<p>I concede Johnalabiss I do not know much about the school, and never proposed to be an expert about it. That said I am not buying your critique of my post by any stretch of the imagination and my knowledge of how Western institutions function in the GCC. As my knowledge and experience in this area is vast. As I said from my look at it (which was brief from the internet kiosk in Abu Dhabi Airport) NYU Abu Dhabi has lofty ambitions, and my experience was strictly speaking of existing schools in the GCC with Western brands, as these are the ones up and running and relating my experience when U.S. universities form affiliations of some sort with a GCC country. Perhaps you read too much into it. It wasnât a direct critique of NYUAD.</p>
<p>That said, I am just not willing to trust any affiliations with a U.S brand and a GCC country at this point. Sorry, too many horror stories. I would give the brand a few years to see what the actual word is. Anything on the school at this stage is simply Public Relations. Perhaps I am missing something here but it clearly states on their website that NYUAD will eventually be located on âSaadiyat Island, 500 meters off the coast of Abu Dhabiâ. How is that not in the Middle East as you contended in your rebuttal?</p>
<p>If the university is primarily, or only partly located in the UAE then quality control outside of the U.S. will be a factor and much of what I said at least has the potential to apply. Sorry, you are wrong at least on this point. If you look at some of the universities in Qatar for instance you will see similar lofty ambitions. Many talk of multicultural faculty, an intense research mandate, a focus on liberal arts and students with strong backgrounds and being selective, study abroad programs, sharing faculty and students etc but now that they have been there for awhile there is nothing world class about those institutions. Thatâs my point.</p>
<p>My school, for instance, has students from more than 25 countries as part of the student body and professors with degrees from Berkeley, Columbia, Northwestern, UCLA etc and we have visiting Fulbrighters teaching and studying and have a liberal arts focus enshrined in our mission statement, just as many Western affiliated GCC universities have. One of my students was at Yale. We tried to focus on academics and research and all of our faculty are required to publish. None of this makes our university great or any of the others similar to us in the region. Our university could be interchanged with what is said about NYU abu dhabi here (and so could many others in the region): âBoth parties are committed to building a U.S.-style, research-focused educational institution. NYU Abu Dhabi will be a residential research university and a branch of NYU New York, operated consistent with NYU New Yorkâs academic quality and practices.â </p>
<p>Sorry if I had given in the impression that only locals were attending. Local students set the bar at the school and keep the bar low was my argument as does the pressure from administration who would never admit anything publicly and would still regale stories of academic freedom, top notch academics and the high caliber of faculty and students in all campus publicity and even in our contracts. Trust me itâs the foreign students who get frustrated with the low level of the academics first. None of these universities started off with low ambitions howeverâŠbut great faculty became frustrated and quit, not only because of the students but because of the restrictions on academic freedom, trickled down from the government to the owners of the universities to the presidentâs cabinet, then to faculty. Research interests that are not âMuslim/Islam friendlyâ were immediately dismissed for example, and these were the same in the class room. The Danish comics could not be discussed in a lecture environment. That wasnât what we were told when we were hired however. Gay faculty members were quietly not renewed despite sexual orientation being in the non-discrimination code of conduct. Visiting faculty from our sister U.S university were told to tow the line, as well. Again, none of this went into the brochure.</p>
<p>Thanks for the article link. But it only strengthens my argument. Sorry yes it does, look at this point âthe Abu Dhabi government covers financial aid and all other costs associated with the NYU campus, which aspires to an immediate elite status and dwarfs the other American branch campuses in the Gulf in terms of planned scope, size and impact.â Government control already raises red flags with me. If you read what I said about academic freedom above. And my school aspired to be the Harvard of the Gulf. I think itâs you that needs to do more research on U.S brands in the GCC not me. Their mission statements, ambition and make up are analogous. This quote also strengths my argument: âI think one of the biggest difficulties that NYU Abu Dhabi might run into is not necessarily recruiting a very high-caliber initial class, but retaining that class from one year to the next,â Witte said-- Again I said something similar above. So even the experts quoted in the article you shared have similar sentiments to what I said.</p>
<p>The PR is ALWAYS different from reality is what weâve all learned teaching over there. I do wish NYUAD all the best, but only time will tell how this experiment works out. My post was only a warning relating my experiences and those of my colleagues here and telling any student to be cautious with GCC universities with American affiliations. Nothing more. It was not, to clarify, an indictment against NYUAD itself. Anyone with direct knowledge of GCC universities with American affiliations would perhaps have issued a similar word of caution and perhaps a stronger one.</p>