ammona22
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« on: September 24, 2010, 06:38:14 AM » |
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If you a planning to join a university in Dubai, you have to read this especially if you are a female and alone, regardless of your nationality. If you decide to go after that, do it on your responsibility
I am a senior female assistant professor graduated from USA with rich research and teaching profile.
I was discriminated against, and fired, politely forced to resign, from two universities in Dubai following the rules for trying to apply my academic standards in imposing the required level of integrity of teaching, assignments, and testing, and even was prevented from practicing academic freedom and threatened by phone to leave the country or be a sex slave for them.
Here are some details.
I worked in Hamdan Ben Mohamed University at 2010 after a phone interview done with the selection committee when I were in Egypt two weeks before hiring me. I was tempted with the high salary. I was always asked to modify students grades with high pressure from the dean and administration in the first place, and even when i rejected, they forced me to accept 2 students in the exam even though they did not attend the course at all and do not meet minimum attendance requirements imposed by the school rules. I was sexually harassed, yelled at, provoked, and intimated even by the HRM employee, I have evidence to support my situation.
I joined University of Dubai because they are the only with American AACSB accreditation which is a sign for quality but I was fired in two weeks for trying to discuss with the Dean of the school of Business, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, and the president the possibility to be granted freedom of designing assignment, which is my responsibility as a faculty member. I also asked for a key to the female bathroom in the school, and it is the only one, that some male members insist on using it even though the male one is empty and a step away from the female one. Could you believe that, here are the details of the previous two weeks in Dubai university.
1. My hiring process is not up to the academic criteria, There was no selection committee, competition procedures, or interviews with faculty members. Just the chair and Dean, and when I joined the dean was a different person and I did know people. Hiring, and also firing, is not based on fair academic rules that should be there for faculty members, it is a decision of the chair with no reasons. just like any third world dictatorship.
2. turnover rate is so high, they lost almost 9 highly qualified faculty members who resigned or fired for reasons related to the president mood, if they discus they are out, if a student points a finger on a faculty member he/she is immediately out with no investigation or justification, the president try to twist the faculty member opinion to make things easier for the students and let them pass with no assignments or he/she is out. No presence for a promotion committee, no voting what soever. So the percentage of faculty/students is absolutely not accurate because the school is almost empty of USA graduates Ph.D's who are qualified and in the legal work age.
3. selection of chairs is up to the president decision, not based on academic rules. The chair of the management department is an assistant professor who hold a degree in IT not in management and is not qualified to be a chair, his name is Dr. Habib Ullah Khan. the same is true for the degree of the accounting chair who got it from Egypt. Departments have two to three members, which is not a legal number to establish a department. Recent faculty members and not productive in research and not up to the AACSB criteria. The only required qualification is to please students by granting them high grades. There were some members who were up to promotion by the university, president made, criteria, but they were fired for not pleasing students. Check numbers of faculty members who were promoted lately and reasons form promoting them, and you will discover more interesting facts.
4. From the first moment it was clear that students rule the place as their own territory. They came to me ordering me to change absence to make them present or not late, Even though absence is recorded through a finger print swiping machine, the faculty member can adjust it manually to make whatever student present. Students assured that their faculty members are kind and understanding and they adjust their attendance to make them get the legal percentage to pass the exams. Students are so rude, bossing, and treat faculty members as servants or slaves, they were fed this culture by the administration style to please them and Indian faculty members who treat students, specially emiratees as if they were Gods. Students negotiate, and dictate everything starting from assignments, deadlines, number of chapters to be studied, and grades and they can adjust everything according to what they want, if the faculty member rejects, a call from someone important in the country forces what the student wants. There is no actual study and grades out of this university do not worth the ink on the certificate, such like many universities here, everything is manipulated. Teachers follow the traditional methods or do the work for students, and sometimes are forced to toter them at homes. So the teacher reads directly from the books and translates in the classroom. I was insulted in the classroom with no reaction from the administration, just told me to be quiet about it and forget it. I was already quite but it is hard to forget that it is okay for the administration to allow students to be rude and insulting for faculty members and disciplines faculty members hardly for trying to make student stick to ethics and fire them for that reason.
5. Faculty members are forced to work 40 hours in the school with 30 minutes lunch break and they have to swipe finger-prints if they go out or in from the building, that should represent a campus. Security persons monitor everything you do, with cameras and personal very apparent checks for every minute, and treat you arrogantly because they report directly for the president, who controls and monitor everything even your lectures before giving them. Salaries of faculty members are less than those of an employee, and not competitive to the industry according to AACSB accreditation. All courses are afternoon and night courses, with no morning courses, even though the statistics on the AACSB lectures are 3HRs each from 3:30 - 10 PM. So, at the end of the day we are required to stay up to 12 hours in school with no pay for extra working hours over the weekly 40.
6. What made me resign is that they wanted to have my assignments revised and approved by someone who holds an MBA degree and controls teaching of my course, I am WSU graduate with specialization in business negotiations, and high expert in teaching and training it, still an MBA has to approve my assignments, off-course to make them easier for students and limit them to five MCQ's instead of interactive exercises per quizzes.
7- The undergraduate program is in Almasoud Tower, which is a residence building not designed for college level. No parking, equipped multi-media classrooms, or decent offices and bathrooms for faculty members or students. Places are so small and tight. The graduate building is maybe equipped but it is not open for undergraduate school usage that much and it is far from this building.
Everything is faked in this school
I was not given enough time to spend in the school and I was exposed to sever discrimination for trying to discuss the possibility to get some academic freedom in my teaching as being expert, but the president kicked me out in the same day and he has the power to do so with no justification, because this is the case for working as a faculty member in Dubai, which is a synonymous for a student/president slave/b*tch/sex-toy whatever.
I joined this university to protect myself from shameful practice, but still it is another third world dictatorship.
i always thought academic freedom and high standards are the blue ink in AACSB blue stamp, unfortunately you It was 100% unreliable
I were fooled in the UD with AACSB accreditation, which is another mane to dis quality and manipulation of Omar Hefni who fired me because I asked to have the freedom of assigning tasks to students, and claiming a key to the female bathroom which is continually used by makes faculty members against all rules and regulations for HRM after two weeks of joining the school and working with no medical insurance, or any other assistance. They knew I live alone and it is so tough to depend on yourself in this environment, but still no assistance, or ethics. Omar promised me every possible assistance, but he was trying to scare me and abuse the fact that I am a female living alone and thought I would feel vulnerable to his threats and accept whatever he dictates me to do. I asked for a day off to be able to move to an apartment close to the school but I were informed that no allowed breaks, and hours would be deducted from my forty weekly hours as if I were a slave, even though these rules are not applied equally to other faculty members.
I lost two weeks of my time and money I cannot forget that they tried to make me a slave/b*tch/sex-toy for students, chair/s and some male workmates. This is the only accepted behavior of a woman to be successful in these places, you have to at the least flirt with males and chairs who are culturally programed to look at women as subjects regardless. The situation is not different than what I faced in Egypt, plus pressure to be corrupted enough to accept declared corrupted practices or faculty members, and join the ruling party or the government body and prof-accept the widely spread corruption in Egypt.
There are no human rights, work fair acts, or any protection for faculty members working in Dubai and Egypt.
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