hundreds of faculty members he interviewed to reach this conclusion. He does say "Of ten faculty members contacted by the Chronicle for this article, most refused to be interviewed". To similar effect, Mr. Mills states that "many faculty members who remain are growing demoralized", Again, he generalizes that "faculty members and other observers lay much of the blame ..." Not very persuasive.
Thirdly, quote anonymous individuals as authorities on matters where they cannot conceivably have any knowledge; "one professor" is quoted as saying that the provost "doesn't know what to do". How is this anonymous professor an authority on the provost's state of mind? This is pointless and absurd journalism.
2. wyatthume - May 23, 2010 at 10:52 pm
This piece is really quite remarkably unbalanced journalism. I spent several hours explaining to Mr. Mills the nature of both the planning process and progress towards realizing those plans at UAEU over the last 20 months. He has chosen to ignore those things almost in their entirety. I may have more to say later when time permits, so if anyone is interested please come back later.
I would like to say immediately that (despite Mr. Mills' erroneous characterization) I came here to contribute to the creation of a strong research university, knowing quite well the magnitude of the challenge in doing so. That work is continuing, and is continuing well, with the support of many fine people and of the Nation.
Wyatt R. Hume, Provost, UAEU
3. wyatthume - May 24, 2010 at 04:26 am
Just a few points about errors of fact in Mr. Mills' story which beg response.
Mr. Mills mis-quotes. I did not state that the financial estimates in the transformation plan were 'a request for need'. I said that they were a statement of need.
The transformation plan has not been removed from the University's web-site. It is quite easy to find, as a down-loadable pdf in both Arabic and English. It is, as I stated to Mr. Mills, a report prepared for His Highness Sheikh Nahayan, not a request for financial support.
Mr. Mills fails to mention the very evident creation of a totally new physical infrastructure for UAEU at its main campus, generously and fully funded by the Nation. Instead he writes of 'crumbling buildings' and of my working in a 'concrete office block', an odd description of what is part of a very elegant building complex, the Islamic Institute. [His story includes a photograph of part of that complex, erroneously labeled as UAEU's main campus.]
He also makes the erroneous statement, "And the master plan for the campus has been reviewed, although money for construction has not yet arrived." That is nonsense - the physical master plan for UAEU is nearing completion, through a process of consultation, and no additional request for funding related to that plan has been made. It will be several years, in my estimate, before the University will put forward specific proposals for the next phase of its development, given the extensive work now being done on its main campus.
Fifth, of the four senior officers of UAEU, three are UAE Nationals, and the expatriate (the provost) is third in that heirachy. Of the ten deans, five are UAE Nationals. The most recent Dean appointed, the Dean of Medicine, is a UAE National, one who replaced an expatriate. It's hard to reconcile these facts with Mr. Mill's statement that, "Hume populated the top administrative offices with expatriates like himself".
I enjoy a good story as much as anyone else, and it's good to see interest in UAEU and its transformation, but stories are better when they have a solid basis in fact.
Wyatt R. Hume, Provost, UAEU
4. niisai - May 25, 2010 at 06:36 am
Mr Hume, do you have the local talent(professors and grad students) to transform your uni into a world class research institution?Looks like you don't have local buy in for the transformation you would like. That always creates a problem
because, inevitably cliques are created that spend their time fighting each other rather than working together.
5. disillusioned - May 26, 2010 at 12:07 pm
The article tries in part to portray the present situation at UAEU; tense would be a soft description. It is not a medium for Provost Hume to channel out his "views only". Comments aiming at denigrating the integrity of the author or his professionalism and credibility are disappointingly unproductive. A constructive response from Provost Hume addressing the real core issues is what is needed. Here is a sample.
1. Provost Hume is correcting misquotes regarding concrete whereas Academia is about Humans. It is frankly insulting to say "... That work is continuing, and is continuing well..." when decent academics are waiting a phone call to come anytime tomorrow. Funding for academic research is not forthcoming: that is the point of the article. The grand plan of Provost Hume is critically dependent on huge extra funding. The question is: how is Executive Hume dealing with the reality of no substantial increase in funding for research? Confusing the international reader by "concrete" money is politics, not academia. There is no academic investment there and this is well known: companies are just building and making profit. It's not even thanks to Provost Hume: That project (in a different form) has been there before his appointment.
2. Provost Hume does not "really" involve the Nationals in his "think tank". This is the core issue raised (by the Nationals) in the article. Citing obvious and pointless statistics and using phrasings like "... with the support of many fine people and of the Nation" is politicizing, hiding reality with cheap paint: there is tension in the executive as the Nationals feel excluded from the decision brainstorming and making because of the unbalance in power as they see it. In this, Provost Hume is not behaving differently from most past western executives. This issue goes well beyond the borders of UAEU: not mature enough; we know better what is good for them. Just for the record, the numbers cited by Provost Hume were there before his appointment, except for the new dean of the College of Medicine. In fact, it filtered out that it is this last appointment that brought to the surface those tensions.
3. The article shied from describing explicitly the way the firings happened: phone calls or letters in April telling people you're not back next fall. It was heartbreaking seeing senior academics begging smaller institutions for some place in the corner. Otherwise they're jobless for a year at least. They call it collateral in other circles. Are we there? Is this how Provost Hume "manages the transformation"? Academia? The goal justifies the means? Hard decisions have to be taken: I bear the burden of the Cross or something? There are different interpretations of the wording "Hume effect". The one I'm aware of is synonymous to "academic destruction". Indeed, one frontier beyond which academia disappears is when genuine academics are treated like cattle. In silence please. "... I came here to contribute to the creation of a strong research university..." ...
4. The article barely hints to the climate of fear, real and omnipresent at UAEU. I cannot sign this entry like Provost Hume does his. I "fear" if his inner circle knows who I am I get fired on the spot. Only (some of) the Nationals can express (limitedly) their minds. Or people who have already left. Fear has been here before Provost Hume and has intensified since his appointment. We're far from UCLA, geographically and otherwise. Is it conceivable that Provost Hume has not realized yet that nobody believes anymore in him and his "grand, master" plan, vision, name it? Except (maybe) the narrow clique he has hired and is comfortably paying. I think the confusion came from the UCLA etiquette. There, in California, the medium is set, oiled and functional; you have only to swim right. Here at UAEU, you have to build, from scratch. Provost Hume is maybe a good swimmer, but surely not a builder as we see it.
5. UAEU is in deep need of honest academics, not politicians or magicians, amateurs or by profession. People who see things as they are and tell them as they are. People who invest their academic souls and blood in the building and emancipation of the next generation of Emiratis and others living on this land. Not people who put up showcases, some kind of tape a l'oeil. If you cannot deliver on this and if you're honest, then you leave. For the time being, UAEU is not transforming: we are served the same meals, with a different dressing. That's all.
6. amillsb - May 26, 2010 at 01:41 pm
In the preparation of this story, I spoke to several faculty members at UAEU, not just those quoted. They conveyed to me not only how they felt but also how their colleagues felt. I quoted Mr. Al-Khajah extensively because he was the only person willing to go on the record and also because his views reflected those of others on campus.
The focus of this story was on Mr. Hume's plans and whether or not he has been able to realize any of them, or secure funding for them. Talking about long-term projects already underway at the university before Mr. Hume arrived in Al Ain, like the construction of a new physical infrastructure, was beyond the scope of an already long story.
When this article went to publication, the transformation plan did not appear on the UAEU website. The plan now appears at http://www.uaeu.ac.ae/provost/transformation_plans.shtml
Please note that one error of fact in the original version of my story has now been fixed. Mr. Hume began at UAEU on Sept 1, 2008, not two-and-a-half years ago.
Andrew Mills, Middle East Correspondent, The Chronicle of Higher Education
7. jambro - May 26, 2010 at 06:52 pm
complexities & contradictions - no fear, intellectual integrity or you are in the wrong field
8. concerneduaeuprof - May 27, 2010 at 04:26 am
I agree with Provost Hume that there may have been some inaccuracies in the article, but the article does an excellent job of high-lighting the "disaster in the making" we all feel awaits us around the corner, here at UAEU!
I have been here for more than 7 years and have never seen the faculty members as demoralized and skeptical of the administration as they are now. I wish the article would have highlighted the following facts as well:
1. In the past, the faculty members would have access (through grant applications) to at least AED 20,000/year for their "individual research grants" - Starting last year, this fund has been slashed by 75%! I am curious if Provost Hume can explain how eliminating research funding will allow for better research environment in the university?
2. Only about 25% of the current PhD cohorts are UAE nationals and Provost Hume has made it clear that our own university WILL NOT hire these UAE Nationals back as faculty members. So, one wonders how spending millions of dollars on the PhD program will help increase the percentage of UAE national faculty members? (75% of the millions spent on the PhD program would help train students who would most-likely work leave UAE!)
3. "Cluster-hire" strategy that our Provost has been pushing and pursuing involves hiring world-class researchers (at exorbitant package, surely) to come to UAEU and carry out research. This surely cannot create an indigenous research-culture in our university as it is inconceivable that these world-class researchers would stay here for too long. (This is akin to the shameless strategy of "research-for-hire").
4. In the humble opinion of a faculty member who truly loves teaching and this wonderful country, developing the Nation starts with developing its people, which in turns starts with focusing on high-school and undergraduate education. It only makes common sense to have a strong foundation of well-educated and well-trained UAE nationals, who will eventually become strong faculty members and lead to true indigenous research-culture in our beloved university.
MIT, UC Berkely, Michigan State, UNC were not built in 5 years - it is not only self-delusional but catastrophic to think otherwise!
9. nomad892 - May 27, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Well, my God,an open discussion on policy at UAEU! This probably the first and last such occasion in the history ofthis institution so anyone who's iinterested better get in while the doors open. Ironic thanks to Provost Hume for risking his neck by speaking openly and Andrew Mills for his journalistic initiative. It's a huge opportunity to find out what people think of the university. Anonymously of coursze since the slightest word said amiss here can get the utterer in hot water.
10. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 06:38 pm
Along the debate of “concrete” versus “Humans”, and “academics” versus “cattle”, below are some extracts from official messages issued by the Provost addressing UAE University faculty. I believe they will give some hints on the level of communication that the Provost generally uses, and the degree of esteem and collegiality he actually has towards his own faculty:
1- You absolutely have to come to my party, and if you are late you can't get in because we will be closing all the gates! Or:
------------
Subject: Convocation - Tuesday, 6 October
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 12:17 PM
" Dear Faculty...
...
I would like to remind you that unless you are engaged in teaching duties between 9:00 am and 11:00 am, you are expected to attend Convocation.
Please ensure that you are seated by 9:00 am. Please note that the doors of the auditorium will be closed at 9:15 am and latecomers will not be admitted.
Regards
Wyatt R. Hume
Provost”
-------------
11. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 06:39 pm
2- And I forgot to mention that my party is more more important than any of your classes anyway.
------------
Subject: Cancellation of Morning Classes on Tuesday, 6 October
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 3:55 PM
"Dear Faculty
Please be advised that all morning classes will be cancelled on Tuesday, 6 October to allow you to attend Convocation. Classes scheduled from 12 midday onwards are to be held as usual.
Regards
Wyatt R. Hume, Provost"
--------------------------
12. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 06:41 pm
3- Your research is NOT important to us.
-----------------------------
Subject: UAEU Annual Research Conference
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 1:42 PM
" Colleagues:
...
Individual Faculties or Departments may choose to schedule a second day for discipline-focused presentations and symposia at UAEU either immediately following 29th April or at other convenient times throughout the year.
...
Sincerely,
Wyatt R Hume
Provost
13. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 06:43 pm
4- I am recruiting my mate just a few weeks before firing about 80 faculty members and staff from the university. So what?
------------------------
Subject: Chief of Staff
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 1:43 PM
" Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that Mr. ... will be joining the UAE University as the new Chief of Staff to support the administration of both the Vice Chancellor and Provost. He will begin his duties with us on May 2, 2010.
...
Dr. Wyatt R. Hume
Provost”
14. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 06:44 pm
5- Don't even think about it! I will be watching you very closely.
---------------------------------
Subject: Independent study period, 4-10 April
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:42 PM
“ Colleagues,
As you are aware, the scheduled independent study period for our undergraduate students is April 4 to 10.
While there will be no scheduled classes during this period, all faculty and staff are expected to continue with their normal work schedules. Faculty are expected to maintain normal office hours and to be available to students for advice and consultation.
...
Thank you for your support for the University and its work.
Wyatt R. Hume
Provost, UAEU”
15. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 07:00 pm
6- Hey! Make way for my photograher!
-----------------
* Subject: Photos for Annual Report
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 6:07 PM
" Dear Deans
..., one of the University's photographers, has agreed to assist us with the compilation of photos for this year's Annual Report. We would appreciate your cooperation in allowing him access to your campus, laboratories and classrooms in order to take the best photos for the report covering research, teaching and student involvement.
Thank you for your assistance.
Regards
Professor Wyatt Hume
Provost"
16. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 07:07 pm
7- “Look at the bright side of life”
- The next message was sent in less than 24 hours from the firing of about 80 faculty and staff from the university-
--------------------------------
Subject: Employee Satisfaction Survey
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 11:17 AM
Dear Colleagues,
Last semester you were asked to participate in a university-wide Employee Satisfaction survey. I wish to thank those who took the time to share your thoughts and suggestions as we strive to improve the environment of the UAEU for our faculty, staff and students.
We received responses from approximately 54% of the university faculty and staff, and 67% of those expressed satisfaction with their current position and understand that their job is important to the university. While this is somewhat positive, the remaining respondents are either dissatisfied or remain neutral regarding their employment at the university. The main issues highlighted include salary structure, pay equity, recruitment practices, unfair promotion practices, housing, lack of professional development, performance evaluation (with lack of a merit reward system), participation in decision making and communication of those decisions...
The administration is listening and values your input. As these issues are addressed, they will be communicated to the university community. Many of the policies and procedures are on-line for your reference and should you have difficulty with any particular topic, please advise the responsible department, so appropriate action can be taken.
Again, I thank you for your participation in this survey, which has been a very valuable exercise to provide the key issues that directly affect you, the valued stakeholders of the university. The survey report will be made available on the...
With best regards,
Wyatt R. Hume
Provost”
17. stillhereprof - May 27, 2010 at 07:10 pm
8- Hey! At least I made you a nice logo. Look!
- Message sent just few days after the appearance of the current article in The Chronicle-
--------------------------------
Subject: UAEU Brand Identity
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 11:28 AM
“UAEU Faculty and Staff
As we continue our progress on the Transformation Plan, one very key element was to strengthen our brand identity both inside the UAE and world-wide. After extensive consultation across the university and with input from a professional firm, we have produced our new University brand, which is ready for implementation. This brand includes a new logo, new seal, official signature and graphic designs. Many of you have seen and/or adopted the use of various elements of the brand with welcomed enthusiasm
...
I am very pleased with the outcome of these efforts and trust you will embrace our new brand that gives the UAEU its own unique presentation and recognition as a leading educational, research-intensive institution.
Sincerely,
Wyatt R. Hume
Provost”
18. jambro - May 27, 2010 at 09:32 pm
... academic and intellectual integrity? Dear Chronicle readers, please do not think poorly of all UAEU faculty because a single disgruntled individual violates a sense of common academic propriety to release internal memos ... edited out of context!!!
19. jambro - May 27, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Congratulations to the Chronicle and Mills for the insigthtful article. This should further open up a much needed discussion of Arab Gulf within a context of global neo-colonial education with Anglophones exporting both educational benefits and mistakes of their home countries
Although I will post it later, I was unable earlier to post a rather lenghty comparative commentary on overall results from education reforms and shared problems across the UAE and Arab Gulf States -- this feedback system does not allow cut & paste from wordprocessing text.
Nevertheless, many good things are evolving despite handicaps of a "late development effect" which also has benefits of investment in newer technologies and theories. An elite set of new tertiary educational sector institutions are appearing along with a few predecessors in the K-12 sector. No country has near 100% parity among schools across all its geographical regions, not even Finland. Elite institutions in both colonial era education and post-colonial models in newly independent states have a reasonably good track record in producing graduates who have ably taken leadership roles, whether Kenyatta or Nyrere, or a number of Asians such as Ghandi and Nehru. Certainly Harvard, MIT and Cambridge MA. are not marginal Southeast regional state institutions in intellectual backwater towns, and few Americans would expect parity. This example is not to denigratethe quality of learning in geographically and economic marginal areas, but to point out disparity of resources and expectations, especially for research.
The UAE hosts 85% of its population as expatriates from other countries, no one would expect manual laborers to earn or have parity with highly educated, skilled, and experienced professionals. On the other hand, an unfortunately large percentage of those professionals, like the laborers are only here for the money and have neither intent nor motivation to invest in the national future. This is as true for university faculty and administrative staff as for those in corporate or government service. Still, a few expats in all sectors come to know, respect, and appreciate the UAE, its struggles to develop, and its people.
We should not get bogged down in petty details and to-be-expected mistakes. Take a broad perspective toward a range of newly developing nation-states, whether the UAE or the new majority rule South Africa -- highly recomment the new "Mandela" film Invictus.
UAEU students are the first digital generation of a UAE society leaping into a post-modern, multi-polar, cyberspace global system. Their parents were less well educated, few had more than secondary school, and their grandparents usually had no formal education. Whatever the problems, and there are many -- what country has a perfect educational system -- and however weak the average student's cognitive and skills based learning strategies, they are using multi-media technologies to overcome problems of being forced into second language learning without proper K-12 foundations.
Next step
20. brimleigh - May 28, 2010 at 12:22 am
Obvious point. Change is painful and threatening, especially for underperformers.
21. lexisaro - May 28, 2010 at 12:47 am
Wow, after looking at the incredibly inant postings of stillhereprof, I such an understanding of what a pain it is for Hume to manage some of these bozos with such poor judgment and professionalism.
If these are the most damning emails stillhereprof could find, I have great respect for Hume and think some of his professors are just whiners.
22. nomad892 - May 28, 2010 at 09:12 am
The shock of the openness of this discussion suggests the need to devise a live forum like this where anyone can shoot off their mouths. That way secrecy and rumor won't be the only way to spread info and exchange views. The internet questionnaire on "master plan" from the administration just posted on the Uni website is totally insulting and inadequate.
Some good points have been made and some dumb ones, but so what? It's better than eerie silence.
On other points:
The concept of the top down elite institute research university appears on its last legs if the article can be believed, and that is probably for the good, although when ordinary research by faculty members is not supported that doesn't sound like a competitive institution nor one that is even aiming for mediocrity.
Somebody deserves credit for some kinds of reform we've seen recently. I don't know if it's Provost Hume or others, indeed how can one know anything for sure in an institution that at times seems more like a secretive patronage system than a university. In any case, new curricula, new Phd programs (for Emiratis), the new residential college for women (that seems designed to address deep social-intellectual issues about the role of the university in society), and an influx to the campus of speakers, artists, musicians, actors and lecturers from all over the world --along with corresponding greater ease in getting students off campus -- and you have a significant reform in content and atmosphere of a once closed institution.
Students are benefiting from the more worldly and pragmatic courses, but the budget cuts mean a degradation of course quality. That's too bad of course. No one has polled the students on what they want,and that is also unfortunate. The students exhibit several serious academic pathologies which are not being given but the most superficial attention--low skill levels, dubious ethics (well over half of my students try to plagiarize at some point for example),and a pliable, unquestioning attitude. This needs to be changed.
On the attitude of the Emirati faculty, the franknness of their representative in defending their rejection of equality is admirable, but other groups don't same have the freedom of speech to articulate their interests; if they did, they might point out that their colleagues' resistance to Hume and reform along with the transparency and accountibility it would bring appears to be fear of losing their privileges(double the salary, no firing clauses among others).
Their collective complaint about so many Americans in the top posts strikes me as odd -- since obviously these are Sheikh Mubareks's wishes who chose the American model. Enlisting qualified Americans in that enteprise seems only sensible.
The most important point though is to reform the university's information systems so that there is a central nervous sytem that anyone can tap into, a body of information available to everyone,regardless of level or position and an end to the hierarchical control of information.
23. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 09:37 am
lexisaro, Amen ... there is not an intellectual culture within the university community, or for that matter no real community, birds of a feather ... so expats divide by ethnicity & religion, or absence of religious affiliation, that is Christian Lebanese, only a handful, are not integrated into any generically "Arab"social groupings, which further divide by nationality, and still further among different regions or academic homes from which Arab Expats are seconded. For those "Arabs" who are not seconded as most Egyptians are, but come from second countries of immigration, i.e., Canada or Australia, they too fall into line with segmented lineage and ethno-geographic affinity with multi-generational family places of origin. This situation includes Palestinians who identify by former towns or cities under occupation.
Non-Arab Anglophone expats, mostly, US, Canadian, UK, Australian, (white) South Africans, also divide up into groups that are further stratified by social class origins, e.g., dividing into Rugby Club beer drinkers, and Golf Club wine / whiskey drinkers. Sorry about such a generalized stereotype, but in the main, it fits. But "White" is the dominant factor among Anglophone expats, very few few African-Americans or Afro-Caribbean UK, etc.. An in between ethnic minority of Indo-Pakistani-Bengali-Sri Lankan, are mostly Muslim, separating from a fragment of secular or Hindu-Buddhist individuals.
Why mention religion? Because it is a dominant social theme among faculty and beyond, and is goverened by legal divisions, although Muslim Law for both Muslims and non-Muslims takes precedence over Civil Codes. Generally, however, religious tolerance is the norm, with strong Christian church communities, some with UAE government support, and a mix of Hindu "social" facilities that replace temples, and a wide distribution of Shi'its mosques and socio-religious meeting places.
Basically, university faculty and staff are part of a majority expatriate society, in which small community affinities replace any potential for broader social integration. And with few internationally oriented cultural facilities or broad civil society organizations, social life is limited and group activities stratified. All this affects family life, child socialization and education, and hits teen agers most strongly, with social issues and youth crime increasingly a problem sprawling across ethnic and/or local-expat lines.
What this has to do with the University Provost is moot. He is one individual, howerver strong or weak in that post, but has virtually no impact on the social or intellectual or cultural lives of the university personnel and their families.
Most of us who read, and we are a minority even among English language speakers, readers and writers, use Amazon or like facilities to buy books as the library is a joke, even in their predominantly Arabic collection, which adds another cost of working here.
That said, many individual expat faculty hit Dubai on weekends for a saturation into normal international social and cultural life. Bachelors have options not available in Al Ain, while families can enjoy a host of recreational activities and facilities quite similar and familiar to what they left back in the UK, North America, etc.
As to competitors, Dubai and Sharjah have coeducational "American" Universities with corresponding easy interaction among male and female faculty, most of whom can feel more "at home" on their campuses. But over 50% of those student bodies are expat, mostly from Iran, a quite sophisticated group fromo elite socio-economic backgrounds.
New NYU and Sorbonne campuses in Abu Dhabi are temporary while the government of that Emirate builds them lush new campuses, and are also co-educational and quite convivial with faculty rotating between Paris or New York.
Even the Abu8 Dhabi branch of the Higher College of Technology, a former 2 year "community college - vocational" institution with separate male & female campuses in almost every Emirate, has now begun 4 year academic programs with Masters coming on-line. That new integrated campus-research park will be designed by Daniel Liebskind, a prominent "jewish" architect, which goes to show that status trumps superficial Arab-religious-political identity.
The new UAEU campus was designed by a hodge podge of construction-contractor-engineers, not international architects experienced iin campus and teaching-learning facility design, consequently it is a mess of poorly design and questionable construction, with little concern for academic necessities like workable science labs, classroom lecture hall acoustics or lighting, or ergonomic seating, and faculty offices, which do not exist, only study carrells much like offered to graduate students elsewhere, etc ...
Yes, the faculty are demoralized, faced with constant ambiguity and false starts, vaporware resources, etc. Is that Provost Hume's fault? No, he inherited a jackleg institution which has shifted one way or another almost yearly with new visions designed by external consultants with little to no previous experience in the Arab world, which fail and are quietly abandoned in a year or two, for other "new visions". Is this the fault of the Chancellor? Not really, as he has a huge educational and financial empire to run, and has depended on advice from administrators who have used the buddy system to headhunt consultants and higher level administrators. But such procedures are common here and in so many neo-colonial enterprises, whether French West Africa, or the former English colonial and commonwealth network with its newly arrived American domination.
In short, the buck stops nowhere. Systemic and structural growing pains in a chaotic global regime of accumulation that dominates unequal exchange, and imposes a neo-colonial order over non-Euro-American, new and emergent states. Could the UAE escape from under the American-British national security state umbrella that dominates the social, economic, and physical infrastructures down to the UK electic plugs and sockets? Make your own conclusion.
In short, despite a good start with Mills' article, most participants in this discussion have failed to offer objectively informed critical analysis, or added creative suggestions for feasibly effective changes at any level of the system.
Thus anyone genuinely intersted in understanding the problems affecting the UAEU and other GCC teritary sector institions, should lay off the personal invective and blame game. As academic readers and contributors to the Chronicle, put up a strong and ethical intellectual discourse, or shut up.
24. davidlitz - May 28, 2010 at 10:18 am
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25. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 11:22 am
Nomad 892 raises some cogent points, in particular I would single out the American intent of the Chancellor. Not that other issues "Nomad" raises are unimportant, but more complexand full of contradictions unaddressed as yet by Nomad or other commentators. In particular gender issuse.
As to Nomad's comments on the improvement in cultural life for students on campus, that is a great advance. Cautiously, and under an experienced, creative, and hard working Humanities & Social Science Dean, and with the enormous energy of one American faculty member in particular (A New Yorker, which may explain his dynamism) amazing breakthroughs have happened under the rubric of SMART - (Students and Masters in Arts). Over the past two years this program has brought an enormous range of professional talent to give student workshops on the female campus, with a trickle down to the male campus. Writing for Screen and Stage, Drums & rhythm, stage and scene design, other music and cultural adventures, and most recently a pair of Fullbrite Art Fellows who have done a year long project in visual arts as non-credit student activities. Their final exhibition of student work exceeded in quality any past year display of work by a teacherless student arts club.
This past week we enjoyed a visiting concert and students a workshop with members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Two years our very own "Manhattan connection" brought the Louis Armstrong musical biography from off-Broadway to the off-Dubai Al Ain University stage.
Yes, many things are improving for students and filtering down to interested faculty, whom by-in-large are impervious to these "Western" cultural imports, especially among Arab colleagues, even those carrying US or Canadian passports.
Our local "patron saint" of culture, Sh. Sultan b. Tanoon, who is a native of Al Ain, has amazed those of us who appreciate Classical Music with the Al Ain Classics in tandem with the Abu Dhabi Classics. These series have brought Vienna, London, New York, Philharmonic Orchestras, among other wonderful performers, to out own rennovated historical fort, converting it into an outdoor performance space with visual and acoustic technical qualities equal to any outdoor venue in the world, thus matching the world class performers.
For those of us who enjoy a bit more spice in our cultural sauce, Peter Gabriel's WOMAD world music festival in its second Abu Dhabi appearance, also shared the talent with Al Ain in the same Fort stage space, but with a large area cleared of seats for the audience to dance as the rhythms demanded, from Reggae, to Afro-Cuban, to Indo-Pakistani Qawali.
As joyus as these performances have been, there was a noticible absence of UAEU faculty, whether for classics or world music. For several performances, small groups of female students were sheparded to the concerts by our NYC empresario, who broke a world speed record in obtaining permission to bring them.
What are the cultural barriers that divide "Western" and, in particular, American trained academics of Arab origin from participating in "western" cultural experiences? Or, what constrains the majority of "White" Anglophone UAEU expat academics oradministrators from participating as audiences in their own cultual traditions? Aside from alienation and anomie, it would seem that an anti-intellectual and anti-"high culture" or even non-affininty with "popular" global music so appreciated in Los Angeles, London, or Paris affects this expat population. Could it be parochialism, both in origins and as expats?
We have had a lively poetry exchange between our Associate Dean of Humanities and a well known Arab poet whom we are lucky to have in the Arab language department, trading translations and readings. But what a poor showing by faculty.
All the examples I have briefly described are only the tip of an iceberg of change -- or should I say a thawing on campus and in the surrounding community. And, yes, the well known town-gown split exists here as well, dividing both Expats and Locals. Few or our UAE faculty colleagues actually live in Al Ain, or are from this Eastern Region of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. Emirati PhD holders from the Abu Dhabi Emirate are soon whisked off to government positions or opt out for lucrative private sector opportunities.
It will take two more generations for the UAE to pass enuogh Nationals through the Educational-Qualifications pipeline to fill all the needs of government for highly educated locals. As well, at least that long to fill university administrative and teaching posts, and in greater quantities to staff the K-12 school systems.
In short, the will of the Nation's rulers is to make change, to modernize, to be more open and flexibly involved in a global system, while retaining some ethno-cultural-religious values. But in a historically embedded command & control cultural and institutional framework, it is the local Emiratis who fear to tred too strongly on traditions, and walk a find line of social obligation and cultural sensibility within a lineage-network system of strong honor and shame values.
Expats should not be afraid to enjoy their time here and learn about the place and people, while consuming all the perks offered as incentives, from cheap golf relatively inexpensive shopping -- prices for Paris or Milan fashion are much less than on the Champs Elysees, and cheap Chinese knock-offs are cheaper here than where import taxes and VAT add to their cost.
Why are non-Arab academic expats so fearful? We all come here on short term contracts 2-4 years at best, with a first year probation and yearly assessment prior to renewal. No tenure, few opportunities or support infrastructure for research or professional development, or participation in professional organizations and journal editorship frequent international conferencing, etc.. Why sould anyone actively pursuing an academic career hang on around here? That asks the question of who we are and why we are here. For one, I am here to be near my research field in geopolitical and cultural change in the Middle East, and surrounging Asian-African & Mediterranean regions.
My advice to timid Anglo expat colleagues, get a life while you are here, enjoy our generous paid vacations, which many of us take full advantage. We a few hours plane ride away from exciting places to explore in Africa, Asia, and Europe, or a brief flight to the cheap 3-5 star beach resort hotels of Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurgada.
What else, the ubiquitous internet connects us to the world, as I am doing now. We can download the latest films, documentaries, texts, music, academic journals via our library e-subscriptions, etc. keep in touch with colleagues worldwide, even take advantage of new opportunities to present a paper online as part of academic and professional conferences now moving into cyberspace.
Bottom line, global jobsearch options via The Chronicle or Times Higher Education Supplement, and our own professional disciplinary organizations.
Whatever the limits of the UAEU, the real boundaries are in our own minds, imagination, and motivation. Many colleagues in more familiarly convivial ecological and social environments might envy us. Last year driving between Phoenix (ASU) and San Diego (UC Irvine) I got a cell call from a UAE colleague complaining about the midsummer heat, looking at my thermometer it was 5 degrees hotter along the Arizona-California border than in the middle of the Arabian desert. Why do people choose Arizona & Tucson rather than Seattle. Different Strokes for Different Folks. Life is short, live it or lose it.
26. a_voice - May 28, 2010 at 11:30 am
As a mere observer without a stake in this university, Mr. Hume comes across as a micro-manager lacking leadership skills.
27. disillusioned - May 28, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I liked the first contribution of jambro and was looking forward to the second one. I've just read it and, as I expected, I have learned from it. I agree with statements like [first contribution] "Still, a few expats in all sectors come to know, respect, and appreciate the UAE, its struggles to develop, and its people" and "we should not get bogged down in petty details and to-be-expected mistakes". But, with due honest respect, UAEU, its large community, its present situation and the specific issues raised in the article, all this is not "petty details" if this is what is meant. It's real.
The second contribution draws a useful painting of the expat religious, social and cultural genogram, but I loose the argument when I read "Is that Provost Hume's fault? No", and seemingly fatalist "In short, the buck stops nowhere". There are pedestrian hot issues which start and stop with Provost Hume. Let me again stress just a few.
1. Present situation. Provost Hume drafted in fall 2008 a five-year transformation plan that was dependent on substantial additional funding that did not come. Faced with this situation, Executive Hume decided, alone, to go ahead with a number of costly elements of his original plan (expensive administrative appointments, new PhD programs, cluster hires, etc.) and finance the costs within the existing UAEU budget. That triggered the firings and the cuts. Other federal institutions (Higher Colleges of Technology, Zayed University, The National Research Foundation), faced with a similar budget stagnation, decided to postpone a number of their own research plans. Given the human cost, is Provost Hume taking the right decision?
2. Communication. To explain his original plan, Provost Hume reached out extensively to the community and talked at length about it in fall 2008 and spring 2009. But no word regarding the recent change in the strategy. The firings are phased in three stages we hear: 7% (today), 10% (tomorrow) and 10% (later). Today, we know, but no clue as to what tomorrow and later mean. Lights off, only rumors:"how strong is your source?" is the question of the day. Is this how we communicate in Academia? Provost Hume has proven communication capabilities and so, that is not the reason. Why then isn't he clear and unambiguous as to: (i) whatis happening, (ii) where is he leading us to?
3. Attitude. We all woke up that morning in April with the news about firing, trying to "assess the damage", and here is a broadcast from Provost Hume telling us that we're happy at UAEU. Among the concerns we mentioned inthe survey: babysitting. Yesterday, as people were debating the article and trying to have concrete answers to fundamental and specific questions, he gets us busy with the new logo...Is this an attitude to have? I think it is pertinent that Imention that, contrary to many skeptics, I was thrilled and very hopeful: I sensed an academic in him. I have changed. And this is very sad. Either you don't know what Academia is or you have no genuine respect forthe academics at your institution. In both cases, firings become as if an object of play, a tactical move in some game. This is at the heart of the debate: what are the priorities?
I feel it is important to expose the situation and question the soundness of Provost Hume's decisions. It must be clear that it not the need for a restructuring of this institution in itself that is put into question, nor the personage Mr. Hume, the individual. Allthis is and must not be personal. I remember two years or so before the appointment of Provost Hume, the University was resisting an increase in the salaries whereas in all areas of life costs have almost doubled. Coupled to this, strong rumors that the University was intending to shrink to fit in the new campus in the making were circulating. The net result was a substantial drain in academic human resources in the engineering and similar programs,which created noticeable difficulties in filling the schedules and running the classrooms. Colleagues in those departments (and others) are speaking similar language today.
I agree the debate should, maybe must, go beyond just pinpointing or analyzing the issues. If, for the sake of the argument, we recognize implicitly that there are "mistakes", then what do we do about them? I understand from the article that Provost Hume himself recognizes that five years is not realistic. Should he then carry forward with his actions? Isn't it sounder to refocus for the time being on relatively less expensive but nevertheless fundamental objectives while, of course, trying at the same time to secure funding? Why don't we redraft the original plan according to a more appropriate time frame that takes into account the realities of the country?
It's true the real issues pertaining to this region are deeper and go well beyond UAEU. But, they're also beyond the present debate,with a dear recognition of their fundamental nature. Tomorrow we're all gone. Only legacy and statistics will remain. And yes, then, all this will probably be "petty details and to-be-expected mistakes". But we're talking about today, and today we are here and we are suffering. In the dark. It may be true that contributors may not have been able to "put up a strong and ethical intellectual discourse", or "have failed to offer objectively informed critical analysis, or added creative suggestions for feasibly effective changes at any level of the system", but I don't agree that they "shut up" at the face of what is happening at UAEU and how it is happening. It is basic right of people to tell about wrongdoings even if they are powerless in face of them. Can you shout at a brutalized child to "shut up" because he fails to "put up a strong and ethical intellectual discourse" to explain his situation?
28. davidlitz - May 28, 2010 at 12:41 pm
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29. brimleigh - May 28, 2010 at 01:25 pm
What is all the melodrama about people being afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal? Any high level academic administrator expects, experiences and accommodates vigorous criticism and loud complaints. That is the nature of academics and academia. Provost Hume, as former provost of UCLA and of the entire University of California system, must be accustomed to hearing dissenting voices without flying into a rage.
Possibly some people declined to be interviewed by Andrew Mills because it was apparent that he was only interested in writing a negative piece and they did not wish to be part of such a process.
30. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 01:34 pm
davidlitz, touche, my fellow neo-colonial expat ... but have you investigated the political and economic strings that attach the UAE to their former semi-colonial protectors, as the "Trucial States & Oman" were then labeled by the British Foreign Office. I believe in history, not necessarily the mythological scenarios and factoids that much of modern media propagates.
What society is not "highly materialistic and somewhat anti-intellectual," or "same as it ever was" (David Byrne-Talking Heads).
Are Emiratis any more resistant to such an ethos than their American or British role models ... as if we academics -- UGRU or other -- are not role models representing our own social values and cultural norms to a captive client audience of students?
Some French love Disneyland, le Hamburger & Le Weekend... others hate the Anglo-Saxon trivia ... individuals make their own choices.
But colonial power and influences were real and continue to dominate much of the former colonialized world. That, my friend, is why we have university courses and programs in post-colonial theory, literature and cultural studies.
AT the UAE we have an ostensibly brilliant language & literature prof specializing in Post-colonial Caribbean Literature, who has not been able to find a nich to instert such an interest into her course syllabii. Too many "ol' dead white men" clutter up the required literary readings.
We have a battle here to overcome obselete and harmful discursive frames that are somewhat nostalgically packaged by expats, approved by administrators, and pushed onto naive Arab students who don't know that there are differences among "Western" academics, and the "canons" being shoved down their throats are narrow and unrepresentative of contemporary, more appropriate and interesting discourses.
My students are not white suburban middle class as most US university students are, since the cost of bureaucrat ridden administrations and exhorbitantly overpaid executives kep higher education unaffordable for the majority of Ameicans who come from marginalized blue collar and hard working class families. The UC system today has fewer African-Americans than in 1960 prior to affirmative action. As one old friend, a UC Admissions Dean told me in confidence, "if we did not cheat on admissions, we would have a 90% Asian female student body". Why, because they come from a long tradition of upwardly mobile Confucian family regimes that reward academic success, community service, and extra-curricular participation is social and cultural activities, and punish individualism and deviance from the patriarchal social norms. Who can compete? My last teaching stint in the US was in the West Coast and Midwest, both different variations on youth cultures, but all from the same socio-economic, largely suburban middle class. Few students were ethnically or socio-economically diverse, even the minority students largely came from the same semi-priviliged, but anti-intellecutal communities. It would be too biased to call them no-nothing Republicans.
I am not nostalgic about the 60's as most of my then peers shifted from student radicals to stockbrokers with long hair and colored shirts with expensive suits and cool neckties. They had their fun, then got their Porsche or BMW, town house and vacation cabin.
Our Emirati students are children of a geographically, culturally and economically marginalized region, the outer edge of Arabia Felix. Historically conquered by Persians, Ethiopians, Northern Arabs (Hijazi & Nejdi), skipped by Alexander and his Hellenic or Ptolemaic successors, off the map for Ottomans, but Saffavids return Persian dominance in trade and culture, then victime of Portuguese rapine only to be liberated by their own efforts with British assistance, and under that yoke for well over a century.
The Beni Qassimi fleets of then powerful Ras al Khaima and Sharjah were pulverized by British naval artillery and their towns sacked by Royal Marines. That was during the time when some of our students' grandparents were children. British officered Omani Scouts kept the Peace, both Omani/British troops and those of local tribal rulers were largely Baluchi mercenaries hired from Iran.
Slavery still operated into the 1960's with African slaves imported into Oman through Zanzibar, an Omani colony until the 1965 revolution. Nizwa slave market, a stones throw from Buraimi-Al Aiin, was only closed down in 1963, and slaves only officially freed with Sheikh Zayeed coming to power. Most of our students were on both sides of the slave trade, which is reflected in family names and tribal-clan affiliations, as well as localities of origin.
While the British had outlawed slave trade 200 years earlier, recent UK academic research unvelis evidence that the UK economy, marine trade and merchant classes, profited more from the slave trade after abolition than during its legal existence.
I could go on with a full history of the UAE, its different regions, tribal and clan affiliations, the 50% or so of UAE citizens who are recent arrivals from Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, or other Gulf settlements, including many thousands from Iran, all given citizenship. But Emiratis know who they are, who are original & who newcomers.
Aside from internal social hierarchies, our students come from homes without books other than Qur'an, passed through a K-12 education system with corporeal punishment, a memorization-regurgitation-examination disease, and in which no cognitive, research, critical, anaytical or creative skills were taught or part of their stilted learning experiences.
I have always had lazy students in every country and at all levels of tertiary insitutions. So too, we have always had the "talented 10%" which is no different here. UGRU (Undergraduate General Education Requirements) has been a dismal failure, which everybody knows and yet has continually hung on to the payroll although it is slated to be axed every year, and for next year as well.
Wherever the root of corruption lies, it does not rest on the shoulders of our students, who fit the bell curve of average, top and bottom ends. My finger would point to the systemic culture of examination, in which many faculty actively conspire to pass students without any concern for what they actually LEARN. Adminsitrators sit high above the realities on the top floor of their building. Those who descend into the lower depths, generally find a whitewashed rhetorical facade among lower echelons to reassure them that everything is fine in Denmark, noting rotten.
The whole system perpetuates a mythology, as do so many other institutional bureaucracies, whether in the USA or USSR (that Soviet system in gone largely because of bureaucratic coverups of disfunctionality).
I interact with my students on many topical levels, and much of what I know and have learned about conditions in the UAE and throughout the UAEU I learn from them, albeit not uncritically accepting all their stories.
This is what a university professor must do to effectively communicate through understanding the particular student culture of each generation, and even each cohort of students. Of course, different disciplines of fields have different demands, physics is not literture, mechanical engineering, not social psychology.
In Humanities & Social Sciences teach and students learn mostly by stories and metaphors, as is well studied and discussed by George Lakoff (UC Berkeley) "Metaphors we live by" & more ... if a student does not know about fly fishing, such metaphors are useless, same as when a teacher does not know about Khaliji drumming or dancing at weddings, or what male students do on their weekends.
I am not trying to play devil's advocate or defend a distant, isolated and alienated administration .. should I add opportunistic? Rather I am trying to portray a fair representation of the good, bad, ugly, beautiful & indifferent aspects of UAEU and Arab world realities.
31. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 01:50 pm
to "A_voice"
... agreed, in principle, but according at a Drucker or Peters management perspective, would not a constructive or destructive micromanagement imply the amount of valid information -- both cognitive and affective -- directly received and exchanged in an effective constant communication among all levels, from Boardroom to shop floor?
When such information circulation does not flow, that is not not micromanagement, but mismanagement.
32. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 01:59 pm
to "brimleigh"
also agree on the overly melodramatic label, as well as that our COO is a seasoned administrator within the hardball of major academic politics ... ergo should be able to give and take the flack ...
... regarding, Andrew Mills beginning his research from a preplanned "negative perspectice" we would have to ask Mills to respond, but as far as I can see, his piece is reasonably balanced, and although skimming the surface of what exists, fairly reports what exists ... an institution stuck in the doldrums whatever current and proposed changes might or might not pull it out of this miasma.
33. disillusioned - May 28, 2010 at 02:06 pm
Dear jambro, I've just read your third contribution and I feel like I don't want to see the others. It's good and pompous advertisement. And something else. It surely helps dilute the issue. It may even work. Is this what you called "a strong and ethical intellectual discourse" or am I just lost? Are you saying that, since "the buck stops nowhere", and that "Life is short,live it or lose it", just come around and have fun? Is this how Provost Hume and the other expats in the executive think and run the University? I strongly hope not...One last question and I hate to ask it: Does the "... or shut up" apply to any contributor? Please, a minimum of decency: I think you are resourceful enough to find more "ethical" evasive ways to bury the facts. But don't insult our intelligence, it's after all our academic dignity.
34. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 02:08 pm
Perhaps some UAE journalist should visit Qatar and report on their highs and lows for academic change - with some knowledge of both, my perspective is that even with excellent local Qatari leadership, having met and talked with her on more than one occasion, and was very fovorably impressed, as well she has the ear of powerful leaders ... nevertheless, Qatar University is stuk in the same problematic as UAEU, bogged down in a nest of reactionary expat Arab faculty and staff hanging on to their jobs and the hold system ... this is not to cover the entire Qatari University Community with tar & feathers, as I know some very strong and progressive idividuals on the faculty, it is a regionally generic and almost genetic problem ...
But it is often easier to start new than reform the old. this is true in the case of Zayed University, and the Georgetown-Cornell branches in Qatar's Academic Village of prestige American branded institutions ...
35. jambro - May 28, 2010 at 05:07 pm
Ok disillusioned ... your point is made, if I overdid the attempt at objectivity ... if pompous, sorry and thanks for your objectivity ... as to advertisement, well, I certainly don't want to greenwash or whitewash anything ... just to point out the pros & cons with a little more weight on the pros, as its too easy to criticize and slam all the individuals who are part of the problem, or to complain ... this is not the first or only university at which I have been a part of a somewhat dysfunctional academic community, but certainly the worst in terms of stratification, fragmentation and disillusionment ...
of course I don't mean that this is anything like UC Santa Barbara, UCSB commonly refered to as Surf Board U ... although that is quite a inappropriate stereotype. While it is true that some of the former Medical School Diploma Mills in Grenada were fun & sun, & not worth spending the life of one American or Cuban soldier in a falsely labeled "rescue" mission.
What issue am I diluting? I do not beleve that we should engage in mud slinging against any single individual ... its the system ... however the system is made up of people, many incompetent, others competent, but unable to affect change ...
My apologies for a rhetorical jibe "put up or shut up" which might have easily been misunderstood ...
... as to a cover up or attempt to "bury the facts" that was most certainly not my intent, so please be more specific as to what facts you think I am burying and need exposing, and what was the intent of Mills article, or the Chronicle's in publishing it?
36. alshamsi - May 29, 2010 at 01:42 am
I have read the majority of the comments and would like to contribute my own starting with some facts about the UAE University before going to Dr. Hume and his contributions:
1) I am a UAE natonal and a UAE University faculty member so the readers may find my comments a little odd.
1) The original article may/may not be fair to Dr. Hume; that is debatable and Dr. Hume did write his own comments on the original article; however, the original article and some of the comments are NOT fair to the UAE University, its students' body, and its faculty
2) This is the only comprehensive university in the UAE with 8-9 major colleges and 800 faculy members (Ph.D. holders, 200 are nationals).
3) The majority of the faculty hold degrees from reputed and well-known schools in the West; especially the US. In addition, the faculty body is diverse in terms of nationalities, native language, religion, etc.
4) The buildings maybe old and falling, but do host some good equipments and instruments as the case in the science and engineering where some state of the art equipments and instruemts are hosted in some old buildings.
5) The majority of the faculy are involved in research; some in fact have secured fundings in millions of dirhams and the majority do publish on regular basis. In act some do publish in the best journals in the field.
6) Faculty members are expected to serve the community and the majority do via workshops, committees, consultations, etc. in additon of course to teaching, research, and university service.
7) The students mainly Emiratis; some are rich while some are poor. Yes we do have poor Emiratis!!! And while some do not take school seriuosly, many do.
Now back to Dr. hume and his contributions:
The questions I would like to pose to Dr. Hume, I assume of course he reads the comments is: How much improvements has he made since joining the UAE university? answer: none Has the qualitiy of education improved in the last two years? answer: no. Are people more satisified with their jobs compared to two years ago? answer: no; in fact they are less satisified that ever.
Now as Zayed University and the HCT are concerned: both are over-rated with over-paid faculty . Zayed University is very much a liberal art school with much smaller student body and faculty that the UAe University. The students are mainly Emiratis with the same admission requirements as the UAE University. One would assume the faculy are top-noth researchers and teachers. They are not. All one needs to do just to check their qualifications and publications. One would assume they contribute to the community. They do not. Why not getting so much negative publicity as the UAE University? Very simple: No nationals there to raise the imporant issues unlike the case at the UAE University where nationals are active and question many of the issues. ZU faculty have been over-paid for a long time and they know it so why complain.
Ahmed
PS: The original article mentioned that the Faculty Association held a rare public meeting to discuss Dr. Hume's proposal. That statment is not accurate at all. Meetings are held or regular basis, twice a year on average, and open to the public including non-Emirati facucly who soemtimes do attend. I
37. david_litz - May 29, 2010 at 02:20 am
Thank you to whomever it was the stole my name/identity in some of the previous posts. That is not me. You can imagine my surprise to read comments made by someone using my name. If this is your idea as some kind of a sick joke, then I hope you get what is coming to you some day. Where I come from 'Identity Fraud' is a serious crime. Please note, that although I read this forum, I am not disrespectful enough to post a reply to this article or to others' responses to this article under the current context at my place of work. To all those who know me, please disregard all of the above postings by 'David Litz' as a fallacy.
The One and Only (at least at UAEU),
David Litz
38. arabiangulf - May 29, 2010 at 02:34 am
It is the Arabian Gulf mr. Mill. The Arabian Gulf! get your facts right. At least have some respect for the country that feeds you, Qatar, which is an Arab country by the way.
39. disillusioned - May 29, 2010 at 03:31 am
Dear Jambro, this article is about the present status quo at UAEU: a very costly grand five-year plan (Provost Hume) versus a stagnant budget two years on. I'm afraid the pedestrian reader that I am does not need to be versed in how the British Empire negotiated its exit strategy from modern Hadramawt to understand this.
Mr. Mills wrote a first article in the Chronicle by the time Provost Hume was appointed (September 2008) and this one is a follow-up: "The focus of this story was on Mr. Hume's plans and whether or not he has been able to realize any of them,or secure funding for them" [Mr. Mills]. You congratulated the Chronicle and Mr. Mills for this "insightful" and "balanced" article. It is true there are many issues not touched upon by the article, but you would certainly agree that if one wants to analyze the core issues texturing the microcosm we evolve in, you need volumes. That surely "...was beyond the scope of an already long story" [Mr. Mills].
I first reacted when I read the comments of Provost Hume and similar attempting vainly at discrediting the article and its author. But you can never beat the facts. That's Academia. Politics is elsewhere. The fact is that Provost Hume is taking dubious decisions with a far-reaching human cost. The solution starts by (i) Plainly (i.e. academically) recognizing the reality of the situation, of the country and its cultural dynamics, and (ii) redrafting a realistic plan that can achieve important objectives in research and teaching, sound in space and time. That's all. This is not a blame game: the livelihood, academic and otherwise, of decent academics is in jeopardy.
Jambro, knowing how and why palm trees grow differently in this region than in the Grand Sahara is not going to help me understand the facts and propose solutions. Let's stay focused. I would love to sit with you around a cup of -- Turkish, Arabic, what's the difference? -- coffee and contrast the impacts of Attila the Hun versus Genghis Khan on modern Middle East, but that's another story, another world, not UAEU today.
You ask why people are not coming to those highbrow concerts organized (directly or indirectly) by the Multaqa (headed by Provost Hume). You must know that there are very fine cultured intellectuals around here, of immensely diverse cultural backgrounds. But I simply don't go to these "shows" to express my dissatisfaction with the policies of Provost Hume: where are the priorities? I prefer to spend time with those academics fired by Provost Hume, trying to find ways by which they can get something somewhere, rather than sit close to Provost Hume and his "chic" circle to appreciate a rare moment of Muslim music. Where are the priorities?
My last reply to you was a little rude and I apologize. I got frustrated: you surely do not believe that it is the fun lovers and money makers that are going to emancipate this society, this Nation in the making. Again, let's stay focused.
40. mostofakhlat - May 29, 2010 at 04:01 am
Sadly, this situation is going to become worse. There is a certain Arab psyche where westerners (particularly the ones who are white with blue eyes) are accorded the greatest of respect by the Arabs. As long as Emiratis are not allowed to write their own history, the history will be written by whites with blue eyes whom Arabs consider superior. The vast number labourers who work tirelessly are ignored. White man, if you want to become rich - find an Arab man and market your blue eyes and you will be rich.
41. nomad892 - May 29, 2010 at 04:17 am
Brimleigh is either naive or totally ignorant about realities not onlky in the UAE but the entire Middle East. This area is not known as a paradise of free speech, freedom of the press or freedom of assembly. IN the UAE, which is a relatively relaxed state, without overt police state enforcement, the usual tactic is self-censorship. Everyone here from journalist to professor to cab driver determines how much he can say on a given topic and to whom. There is an acceptance of spying and denunciation, so it's not only higher ups you need fear, but sometimes even your colleagues. The fear is not that we will offend Provost Hume who can take criticism apparently, but others around him with more power and who definitely do not invite discussion let alone criticism. The climate of fear is not an exaggeration. You also have to read in what is obviously not said in this debate. The outrageous "identity theft" reported above illustrates the dangers of participating even in this forum, so I am signing off.
Before I do a word about jambro and his many faceted and always interesting contributions.He has an amazing amount of knowledge about both obscure, recondite and public topics, which he lays out with rare interdiscplinary insight. He added generously to the list of rich cultural events I mentioned in an earlier post, so thanks for that. Yet(as other posts pointed out), he used his rich powers of discourse to "dilute" the central issues of the failing university. He can also be faulted for seconding Brimleigh's remark about the "fear melodrama" --and playing the blame game he elsewhere condemns when he comments on the closure of UGRU "they have been failing for years." Where is the proof of this? If teaching were properly valued, evaluated and rewarded at this university,there would probably be dozens of successes among the hard-working teachers of that unit.
We all find our students uneducated and blame it on the next level down,rather than rolling up our sleeves and dealing with the students as they are, and not as we would like them to be. I wish all of us would deal with the concrete issues at hand -- the failing university, its failing students, and the lack of a means of frank discussion of these problems among people concerned including students. It's all very good to have brilliant courses and brilliant professors,but if the students can't read what's the use?
42. brimleigh - May 29, 2010 at 06:27 am
It is true that I have never worked in a country where "higher ups" took any notice of academic criticism and dissension. If things are so different in the higher education sector of UAE, I feel compelled to ask why people would choose to live and work there, in a "climate of fear".
43. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 08:31 am
Wow, this is great! The Chronicle serves practically every North American Univetrsity, many colleges, departments, and individual staff within them. I am thus not writing for my UAEU colleagues, but for a wider audience of readers, hoping to inform them as best possible with an objective perspective about the educational situation within the UAEU, the UAE, the GCC (Arab Gulf), and Arab World in general. I have spent some 15 years of my academic career in this region, and another 5 in the non-Arab Middle East.
As journalists would say, "this is my beat" an inherently interdisciplinary academic straddling unfortunate firewalls between humanities, social, natural, and administrative sciences.
My geographical scope is the Muslim world system-MWS, about which I have taught undergrad and grad courses at universities in North America, Europe and Asia.
But here in the heart of the MWS I am unable to teach such a course, as I was informed 5 years ago that none are needed, nor wanted. In distinct difference, Turkish Academia valued such expertise, and continue to do so, as I often am invited to present my knowledge of the UAE & GGC there. But were I return to Turkey, I might lose touch with the pule of this place & people and the rapid social and infrustructural changes that are occuring daily.
Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are in the thros of immense changes that have repurcussions in the daily lifes of all residents, locals and expats, from the labourer to top executives.
----
Thanks to Ahmed al-Shamsi for his clarifications on the UAEU, with which I have general agreement. As to Provost Hume, it is true that I have read Mills' article differently than most colleagues. While there seems to be a focus on Hume, I prefer to look at the UAEU from a contextual, structural and systemic perspective. Hume's predecessor was more than unique. She was a respected physical scientist from another major US university, with more direct experience in actual teaching and research. SHE was also the first female and American to hold that post. She left after assessing that the new campus would be an absolute failure,unable to serve both faculty and research.
Prior to our present humanities & social scieences dean, we had the first non-Arab, and first female at the helm of the largest college. She found that many full professors (expat Arabs seconded from their tenured posts in Egyptian universities) had been here for many years and booked most of their time as heads or committee members on committees that required members of heads to be full professors -- not actually teaching courses or overly active researchers). She made a list. When news of the list circulated -- from clerical staff -- again expat Arabs -- rumors began to fly about her, and the undermining process began. She had many good ideas, some of which our present dean, Hume and Dye have begun to implement. But her position was untenable.
In an organizational environment where information is held closely as power to be used for advancement or securement of position, rumor takes its place.
What is also of note in al-Shamsi's post are questions about short-term benefits of current policies from a rather ivory tower top management. The fact that they are physically isolated from the majority of campus affairs may not be their fault. With five active but isolated teaching and research campuses, with faculty spread between them, makes it difficulat for any cetral authority to have daily contact with what occurs on the ground.
As I commented earlier, micromanagement implies actual contact down the chain of command. Thst does not exist. Whetehr Hume could do his job better by more actually mixing with faculty, staff and students is another question. As a UC alumnus, I know that one of the failures which started the 1960's rebellion was exactly that situation, 1950's US corporate management style, which puts overpaid CEO/COO and a top heavy executive on an ivory tower. Has that situation changed? What I read in the Chronicle, hear from colleagues, and experienced some years ago while a visiting prof at a major US university, it has gotten worse.
The hierarchal corporate model that has driven US Corporate world into crisis, extends into academia where research liaises with industry and government monies and agendas to act more as a branch to that sector.
In part, what President Eisenhower warned about in 1959 -- the military - industrial complex, has added academia into its fold. But not only has a military-intelligence-security reesarch network unfolded -- originally Michigan social scientists devising the Vietnam Strategic Hamlet project -- and expanded into almost every campus except Hamshire College and similar liberal bastions, but integrated every facet of research into a funding driven system that affects advancement and actual pedagogy in nearly every sector, from environemtal sciences to urban planning.
The question to Hume and the governmetal entities responsible for the National Education and Research -- what kind of a university do you want? A research-intensive institution can focus its investigations and innovations on human needs and development, or corporate-government-military security, as much of the USA has been seduced into following. Or, perhaps a Canadian model in which good governance, sustainable resource development, and human well being are more the model for academia.
Aside from North American models, the EU-UK divide seems to cast a clear choice, either the Anglo-Saxon inflated corporate-governance-industry model, or a more balanced Continental one. The Arab world looks in both directions, North Africa toward France, other former British colonies toward the UK, while the GCC flounders between them all. What is to be done?
44. cipollini - May 29, 2010 at 09:44 am
I have to question some of "signs of improvement" mentioned by others. True, some things have slightly improved in that we are, for the first time encouraged in such things as arranging trips for female students off campus. However, the process is still unbelievably cumbersome. Most faculty look at the process and decide it simply is not worth the time necessary to complete the process. Having to constantly ask female expat colleagues to donate their time to serve as the required female chaperones creates a highly inequitable service duty for female expat professors. I do not believe that I should schedule a field trip when I know I will have to unfairly infringe upon a female colleague's time. I recognize the cultural situation here and thus the need for the chaperones, but surely, the university can come up a system that doesn't rely on inequitable faculty service expectations or requests.
"Served as female faculty escort on many field trips/concerts/student conference trips as part of service duties" --great! Not something my female colleagues can write into their CV, nor, quite frankly, is it something that Hume's office would likely take into account for retention or promotion here. Just an example of what the local society needs (female students to have access beyond the campus walls) as being in contrast to the new research mission.
Before the provost arrived, many departments in my college had worked out a 9 hour/semester load, despite the fact that the official load remained at 12 hours. After the provost arrived and announced the research mission, we reminded that the official load of 12 hours, and with provisio that we take research into account, some may be reduced to 9 hours. Faculty understood this to mean that those not having had the opportunity to do research in the past would not receive it in the future, which has been the case. Worse, for some faculty, the gender segregation affects the load -- the student body is over 80% female. Courses frequently require duplication, with few students in the male sections. If a professor teaches a low enrollment male section, hu may end up with an unpaid overload with a total of 15 or more hours/semester, according to official university decree, which is then complicated by driving between several campuses. (Uncompensated transportation cost to the professor and campuses are 3-7K apart from one another).
A friend of mine in another college within the university faced a similar situation in regards to returning to 12 hour load, with the additional gift of administrative bodies overriding department/chair enrollment caps, to suddenly find that all of hu's general education courses had doubled in enrollment, with suggestions that most of these courses could double again the following semester. No plans have been made nor budgets allocated for teaching assistants for the monster sections. The new Ph.D students, even though they are paid, do not serve as RA's or TA's. My friend reported that hu's Dean informed the faculty, during a college meeting, that the increase in teaching load was due to poor planning and lack of tough decision-making by the faculty and the chairs, and then proceeded to advise those teaching humanities courses to switch from essay examinations or papers to multiple choice exams and the Dean would buy a computerized grading system for their use. All of which is counter to the society's need, as most of our students are poor in writing (in both Arabic and English) and critical thinking. The provided rationale and model for this? --this is what Western research institutions do (with TA's, but the lack of TA's was not mentioned). Oh, and no new faculty will be hired as of yet to replace the undergradate faculty load/expertise when some of the current faculty are asked to teach in the new graduate programs. Only cluster hires, who will teach rarely if at all.
One of few powers a department had before the Provost announced the research mission was the scheduling of courses. Upon a time, departments attempted to schedule in ways that afforded individual faculty reasonable chunks of times for research. Now, scheduling is done by external nonacademics and all faculty have been informed that the scheduling done by the external group is not to be questioned. The rule is: faculty are available to teach 8-5, five days a week. Add in the segregated campuses and teaching 15 hours and one gets a schedule that might look like:
3 days a week--teach 8-9 on women's campus, drive 5k to men's campus, teach 11-12, drive back to women's campus to teach 3:30-4:45(this one only 2 days a week)
2 days a week: teach 9:30-10:45, women's campus and then hold 2 office hours somewhere on the same campus, as no office space has been designed for the faculty on the new campus, not even cubicles. Then, drive 3k, hold 2 office hours in cubicles open for use by all faculty teaching on yet a different male campus, and teach on that campus at 3:30- 4:45.
Again, before the research mission was announced, departments arranged schedules, to the best of their abilities, in more reasonable ways for faculty and students. I'm still unclear as to the benefit, for anyone, in the schedules that are produced by outsourcing the scheduling.
So, this is how, on the ground, faculty perceive the implementation of the new "research mission." The whinging one sees in the commententary is a symptom of wide-spread demoralization that the administration does not want to hear or see, at least in my college. So perhaps administrators see improvement from the far distant Islamic Institute, but for faculty, all we see are increased teaching loads, increased enrollment caps, no office space on the main campus where we teach, little on-the-ground procedural change in the convoluted administrative processes, and a loss of control over scheduling with harmful effects to students and faculty. Oh, and what we hear from administration --it is our fault. New, higher research standards have been introduced already, theoretically to move us to a "top 100" level, but our workloads are moving towards a lower-level teaching institution. Add in the random, secret selection of faculty for the axe....
To be fair, I sincerly doubt the majority of this is Hume's fault either.
I wonder how many top 100 institutions have professors teaching 12-15 hours, 5 days a week, with no tenure, no merit pay (or scheduled pay rises of any sort) and 300 students a semester with no teaching assistants? The whinging is not about "oh poor us, we are so worse off than others," it is that the standards we are expected to meet as faculty are not consistent with the workload and service duties. The disparity is growing, rather than collapsing. This adds to the fear factor.
And yes, I have a fear that I find reasonable, given my experience here, that I will lose my job for posting this. But for some strange reason, I feel compelled to post. I think for most faculty, we still believe in the work we are doing here, we would simply like some coherent direction in that work from the administration and more support. We like to do our own research instead of being told by Hume's office which research we should do.
45. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 10:00 am
Ya mostofoklat - the old Dubai Expat myth,
"Abu Dhabi is a place where only Blue Eyes & Bedouins can succeed, but in Dubai, everyone can succeed according to their abilities."
sorry, for more than 30 years some of the most influential advisors to top Abu Dhabi & Beni Yas leadership are Palestinians, and in the case of the UAEU, Egyptians ... the list is long of non-"blue eyes" who can and have succeed in Abu Dhabi, and continue to do so ... A good proportion of the new teachers from the UK are Muslims of Pakistani origin, as well as Asian-American and Afro-American ...
46. alshamsi - May 29, 2010 at 10:12 am
A follow-up,
Yes the nationals are frustrated and we have the right to be so. It does nor matter to us has it been Dr. Hume or anyone else; what matters is the ojectives and the outcomes. I have been a faculty member for almost 10 years and have dealt with various adminstrations ranging from Egyptians to Americans with no mean of disrespect to any. So I have seen all. In fact I worked under an American dean from 2003-2006 when I was chairing the dept. A man I fully respected him for being honest and straight forward. I saw in him integrity and dedication. He hardly finsihed two years and was gone by choice as far as I know. The problem we face at the higher education, UAE University, the country in general; is a two-fold problem: IMAGE comes before SUBSTANCE and the fact that many of the qualified nationals have never given the chance to serve in key positions at the UAEU and for sure they ahave been excluded completely from the whole thing at Zayed U. and the HCT. Zayed does not hire natioanls!!!
While internationl ranking seems to be important, it should not be the driving force as the impression conveyed to the univeersity community by Dr. Hume. I have always held a position: accreditation and ranking should be an outcome, not an objective. Provide quality high standard education and things will move in the right direction. Make it an ojective to improve the quality of life of those serving the place. Ironically while poeple have been fired, God knows how much money was paid in order to come up with the new logo and the new UAE University brand. There is a sense around here that money is not chanelled right; priorites got mixed up. Another thing the fact that Dr. Hume brought his friends to the adminstration and failed to invest in those wha are already here. But again and as I have said many times already; it is worse at the HCT and Zayed University.
Asa far as the new campus is concerned, I would like to share this personal story. About 5-6 years ago while the new campus was still on papers, I was invited to attend some of the meeting regarding needs and design. I looked at the classrooms size and suggested to increase the size to a minimum 30 students instead of the 20 in the design. The answer came quick and swift by the advisor to the vice-chancellor (the man in charge at that time and non-national) his words thatI still remember them clearly:this is a teaching institution and not a research institution, classes will not exeed 20.
Four year alter and while the new campus is still under construction the UAE University has become a research institute and you know what that mean to the new campus; rebuilding as the case now.
Five years ago, a strategic plan was drafted by the executive team at that time. As far as I know all have left the Univesity, none of them were nationals by the way. And we are left to deal with their mistakes and bad decisions. I do not blame Dr. Hume for the mess we are in since the whole big mess started before him, I do blame him for contributing to it a great deal.
47. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 10:17 am
response to "Arabiangulf" ... teh ruler of Qatar, H.H. Sh. Isa and family, are some of the most open minded rulers and leaders in the Gulf and have opened doors for critical discussion wide to all Qatari residents in the academic community .. hosted Al Jazeera & BBC's Doha Forum, which tackles all manner of controversial issues facing the Gulf, Arab and Muslim world ....
Mills and all of us would be well served for his comments on Qatar's Educatonal system --- his story on the UAE/UAEU was quite informative and relatively balanced, perhaps his more personals and direct insights into Qatar would benefit us all, offering a comparative basis to further discuss how to improve the entire educational sectors across the GCC.
Last year's Bahrain Education Project Conference hosted international educators including locals from the GCC and Arab World. Having participated in this forthright forum for discussion and workshop approaches to problems and their solution, along with two other UAEU faculty, and my wife, a long time UAE educator, school principal, and governemnt educational consultant in the K-12 sector, I found the discussions stimulating and constructive in most all of the criticism.
Three years ago HE Sh. M. bin Zayed convened a much more broad based meeting to discuss and explore issues involving UAE NGO sector investment into education, private & government entities &civil society. Participants were both international and from within the UAE and GCC, including a number of key decision makers -- the result was the Emirates Foundation, which as an NGO funding source has invested more money and effort into a wide range of problem solving projects, including lifelong learning processes, than any other entity in the country.
... INFORMED opinion is always valuable ...
... one widespread disease that permeates the UAEU in particular consists of UN-INFORMED opinion mostly made up of mosaical bits from the rumor mill, circulated and repeated until reaching FACTOID status...
48. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 10:24 am
david_litz, sorry that your privacy was invaded ...
... my apologies for anything that might have caused personal grief ... my target posts were to the person who stole your ID to post under it ... such FAKE and unpardonable cybercrimes affect all who place a certain amount of trust into blogs like the Chronicle ...
... perhaps you might pursue this matter as "identiry theft" is a crime ..
49. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 11:07 am
re: cipollini's post
yes, almost all of the problems and increased faculty burden are absolutely true, and academically unacceptable and intellectualy untenable in a truly quality university.
In the 1970's, long before the advent of internet WWW, Video conferencing and related digital technologies, lectures at Saudi Arabia's King Abdul Aziz University were broadcast live to the female campus, with two way communication so that girls could ask questions and receive responses live from faculty lecturers at the Men's campus.
As we have long since exceeded the limitationg of such primitive communication technologies, it is a bit ridiculous that we have to duplicate courses when we are in a budget crunch with requirements to teach larger class sizes and higher loads.
This situation should be immediately addressed in both bugeting and course registration and teaching loads.
With existing wireless internet technology and software that can be easily installed on laptops and desktops and using the existing campus servers, unless such strategies are explored and readily implemented in an experiemental mode for next term, any thinking about growing into an advanced research is oxymoronic.
The new American University of Cairo campus is a model for the world, campus wide WiFia and software enabling two-way audio-visual communication from any laptop -- a joint project from NORTEL Canada and ALCATEL France.
As to the near-prison-like conditions for residential female students, that is tragic, and not acceptable. Why? This is neither about Islam nor the desires of families for security and control over thier daughters.
Many of our students live in and near Al Ain, adn are as free in their off-campus movements as their family and social conditions allow. Most weeks along with my wife we unintentionally meet female and male students outside campus, in Malls and other public cultural and social venues. Along with meeting students we have met their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, etc., and at times sitting together chatting at Starbucks or another local venue.
During the Abu Dhabi Bookfair I was unable to take my UAEU female students, while female students from Zayed, HCT and private universities, and most all the schools K-12 attended the Bookfair. These other student groups, their teachers, and even familiy members joined the school field trips to help chaperone.
Although HE the Chancellor, Sh. Nahyan, has steadily supported more progressive educational and developments of social interaction for our feamle students. Three years ago in his Annual speech HE the Chancellor called for more out-of-classroom interaction among students and faculty. Following the Chancellors call, female student Academic Clubs initiated a series of after-hours roundtable forums, first on campus, then in the Dorms. the latter was cancelled much to the students disappointment, and frustration.
Unlike any other UAE National Higher Educational Institution, individuals or groups within some sectors of administration have been able to contravene the Chancellor's policies. Whoever they are, their hidden agendas maintain a strangle-hold on female student social development.
Perhaps there should be a single policy toward female students in all UAE National Institutions, which convenes official decision-makers to establish such a policy and initiate enforcement. It is clear from the National leadership and Federal National Council that they want to follow the late founder HE Sh. Zayed, to open up education to all in a progressive society.
50. cipollini - May 29, 2010 at 12:27 pm
al Shamshi: Thank you for your input, spot on. Faculty are caught between old rules and new visions, the new campus is a great example of that.
And let me support your idea about the rankings as well --rankings are used, among other factors, to evaluate the quality of goals, and to assess whether goals are met. Rankings are not goals in and of themselves. True--to aim for a certain ranking as a goal is to put image before substance.
Also, I agree with you about the national faculty status, even though I am not a national. The university spends money on consultants for curriculum, etc., and faculty have to sit through sessions and then point out the facts on the ground, so that the consultants can write the expensive reports, which are used for a short period of time then scrapped when a new consultant arrives. The money could be better spent on hiring more faculty with whom the administration actually engages. The faculty we have could do the organization much better, given the chance. The presumption that "other" is better, while affecting expat faculty, is more acute for national faculty.
for jambro: yes, I concur that extra is added by various groups to various processes, all of which is probably not known, or if it is, unaddressed by senior administration for reasons already discussed.
UAEU has the video-conferencing available for the courses, and I have used it, and I can't say I'm a fan of it. Such might work for information only courses, but it has proved a failure the times that I have tried it. The girls will refuse to speak, because they are too shy --the boys might hear them, etc.
51. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 01:45 pm
thanks cipollini for the comments...
I heartily agree that most of the money spent on external consultants is wasted, and our own people could do as credible a job, or better. Such processes must include Nationals who have insights into social and cultural dimensions that the rest of us do not, including expat Arabs and those of us close to understanding through long term experience and research.
This addresses al-Shamsi's comments ... and there are subterranean forces at work (various expat networks) that marginalize National faculty.
As I posted earlier, from the 1970's Saudi Arabia got rid of expat Arab academic administrators with obsolete or myopic vision, replacing them with young Saudi PhD graduates from the US with contemporary understandings of academic processes. From top to bottom it worked for Saudi Universities. Perhaps only the new KASTU may have expat administrators, but they have recruited the best available to staff the first truly international Saudi University.
The Saudis also had a policy to hire experienced westerners (not all blue eyed) and assign a "shadow" Saudi to learn from and at the right time to replace the westerner. That also worked well.
One of the most important maxims for international development assistance,is that the consultant or on-the-ground manager should work themselves out of a job!!! If you are a successful organizer, you will have trained your local replacement as effectively as possible in the shortest of time. This strategy both increases capacity building, provides experts with more experience on the ground in different situations, and frees them to move on to another project somewhere else.
I would love to see such a process here. If I had an Emirati PhD student for the past 5 years, I would most probably feel comfortable to pass on my job to them. Or, as they joined the faculty as a junior professor, take on another ...
52. jambro - May 29, 2010 at 03:51 pm
Disillusioned, apologies for missing some of your previous responses to my comments on cultural enhancements of our social life ... the concerts I mentioned were not at the University Social Club - Multaqa - and had nothing to do with UAEU or Provost Hume.
Those events were organized by the Abu Dhabi Cultural & Heritage Foundation, under the direction of HE Sh. Sultan b. Tanoon, and attended by a several thousand strong audience, some of whom even drove from Dubai ... highbrow? yes ... but
... WOMAD was hardly highbrow, as the large number of Pakistanis who danced exstatically to the Qawali rendition of Qasidas (Sufi Islamic Praises to the Prophets, etc.) -- mos def were not highbrow, nor were the rest of us who equally enjoyed moving to the African, Persoan, Arab, Rock & Reggae rhythms.
53. disillusioned - May 29, 2010 at 08:13 pm
cipollini, when it became official that there was going to be no increase in the budget 2010, Provost Hume gathered the Deans of Colleges and asked for the infamous 7% cut in faculty and staff, to pay, in particular, the new PhD students. This is fact. He asked that the "secret selection of faculty for the axe" be told not to come back to teach the spring 2010 semester. This is fact. He has been quickly reminded that he will have to pay them six months anyway, because of the six-month prior notice clause in their contracts that he was not aware of it seems. He asked Rene to work out on ways to change the content of the contracts to rid them of this clause and the "secretly selected" people got the letters this past April. No official communication about all this. This is fact. I got all your points 10/10 except this one: "To be fair, I sincerely doubt the majority of this is Hume's fault either".
Two distinct issues must not be confused: UAEU yesterday and UAEU today. The past is gone and we can only learn from it. The present we live it and we can do something about it so that we don't regret it tomorrow.
Jambro, thanks for the precisions regarding the concerts, but I assume you got my point. II notice you write pointedly when it's about busing female students and internet in their dorms, without getting back to the invention of radars or something. So I ask you one last thing: 1) Do you think Provost Hume should continue with his firing policy: 10% and then 10%? 2) Do you agree with the elements of Provost Hume's grand plan for UAEU? 3) What are the concrete steps Executive Hume should take to move UAEU today forward?
54. jambro - May 30, 2010 at 06:41 am
ouch, disillusioned, in the end, it seems, all matters come down to the individuals involved. I have not had any "insider" information about the 7% and redundencies. When I heard about it, I was disappointed to learn that it seemed unfair to all of us in that the axings were "secret". But in my experience this is not the first University where such things have happened. However cruel the cuts, in all cases they were justified, as the budget had to be balanced somehow. In a former case,I knew the university president, had dinner with him and a few colleagues to discuss the matter. We were shown what the causes were and how the crisis effected the university overall. The president appointed a faculty committee from across the colleges to decide which PROGRAMS would have to be cut. Within each program, decisions would be made about how to cut costs to meet the budget shortfall. In some, graduate students were not accepted for the coming year. Others chose not to replace retiring or leaving faculty, and in all, class sizes were increased to match the lower number of faculty teaching required courses.
Once again I faced this issue, this time in Calfornia after a twin blow, of 9/11 and the state having invested in overpriced energy futures. NO faculty replacements, no new hires, again, no new grad students, larger class sizes, and voluntary retirements encouraged. What was bizarre, was that the maintenance staff, who spent hours sitting in pickup trucks smoking and drinking coffee, and who were paid as much as upper level faculty, did not lose a single person. OH, they belonged to a UNION.
I do not know all the circumstances as you seem to do, so I cannot comment on "hearsay evidence".
But that the matter was not handled with care and condern for all faculty, those dismissed and those retained, shows poor administrative policy and practice. But this is the UAEU, not California, which by the way is now going through tough times and Hume got out just in time, as they are cutting, although I dn not know how they are doing it and where the cuts hit.
55. nomad892 - May 30, 2010 at 08:55 am
To Brimleigh who asked a good question -- Why did you then come to this place? Unfortunately I can't say like Rick in Casablanca "I was misinformed." Desperation for a job was probably the main reason. Seriously consider whether you want to spend a significant part of your life & career in a moral, intellectual, and social wasteland. I wish I had.
56. disillusioned - May 30, 2010 at 10:42 am
jambro, all what I have mentioned in this commentary is known across the colleges, it's not an insider information. There has been simply no official communication about it. In the example(s) you mentioned, there were cuts in the budget. At UAEU, there were NO budget cuts, neither in 2009 nor in 2010. There was simply no substantial budget increase as critically required by the fall 2008 grand plan. Then decisions were taken to finance costly elements of that plan within the existing budget. This is what is at the heart of the debate and it seems we are not able to tackle the issues head-on, prudent I guess as we all are, though I thank you for some of your invisible hints. The rest is history in the making, history already.
You and other contributors touched upon inheritance in the administration. Yes, and I wouldn't have contributed an iota if such actions were taken in that era. It's Dr. Hume's strong UC background that is baffling: where is it? In fall 2008 I was hopeful, now sourly disillusioned.
The essential has been said I think, there isn't much more I can contribute -- I feel I am repeating myself and as if I'm hitting at Mr. Hume. This is UAEU as you said and it's not changing. The rest is "petty details". Signing off I am. Maybe around a cup of coffee (turkish, Arabic? you haven't bounced back on this one!) someday, on one of those earth-like planets yet to be discovered, to ponder the influence of Persian mysticism on middle-eastern sufism and reggae beat.
57. jambro - May 30, 2010 at 11:31 am
Ahhh, disillusioned, which is a good label for all of us, from mid-level administration down to lab instructors and teaching assistants. Most of us had been hopeful at a new start toward what mmost of us also thought was unrealistic.
as to your second and third question, Rome was not built in a day, although Nero did a fair job of burning part of it down over several days.
As to the "Hume plan" he was hired by the Chancellor on some agreed upon basis about which we were not informed, nor should we have been as that is a private contractual matter between them.
Aside from whatever initial honeymoon period of idealistic enthusiasm, quite normal for most anyone taking over a leaky flagship, the financial situation unexpectedly changed dramatically. The UAE as a Federal Authority depends on Abu Dhabi petrodollar revenues. As we have been witnessing, Dubai underwent a temporary financial meltdown, which prompted Abu Dhabi to bail them out, again on a temporary basis, details about which only the top decision makers know, and again rightly so. This is not a publically traded corporation with shareholders and government / World Bank / IMF / WTO regulations for disclosure.
No one really knows the exact financial situation from day-to-day and over the next 5 years, probably not even the top UAE decision makers, as no one can predict the changing price of oil, or world trade and investment, especially FDI, and where surplus capital will land, or how much will be salted away in Swiss Banks for a rainy day. Furthermore, no one can predict the impacts of the Iceland volcano, how long or intense the eruption, and what might be the short as well as long term economic consequences.
If I were managing any UAE entity, I would favor extreme caution, and incremental step-by-step experiments in long term sustainability, everything from cost reduction in energy -- investments in motion sensor lighting, for example would have a 2-3 year payback -- to rationalization over the dual-gender classes with the ICT abilities to use digital technologies and shared lectures, or as one student suggested today, video taping lectures and making them available on secure internet. Uses of Blackboard have barely scratched the surface, but faculty know less than students about such technologies, and few attend the professional development courses offered by CELT.
While it is possible to parachute in a PhD program with visiting and consulting faculty based elsewhere, with minimal local resident advisors, that needs a new strategy.
Back in 2000, I was invited here by the Dubai Planning head, and asked to design such a program. Teh problem was that they had too few nationals on staff to give them time off to go abroad for post-graduate studies. I worked out such a strategy, which was under discussion in 2001 prior to 9/11, which shifted all priorities over most of the world, including the UAE & Dubai.
In short, there are many viable strategies and feasible modalities to develop a PhD program without such costly resource expenditures. Likewise, there are many cost-saving proceedures that could be used to shift resource allocations to such a program, without drastic cuts in faculty. So too, rationalizing faculty workloads, reducing redundant paper reporting and statistical collection of evidence to assess facult productivity, could also be cost-saving, and enhance faculty morale.
Internal communications have always been a problem. A rather harsh management strategy, which usually fails according to most management theory, is to hold power through ambiguity and constant unexpected and inexplicable changes that keep the entire chain of productivity in a state of anxiety and stress -- or if you like "fear" since no one knows what to expect next. Again, all the management "gurus" have written about this citing case studies, which feed down into basic management textbooks.
Ass to what Provost Hume can or cannot do, that is a matter far beyond my paygrade, or simply I am not an administrator of anything but my own affairs, research, courses and students.
Like the rest of us expats, he is a hired hand, with a limited contract and specific job title and responsibilities. Only UAE nationals have investments in the longer term intersts of this university and the nation. As I have cited the Saudi example, similar options exist, and what the other GCC educational systems are doing in the teriary sector should be known and discussed by both UAE citizens and expats in high level decision-making positions.
That is about all I can say, other than this is both an Arabic and Muslim country in which the majority of expats are fellow Muslims. The Muslim World is currently undergoing the greatest threats -- internal & external -- since the invasions and conquests of European Imperial powers, or the combined assults of Crusades and Mongol invasions. But those issues go far beyond the framework of this present set of issues.
58. sadbuttrue - May 30, 2010 at 01:36 pm
When it comes to imperial threats of the present, one might cautiously ask what the real motivation behind this article was.
59. jambro - May 30, 2010 at 06:27 pm
re: sadbuttrue ... how do you all think up such clever "handles" ..
... what motivation may or may not lie behind an article in any professional news publication?
There are editorial policies, in the Chronicle you can read those policy statements, which concern informing the largest number of international readers from the professional academic administrative, teaching and research commuity that pays attention to American frameworks and agendas, which affect global economics, political issues and funding.
or, if you prefer, Mr. Mills -- I have not looked up his CV or credentials to see if he holds a professorship or lectureship at any level -- but presumably he has some professional background prior to an academic posting.
Coming from a Dewey oriented philosophy of education -- learn by doing and experience -- coupled with a dialectical approach to theory and practice, I used to assume that anyone teaching some subject also had practical experience in that millieu.
Sadly wrong!
As an education assembly line approach to education has churned out PhD's to fill market demand. This Fordist mode of production continued to over supply that demand with individuals who got on the tredmill at Kindergarden and never got off until rolled out as a PhD, packaged and stamped as certified.
In teh late 1960's British Sociologist Ronald Dore wrote a very well researched and influential book "The Diploma Disease" in which he demonstrated the underlying problems of what the institutional processes produced, which he labeled "pre qualifying certification" a university degree for what had previously been the prerogative of professional societies, e.g., Societies of Engineers. The old model assumed a basic liberal arts or solid pre-professional education, ably served by high schools, and then a period of internship and apprenticeship in the professional field.
Sadly even in the European systems, e.g., Frace and Germany, those models have become obsolete and are not training youth for a career in a technical or related field, with oportunities for advancement, further training, a solid income and benefits, with a comfortable retirement. The social welfare system is groaning under the weight of technological change and global redistribution of capital and labour, in which the neo-liberal ideology, serves global markets with products of global production, supply, and distribution chains.
What is the future of work?
That was the title of an extensive examination by MIT into changing resources, technologies, products, services and markets. as well as a surface scan of the impacts of regimes of capital accumulation, unequal exchange, corporate globalism, and weak governmental regulation of the private sector.
It is a very simple fact that present abilities of production are running at less than 70% of capacity, yet producing over 120% of market damand and ability to consume. Such enormous waste of resources, including labor and capital, is clearly unsustainable.
As the global population has moved beyond the 50% urban mark, and exceeds carrying capacity throughout most of the measley 5% of earth surface that is humanly habitable, the future of work might be replaced by the future of human surviability. But as geograhers always knew, the earth surface is lumpy, uneven in terrain, climate, as well as strategic location, surface and subsurface resources.
Employment and enterprise, self-employment and cooperative ownership of productive resources and capacity, will differ greatly between a Bengala Desh and Norway. The future of work is thus less in the hands of finance capital, which would rather speculate than invest in real productivity, than in the hands of nature, the ultimate arbiter of human economy, social ecology, and sustainability of huan habitat.
What questions are asking here at the UAEU about the future of this nation -- the citizens of the UAE?
Whatever the internationalization of Dubai or Abu Dhabi, global capital is fickle and will flee at the first sign of any loss of profitability or risk. So too, even the lowly Indian construction workers are voting with their feet, as the benefit-cost equation now shifts toward India as a better investment of their labour power than the GCC and UAE. Every day labour supplies shift to new Asian sources.
But what about the Emirati National who has no other country to return to or flee to? While some very wealthy GCC nationals have investments and properties in other countries, indeed some have multiple properties in many countries, what do the ordinary Emirati citizen have for diversified investments and hedge funds?
I tell my students the truth. We have stepped into unknown territory, and unpredictable futures in which rapid change is the only stable fact.
How might the UAE develop sustainably?
First, shift from dumb to smart productivity. MASDAR is just such an example, and allied with the MIT partnership the Masdar Institute and Masdar city will with even 50% success, be a model for future urban development. But what about Ras al-Khaima, Fujierah, Umm al-Quwain, or Ajman?
Imagine a high tech Sweden-like system of flexible manufacturing, CAD-CAM technologies, whereby designs and production can be modified quickly to produce any number of custom units more efficiently than the old systems of labour intensive Fordist production systems.
Perhaps the UAE should be looking as closely at Japan or Korea as Europe or the USA. Robotics and just-in-time production systems with relatively automated and localized supply chains should be the future UAE model for economy, employment and training.
While the arts, literature, culture and history, should occupy a strong position in both education and leisure activity, it must also hold a firm place in lifelong learning strategies.
What motivates and inspires students toward a viable economic and individually satisfying future?
From KG to MA/MS the UAE is on a collision course with the future, and the present prospectus for PhD programs will not plug the leaks a rustbucket UAEU flagship lagging behind all the other universities in meeting basic needs and aspirations.
Neither will a new campus make the vessel more seaworthy. Zayed U has a new campus, has it improved the quality of faculty-student relations, learning or satisfaction?
What is needed is both a revived New Vision, in which HE the Chancellor had much of the equation right. But he did not have the dynamic leadership needed to push through the vision against almost universal faculty resistance. It was the new arrivals from American universities, both North American & European expat faculty and young Emirati doctoral graduates who shared the vision and supported it.
With weak leadership, a Vice Chancellor, however efficient, who was basically a conduit between the Chancellor and Higher Administration, nothing could progress. Add to that a unrealistic lack of financial resources, the New Vision crumbled brick by brick, as overloaded expat faculty dropped by the wayside. Of the 30 some highly motivated faculty who arrived in 2004 to help build the new vision into fruition, only three of us are left, with one of the most dynamic young Arab social scientists about to leave. WE have seen a parade of aging Anglo-Saxon retirees take over top administration posts at salaries that made ordinary faculty feel even less important, only to also drop out with a nice padding to their pensions.
WE NEED LEADERSHIP SUCH AS THE ABU DHABI EMIRS HAVE HIRED FOR MASDAR, UPC, ADCH, ETC. OR THE KIND OF LEADERSHIP DYNAMIC EXPATS HAVE INVESTED IN DUBAI. OR SHARJAH.
WE NEED TO SEE OUR LEADERS, TO HEAR AND SPEAK WITH THEM. LEADERS NEED TO LEAD. WHEN PRES. OBAMA MET THE TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN, HOWEVER MUCH THE WAR THERE IS A DISASTER, HE MOVED AMONG THEM A ONE OF THEM, SOMETHING HIS PREDECESSOR WAS NEVER ABLE TO DO DESPITE A TEXAS TWANG.
THUS LEADERS MUST ALSO INSPIRE AS WELL AS MAKE STRATEGIC PLANS IN CONSULTATION WITH THOSE ON THE GROUND WHO KNOW ... WHEN LEADERS MEET STUDENTS ON THEIR OWN TERRITORY, THEY ARE VISIBLE AND ACCESSIBLE ... THEY GAIN TRUST AND INSPIRE THOSE WHO MEET THEM TO JOIN IN A COMMON CAUSE ... THEY REACH DEEPLY INTO THE REPERTOIRE OF CHANGE THEORY, THE NEW APPROACHES THAT HAVE PROVEN SUCCESSFUL IN MOVING CHANGE FORWARD ... THEIR CHAIN OF COMMAND IS UNITED AND FOLLOW THE TOP LEADERSHIP, MIXING WITH STUDENTS AND FACULTY, FORMING A COMMUNITY OF COMMON CAUSE ... THE FUTURE OF THE UAE AND OF OUR STUDENTS WHO ARE THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY ...
BAS! HELAS!
60. jambro - May 30, 2010 at 07:18 pm
POSTSCRIPT:
ANDREW MILLS is a well established journalist specializing in Middle East educational affairs. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, which rates in the top 5 US programs, Mills has a solid record of articles in the Chronicle going back a few years.
I have taken the time to randomly select and read a few of his articles over the last three years, and find them fair, reasonably accurate, and in good journalistic style, which means not in depth.
Mills would spark up our UAEU Journalism program were we able to woo him away from Qatar, which I seriously doubt would be possible for a number of valid reasons.
In short, my opinion of Mills has shifted from neutral to positive. I find him an excellent source of information on education in the region, and someone who has a good sense of the regional pulse and a nose for news.
Good journalists tend when possible to specialize,whether sports or politics, or in Mills case education. They also claim a territory in which they build up expertise and contacts over time. As Ted Koppel once told me when we were debating at the Brookings,
"good journalism differs from a successful career. A good journalist will embed himself within a region and specialization, but the corporate head office will begin to suspect him of bias toward his subjects [going native]. A successful journalist will readily move from one place to another, one specialization to another, whatever is good for his career. The most successful will rise to bureau chief, then back to the home office in an editorial post and eventually to an executive editorial level."
I had argued that the US mass media were neglecting journalists with the most experience and expertise in the Middle East, as well as reading other media -- French & British in particular. Koppel replied that:
"those journalists were no longer trusted to ... [in my words, pursue American interests] .. and such sources were not credible in the US media, which has the world's largest news system and the most reporters of its own."
It was a heated exchange so I remember it very well.
One example of a successful journalist whom I respect for also keeping his hand in good journalism, is Tom Friedman of the New York Times. Although Friedman is now a columnist rather than a reporter so he can set his own agenda. That agenda often differs from that of his bosses at the Times, but he has become such an important opinion molder and widely read source that he can hold his own against the corporate powers of the system.
I would urge any reader who may have doubts about Mills journalistic expertise to browse through some of his earlier articles.
61. mukhabarat - June 01, 2010 at 12:04 am
Interesting that many who have posted comments here berate the original (and obviously incendiary) article for being less than accurate and yet those same posts include rumours, gossip, and not a little venom. This has made for exciting and adventurous reading which serves to highlight the need for more open dialogue about education in the UAE. In my experiences, most of us who work at national universities in the country are disheartened by the fact that federal funding has not kept pace with the cost of living. Budgets have not been frozen for two years; they have been stagnant for at least 6 and this has been difficult to understand. Even more difficult when we all know about the millions being spent to bring in new instituions such as the Sorbonne and NYU who will serve a miniscule number of Emiratis (I believe 10 have been admitted to NYU AD's first cohort). We may be disheartened but is this really the time or the place to be taking pot shots at each other? Someone made the claim that Zayed University faculty are overpaid. Oh really? Does Zayed University have a policy that discriminates against Emirati faculty? Rubbish. Let's not muddy the waters any further with wild accusations like that.
62. sadbuttrue - June 01, 2010 at 09:19 am
UAEU also loses a high number of faculty who resigned this year. Among them are many good scholars who could have contributed further to a "research-intensive university". As far as I know, there is no offer to keep them. - The laid off faculty also included good scholars while others (with doubtful academic reputation) managed to stay. Definitely, there is no merit structure and no objectivity in assessment and evaluation, though a lot of administrative people have been hired for meetings those goals.
63. alshamsi - June 01, 2010 at 10:53 am
To post 61: You described my comments regarding Zayed U. hiring policies as "Rabbish" which is fine. I just have two simple questions: How many UAE nationals serve as faculy members at Zayed U? How many nationals serve at any senior postion at Zayed U? Both answers are: None. Policies may not be written but for sure practiced. Beside, one would expect similar policies to apply in all three FEDERAL institutions; the fact is on the contrary. The schools you referred to in your posting are not federal and comparision is not valid.
64. jambro - June 01, 2010 at 01:45 pm
... thought I was finished, and should be,but ...
... a comment that different universities have different mandates from government, and are intended to serve different student populations -- one size does not fir all --
... we should welcome diversity, and think that the combined tertiary educational sector, in all its diversity, collectively drives forward national objectives toward an information society, knowledge economy, and enhanced social capital ... each institution and each program serve a different niche in an ecosystmic network of education, training, and experience-based learning ...
.. prominent leaders have expresed support for achieving a goal of lifelong learning, wide opportunities for professional development at all stages of both career and lifecycle ...
.... in particular, I would like to honor those students in all institutios who are married with families -- some of whom also have outside employment -- and continue to pursue their studies ... with special praise for mothers who manage a home, raise their children, and have been some of my best students over the years ...
... however the universities develop different strategies toward achieving their goals, where ever we are from, local or expatriate, whatever our internal disagreements or complaints, such individualistic concerns should wither against our real purpose --
... to help push forward a young country and its youth toward a successful future ...
... while many of us may be part of the problem, some of us are also part of the solution ... we are here to do a job, let us push forward with our work to help prepare the youth, our students, and the nation ...
65. nomad892 - June 03, 2010 at 04:13 pm
This forum which seemed so promising is apparently on its last legs. The intellectual energies which seemed ready to charge out and address serious issues at UAE university in an uncensored format now seem dissipated. (I still thank Provost HUme for risking his neck in a journalistic venture). The lack of anarchic ferment indicates to me that the university can ignore its critics because they are few and the vast mass of UAEU employeedom remains apathetic. The polyphony of voices has dwindled to a private conversation between one or two people. That is sad, but then again, perhaps I overestimated the depth and vigor of those energies. As I see it, the UAEU's once proudly announced ambition to become a major research institution is on the rocks, and leaves us with the question: what is the mission, the purpose of the university? We still have the those traditional touchstones, teaching and learning to fall back on-- yet as I look around I see little support even for these basic functions. No teaching commendation at this university has ever been awarded in my memory -- despite lip service paid toward the notion of encouraging good teaching. Not the slightest effort. Nor do students ordinarily get a chance to assess their teachers and exert pressure on them to make their education relevant. It is all top down with the students uncomplainingly on the lowest level. At the same time, the University's basic education unit -- UGRU -- the major force for English skills education at the university -- is scheduled for dissolution. You have to assume that the reason for this naturally is that the unit is no longer necessary because the students arriving don't need such basic instruction. Frankly, I have never heard this argument proved or made. Quite the opposite, the word from the lower echelons of university teaching staff is that the current crop of students is not better academically but worse. By getting rid of UGRU, the university will conveniently remove potential critics of its brave new fictional world in which students take courses they are not equipped to understand. If the university cannot make a strong case for research, teaching or learning, what then can it do? I do see alot of support for the construction of new buildimgs and tearing down of not so old ones that have proved themselves useful if not loveable. So perhaps what we are looking at is not a university but a patronage system. That would make so many of my questions and arguments irrelevant. I think the basic question therefore is not what kind of a university this is, but is it a university at all? Is there someone out there with a deeper mind who can explain the higher purposes of this institution? Have I missed something?
66. nomad892 - June 03, 2010 at 04:17 pm
I would also like to thank the Chronicle for keeping the forum open -- and request that this continue as long as digitally possible. Also could something like this be done here in the UAE?
67. jambro - June 03, 2010 at 06:34 pm
re: nomad892 -- I would second nomad892's appreciation to the Chronicle, also commending Hume for his earlier participation. I salute nomad892 for articulate comments and genuine concerns.
While agreeing that whatever steam was generated seems dissipated,how many UAEU Faculty and Administrators have even heard of the Chronicle, much less regularly read it? As to the narrowing of the discussion, it should not be though of as a private matter since the largest proportion of all internet blogs readers "lurk" as passive participants. Whatever external conversations may be generated from such readers may also have meaningful affects within their communication circles.
However distant American oriented higher education issues are from UAEU realities, some of us, including Emirate nationals, do keep up with such issues as part of a global academic world.
As I have earlier commented, continuation of this discussion should reach beyond internal issues unless they are representative of larger concerns for the UAE, GCC and Arab World.
As I have no stake in UGRU, I also find its continuation or replacement largely irrelevant. Why? It is the process that counts, now the specific institution that is a vehicle for that process.
Without statistical data, I can only voice my own observation, that a growing number of my students are more in tune with my courses, able to contribute to discussions and present coherent discourses. But it is not possible to assess whether this reflects more stringent admission standards, better K-12 education, or UGRU efforts.
My personal opinion is that the international norm of a "talented 10%" may have doubled. But out of a class of 40 students, it would mean that 8 are quite proficient. Resorting to a Bell Curve, it would mean that 8 are much less capable of using English, but more importantly, also have much less developed cognitive skills. That leaves the remaining 60% (24 students) average in both categories.
Has this majority improved en mass? I am not certain, but it seems that another 30% (12 students) are both better than a statistical average, and more alert and able to participate. As I teach large sections of a required course for both male and female students, it is difficult to generalize any more than I have, as the groups may change dramatically from term to term.
Another issue concerns the Capstone courses required of senior students. Here I am only responsible for one social science discipline, and am shocked at how poorly some of them perform after UGRU combined with several years of university and coursework in their majors.
This term, I used a project presentation from a second year student as a "how-to-do-it" demonstration model for male and female capstone students.
Female students divided in half, half learned from the demonstration and produced excellent form, irrespective of content. The other half did not use the model form producing less well organized presentations with lower quality content.
Most male students were unable to learn from the demonstration model and in each group project several members clearly did not understand most of the English language content they used.
Do these anecdotal examples prove UGRU's worth or lack thereof?
Not really, the teaching approach in many university courses fails to effectively communicate cognitive understanding of content, which becomes objects for memorization intensive exams.
This is not to totally criticize memorization, but to emphasize the necessity of practice or example based lessons to ensure cognitive comprehension. But here language represents a crucial factor.
One of my students presented an excellent project on problems of K-12 instructors who taught in badly articulated, poorly understood English, with unclear understanding of the topic. The majority of 30+ female students agreed that their K-12 education had failed to convey the information needed to understand course material. Their teachers were either incomprehensible of incompetent to teach those subjects, or both.
A second student did an excellent research presentation on the problems of second language learning, with references to research on the importance of native-langauge learning for subject content, with separate English language-intensive courses focused on general use and comprehension.
A third student presented research and survey data on the topic of reading and writing, and that neither critical nor creative expressions were important parts of Arabic language K-12 schools. This problem was further exacerbated in English language courses, which were also examined by "multiple choice T/F" questions that did nothing to help develop reading and writing skills.
So, irrespective of UGRU, most UAEU students are not prepared for university level studies in either Arabic or English. This situation will need the radical K-12 policy, procedure and personnel reforms now being instituted in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and also reaching out to other Emirates.
How many years will it take this policy and planned change to implement a major turnover of less qualified teachers using less effective educational materials and methods?
With no apologies I have passed over nomad's more pejorative comments, which really serve no constructive purpose.
We all agree that the UAEU has serious structural problems across many sectors, but any relevant discussion needs to focus on constructive criticism with suggestions for feasible change.
Moreover, as I have tried to indicate, these structural problems sprawl across the entire educational sector from KG to post-graduate. But not only for the UAEU, but the entire GCC and Arab World.
For example, however excellent Egypt's modern educational history from the time of Mohamed Ali Pasha's reforms, at independence less than 10% of its population were functionally literate. Egypt's 1952 population has doubled and redoubled from less than 20 million to nearly 80 million. Maldistribution of wealth means that the majority of Egypt's population are poor, and state resources are unable to provide mass high quality education.
Modern education in Arab Gulf Petrodollar states is much more recent than Egypt's and still suffers growing pains. Money alone cannot solve human capacity development problems. Neither importing foreign teachers from less wealthy Arab countries, nor native English language teachers from more developed countries, can solve such human resource problems.
Whatever the validity of nomad's criticism, only several generations of consistent investment in comprehensive cross-sector educational reform and improvement will yield desired results.
Only continuity and perseverance in building second and third level leadership capacity that can effectively implement current Abu Dhabi and Dubai educational strategies will provide young Emirate nationals with a system (KG to PhD) that represents the nation's true financial wealth and potential human capital.
68. nomad892 - June 05, 2010 at 04:49 am
Thanks for the civilized reply, Jambro. I'll reply more in depth later to your subtle and well informed observations. For now just a quick defense of criticism. Critical thinking teaches us that if we can't accept criticism, we won't advance very far in the world. Criticism is sometimes couched in negative terms -- free speech, which I assume is the protocol of any Chronicle forum -- doesn't discriminate against these. I am claiming the right of free speech in this forum and raise the general problem -- can a university be worthy of that name without that fundamental right? I know that our students have debated democracy, for example, so I don't see anything outrageous in raising that issue. But for the nonce, familiar duties calls.
69. jambro - June 05, 2010 at 12:54 pm
again, a reply to Nomad:
You are welcome for the thank you note. I agree with you that "criticism" is much too often perceived in negative terms. That is the fault of mass media and common rhetoric misuse of the English language. That also points to problems with the English Language, itself a montage of Celtic, Germanic and Latinate dialects spread through a roughly arrogant Imperialism and colonization across much of the Old and New Worlds.
Up through the late 19th century, much polite communication among well educated, British high gentry and nobility, was in French, also the language of international diplomacy.
English evolved as a mercantile-administrative language that dominated their Imperial system of colonization and trade partners in a process of unequal exchange. Integrally evolving within that political-economic system, was a rhetorical Protestant discourse dominating low-church liturgy and hymns.
As any student of English literature will know or soon learn, much of literary and even scientific discourses, merged with common speech and publications, both being directly derived from, and referred to the King James version of the Christian Bible.
Do Muslim Arabs need to learn a system of language, discourse and rhetoric, so steeped in Protestant Christianity, along with racist Imperial arrogance and self-rightousness?
Thus I find it nearly impossible to use any English language textbook in Humanities and Social Science courses. Why? Because not only are they developed for Native Speakers in the Anglosphere and are full of culturally embedded vales and jargon, but also contain most examples from their places of origin, thus not appropriate to this cultural and geographical region.
OK, so now that the language issue is opened, the leaders of both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have invested millions of dirhams in translation projects, which so far have done well in translating English books into Arabic, and equally in the reverse. But we still do not have adequate appropriate textbooks in Arabic from KG thorugh University. At this rate, with priorities on literature, it will take a decade or more to begin to fill tall levels and breadth of needs.
But back to the issue of criticism: denotatively, the term divides into "an expression of disapproval" or "the analysis or judgments on the merits or faults of any constructed phenomenon". As a 17th century Latin derivative, possibly first used in the King James Bible, with a Greek origin -- to judge or decide. It was also used in conjunction with "critical" denoting a "crucial" or turning point in any process -- "critical factor" or "critical condition".
Perhaps I am overdoing it, if so I apologize. But we have reached a critical point in the UAEU's evolution where the New Vision and English Language only approaches are not working as intended. As well, a new agenda seeks to emphasize research-intensive approaches to faculty productivity.
Like many faculty and administrators with international experience in functioning research-intensive universities, I question how the UAEU could make such a leap without the necessary human and structural resources underpinned with secure funding.
Likewise, and here I refer to your earlier comments, what about the role of undergraduate teaching, which is still the main occupation of both the university and overwhelming majority of faculty, and consumes most of administrative and staff time?
Our students are not prepared upon entrance, nor after UGRU -- no fault on any aspect of UGRU, as I do not have adequate evidence to assess the problem.
A majority of CHSS faculty and courses still revert to the memorization-examination processes of teaching, not learning, as that is what both they and our students understand and expect.
For those of us who teach as if our students were "western educated" in the modalities of K-12 search-show-&tell in oral and written forms, problem solving approaches to cognirive learning, and a supportive environment for creative expression, we are out of the loop and somewhat confuse our students who expect to have objectified information pushed at them and regurgitated in non-written or problem solving examinations.
Without repeating earlier analyses, these are structural-cultural problems throughout this region, and most of the non-Western world.
Chinese students, for example, spend on average 5-10 hours of daily study outside of classroom time, while some things change in top, internationally oriented schools, mostly children succeed or fail in exams that largely demand answers based on memorized information or procedures used to solve mathematical or logical problems.
Enormous suicide rates among children who fail to get top marks in exams are all too common, not only in China, but in India and other Asian countries where the future well-being of the entire familymay depend on a child getting into the "right" school or University.
Nomad, if I read you correctly you are thinking about our students and their problems, which translate into problems for faculty.
Perhaps you are also critical of administrative attempts to induce greater efficiency, quality control and productivity through performance and evidence based assessment processes?
Coupled with diminishing resources of all kinds, continued high teaching loads, and increasing demands on producing evidence along with documentation of productive work, has demoralized many of our colleagues.
While some fat has been trimmed by "firing" faculty and support staff, many selections seem discriminative and illogical, as little consideration seems to have been given to human factors within any unit, how it functions, both internally and within the larger system.
Not taking into consideration affective factors that may be of crucial importance to group coherence and abilities to function effectively as a unit, should be a critical consideration for any management.
Such mistakes led to the gross failures within American corporate and university systems that were enamored with Re-Engineering concepts, without understanding the larger theoretical depth and scope of the process.
By thinking that many whole ranks of employees could be made redundant, many firms or institutions lost vital affective coherence and experiential knowledge, which were irreplaceable.
Current empirically based management literature reflects on the invisible factors that create a dynamic organization up and down the supply and production chain.
Of special interest are the liaisons among corporate firms and academic institutions in "research park/campus" models. But studies show that certain criteria are necessary for success, which include a cluster of academic and research institutions reaching a certain quantitative and qualitative threshold of scale and diversity.
Examples: Route 128 linking Harvard-MIT-Boston, Stanford-CSUSJ- Silicone Valley, Microsoft-UW-Redmond-Seattle, Duke-UNC-Research Triangle, etc...
Perhaps a decade from now, Abu Dhabi University, Sorbonne, NYU, Masdar Technology Institute, Petroleum Institute, Al Ain University of Science & Technology, will link into an R&D Corridor running between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi ... unless quite unexpectedly, Dubai would make a bold move to link its already established corporate-research-education parks to AL Ain. More likely, Dubai might develop some linkages with Sharjah's University City.
But finally, to address issues of critical thinking, which broadly extends beyond criticism, such thought processes are somewhat useful in limiting subjective negativity. But they are essential to analytically judgmental exercises integrating subjective and objective inquiry, whether for literary criticism or critical theory in social sciences and philosophy.
Venting, is another issue, whether criticizing other individuals or institutional entities that negatively affect ourselves or others.
But how, where, and to whom do we vent? What relationship exists between venting and the context in which we vent?
The internet offers all too much opportunity for anonymously "venting" to strangers, seldom with impact of the problems about which we are venting. I find it useful to take a trip into the nearby desert, climb a dune and yell out my frustrations to the wind and djinn. Then I can peacefully go home or back to work, without having resolved anything, but feeling relieved.
70. nomad892 - June 15, 2010 at 04:05 am
As for critical thinking, for me it means giving our students the intellectual tools to learn in any field by defusing in them obstacles to the apprehension of the new. Creative thinking in turn enables them think a new thought -- consonant with the purpose of faculty research which is to create new knowledge. This seemed to be the UAEU's purpose when it recently launched the critical and creative thinking courses. I still follow these creeds and find that it is possible to introduce new concepts to one's students -- while being sensitive to their cultural context. But they still have a weak idea of their own identity -- so maybe more needs to be done in culture & heritage too.
We ought to discuss in depth all those broader issues (the most important one for me is the the failure of the university's top-down administration model as we see in recent events), but time has run out, and physical causes separate me from this discussion -- which in principle ought to go on indefinitely. I'd like to thank our resident Socrates for his lucid contributions; he is such a master of debate that one almost wants to cry "uncle" (but not quite).
Other important contributions included the point about the fallacy of placing appearances before reality. Mille fois touche!
Anyway, for the future of healthy, free debate I'd like to propose a forum on university life in the UAE to the Chronicle if they don't already have one.
hasta luego
71. nomadescientist - June 16, 2010 at 12:19 am
I think there are already at least two entries on UAEU in the Chronicle's Forum:
"Can UAE University reach the top-100 in the world within 5 years?"
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,59235.0.html
and
"UAE University is FIRING its Faculty and Staff!"
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,66323.0.html
72. nomad892 - June 19, 2010 at 03:21 am
Thanks for these tips, fellow nomad. It's sad that we have to go to such lenghts to find any frank discussion on UAEU matters, isn't it?
73. dd123 - June 22, 2010 at 09:12 pm
i would like to speak about certain issues that are going on withing the United Arab Emirates. Firstly, speaking about the firing issue. I was shocked to find out that they fired alot of faculty and staff to cut budgets and then they fired another 280 UGRU staff members and theyre contracts will be over by june 2011. In this economic crisis it will be impossible for these people to find jobs so soon. Another thing is if they were so concern about money then they wouldnt have spent so much money on the new campus for girls which i hear that it is not even up to the standards compared to the amount of money invested in it. When Hume spoke about budget cuts to help the university become research intensive i thought well the way he did it was totally inhumane to fire all these people but then the bigger shock was when he took action and decided to close down the research affairs. I mean how can you make a university more research intensive if you close down the research affairs. The research affairs is what made this university get all these rankings and making the university in the top 400 in the first place. A correction i would like to add to what was written about the rankings is that Hume is not the reason the university reached in this position he just came at the right time to take all the credit. I have heard from many people about the dissapointment they are in because the research affairs is closing down. The staff there helped other staff members in their research and encouraged them in every way possible. But now all the staff are demoralized and many are questioning the direction in which the UAEU is moving. I believe Hume is going to put UAE University into the ground before anyone knows it. I dont believe he deserves to be the provost of our university and i dont believe he has done any real action to help it at all rather than just make it worse. People were happier before he came along and he is ruining this university. The truth of the matter is he does not care about this university and he never will.
Secondly, he does not realize the the actions he is taking is affecting the students. The students have limited summer courses this semester which has put a lot of stress on them and the faculty as well. Students are going to graduate late just because of him and his foolish actions.
I am both very sad and dissapointed that this has happened. I feel bad for the staff members and faculty that have been fired. I also feel that closing down the research affairs is the biggest mistake and soon the consequences of his foolish actions will show and he will regret the decisions he has made.
I just want everyone to ask themselves this question... how can you have a research intensive university without a proper research affairs?