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[buur1963]

Hi Folks

 I would like to know the salary scale for Faculty in Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) in Abu Dhabi, ranging from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor level. 

Can you also tell me more about what they offer for Housing, Annual round trip airfare, Relocation allowance?
 Tuition for children?
 
Thank you in advance

Buur
 
 
 
 
 

[dellaroux]

Does this really work for you guys?

I mean, every few weeks another one of you picks a new moniker and sets up a thread to try to get some interest in your school.

But is it really worth the trouble?

Do you ever get any applicants this way?

Or does it just satisfy some official requirement to make so many postings on so many sites, just to get your name out?

Just curious...I've often wondered, so I thought I'd ask.

[buur1963]

Dellaroux,

I don't really get your point. Do you have a problem with the University?
If you don't have answers for  my questions, give a chance people have answers to respond.

 Be wise

[dellaroux]

I've wisely reported this to the mods.

[still_searching]

Whoa there!  I don't honestly think the original poster is an employee of KUSTAR trying to drum up interest -- I expect he/she, like others who've asked questions in the past year about salaries and benefits from this institution, is just trying to make an informed decision before uprooting self and family.  Why do I think this?  Because a few folks asking similar questions on this and other forums (last year) ended up subsequently taking jobs at KUSTAR, so they were most definitely NOT employees at the time they asked for salary information.

Let's give the OP a break here -- KUSTAR (at least the Abu Dhabi campus) is new enough that there isn't nearly the amount of information on it here in the ether that there is for other institutions in the UAE.  It's reasonable for people with job offers to ask questions.  That said, I know for a fact that the admin/HR weenies at various unis over here do regularly troll the forums.

Now for some substantive information:

The university says that salaries are negotiated on "an individual basis" and I believe that may be correct.  Therefore, there aren't any known salary scales, so to speak.  If you look back through some of last year's posts here and on Dave's ESL Café, you'll see that there were offers for assistant professors along the lines of 25K Dhs per month.  Some of those people were able to negotiate for higher allowances and got up to about 35 Dhs per month.  About 20K of that is in the form of "allowances" (possibly being changed to "housing" -- be careful about that as when KUSTAR moves to its new campus in Khalifa City, housing will be provided, so if your allowances are all called "housing" they might mysteriously disappear.

As far as what they offer for housing, as I said, I would expect something in the range of 15-20K Dhs monthly.  Just about every other university in the area actually PROVIDES housing, so KUSTAR seems to be an anomaly.  With the rental market in Abu Dhabi last year, that allowance meant that many folks had to go out to Dubai to rent -- not fun if you need to commute into Abu Dhabi every day.  Be sure to do your homework on the real estate market here and do NOT accept the simplistic "housing has gotten more affordable in AD, so you'll be fine."

Annual airfare is an interesting case -- although folks were told (in their contracts) that they and their immediate families would get business class return tickets to their "home" country once per year, that morphed into cash-in-lieu, and from what I've heard from people who actually work there, the cash was not sufficient to cover the actual cost.  In one case it covered about 50-60% of the actual business class tickets.  Also, you will be paid to travel to your "home," which ain't necessarily where you've been living, but rather where your passport is from.

Children's education allowance is there, but friends tell me the policies have changed.  I wouldn't be surprised if they change again.

See, that's the problem with some of these places -- once you get over here, take out a loan from the university or a bank for a year's rent (most leases in Abu Dhabi still require two checks up front - one post dated six months), you are STUCK.  You will not be able to leave mid-year if things don't go your way if you still have pending housing loans.  (You can leave, but it'll have to be a quiet midnight dash to the airport).  So make sure you're clear about your contract from the get-go.  And even then, you might not have a whole lot of recourse if a policy suddenly gets changed or a benefit is cut.

Hope that's at least a little bit helpful.

And no, I don't work for KUSTAR, Dellaroux.

[dellaroux]

A little research on the "Academics in the Middle East" board might suggest otherwise, but the free speech thing matters more than a little inconvenience or irritation,  so that trumps all in my mind.

Just checking.

[still_searching]

You're a sport, Dellaroux.

But I'm still perplexed (having followed the Ac in the ME forum for well over a year now) at your reference to trolls from KU trying to drum up interest in that particular institution -- have I missed something?

[dellaroux]

OK, here's one link that I could find among the most recent ones.

   http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,66947.0.html

The whole "conversation" is contrived to let one poster put several factoids out there, and if you look over that poster's profile, you'll notice that their "voice" is always self-assured about policy stuff that only an insider would know.

There have been others at other points that got very complicated, but they often follow this "ask-a-simple-question-get-a-complex, university-serving answer," pattern that ends up touting the university like an infomercial.

I could be wrong but those are my observations.

[still_searching]

Sorry for getting off topic, but I see what the problem is and thought I'd try to clear things up.

Dellaroux, I agree that the thread you sent may very well constitute an insider doing a bit of PR work.  The problem is that it's a SAUDI forum and the discussion is for KACST, KAUST, KSU, etc., *not* KUSTAR (Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research).  KUSTAR is in Abu Dhabi, UAE, not in KSA, and there's been very little about it here on the Chronicle forums from what I can see.

To the original poster:  you are probably wondering what in the world spurred the response to your initial post, but I think maybe it was just a little misunderstanding due to the overuse of acronyms out here.  And since the unis in KSA all tend to involve most of the same letters as KUSTAR in Abu Dhabi, it's easy to see why that would have happened!

[buur1963]

 Still_searching,
Thanks for the sufficient information that you provided.
I did the  interview recently and wanted to have enough information before I accept an offer.

Finally, I advice you to ignore Dellaroux's provocation.

Thanks again Still_searching for your honesty

Buur

[still_searching]

No problem, Buur.  As for Dellaroux, no worries -- I think it was an honest mistake.

Glad I could be of help, and good luck with your decisions.

[buur1963]

Still_ searching,
Thanks again for the clarification. If you check my original post, I clearly stated Khalifa University
of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) in Abu Dhabi, so I don't see any confusion unless Dellaroux has little knowledge about Middle east and believe that Abu Dhabi is located in Saudi Arabia.

Anyway, thanks again

Buur

[dellaroux]

Nope, not that confused.

As you were.