Network with current & past UAE higher education colleagues

 

 

UFSAN-UAEI have been a LinkedIn user for many years and feel it is a great way to network with professional colleagues and friends. I have also, over the years, used the Group section of LinkedIn to network with people in Abu Dhabi and with my university alumni. However, I have never found a LinkedIn group that is dedicated to higher education professional who are currently working or have worked in the UAE.

Dr. Senthil Nathan and I have worked in UAE higher education for many years and in 2014 Co-Founded Edu Alliance which specializes in higher education consultancy. We have established a unique LinkedIn network for faculty, staff and administrators who have worked or are currently working in a higher educational institution in the UAE. The group is called the University Faculty and Staff Alumni Network – UAE (UFSAN-UAE).

Who is eligible to join this free UFSAN-UAE network?

–       If you have worked or are working as a full time faculty or staff for a university / college / tertiary educational institution in the UAE – for one year or more – you are invited to join this network.

What would I gain from this professional network?

–       Interact with colleagues from the same or similar universities in the UAE.

–       Help each other with new and emerging career opportunities within the region and/or in home base.

–       For professionals who have previously worked in UAE higher education it’s a way to network with fellow UAE professionals. You can share your insights as well as learn or inform colleagues of potential employment or collaborative opportunities

–       Share research insights or interests with colleagues: identifying applied research needs for the region, effective teaching and learning styles in the region, effective use of educational technology, making best use of highly limited research opportunities and funds, co-authoring research work with interested colleagues from the network.

–       Exchange business intelligence, cultural and educational insights

Learn about potential employment opportunities.

–       The network promises to be a highly focused, specialized and unique location for targeted recruitment by the universities and colleges of the UAE.

–       Edu Alliance will endeavor to provide information on emerging professional opportunities in UAE higher education to network members, as we gather from our contacts in the universities and colleges.   In fact we have been contacted by some Higher ed HR departments about posting positions.

–       Network members will be invited to post positions that are open in their respective institutions.  Edu Alliance will verify such information before such postings go online.

As educators in the UAE we have all made connections and friendships with fellow colleagues and those connections can be valuable. If you are interested in being a member and have worked or are working as a full time faculty or staff for a university / college / tertiary educational institution in the UAE – for one year or more – you are invited to join this network  go to University Faculty and Staff Alumni Network – UAE

Top Ten UAE Universities

One of the things I like about rankings is that everyone has an opinion. If you follow sports you know fans argue all the time who is the top football or basketball or cricket team.

So in higher education who do think are the top ten UAE universities? I want your top ten list and you may select any higher education institution in the UAE and that includes branch campuses.  I will report the results no later than July 3rd. You may post directly on the site or email me at dean.hoke@edu-alliance.net with your top ten.

Let’s give you some opinion’s on who are the top schools. A few weeks ago QS University Rankings posted its top-performing institutions in the Arab Region. This is their second year and it highlights the top one hundred Arab universities.

How did the UAE fare in QS rankings?  Thirteen located in the United Arab Emirates made the top 100 and seven made the top thirty. Below are the seven UAE schools who ranked in the top thirty:

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The other six are:

  • #36 Higher Colleges of Technology
  • #46 the University of Dubai
  • #61-70 Ajman University
  • #71-80 Canadian University of Dubai & Paris Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi
  • #81-90 American University of Ras Al Khaimah

The weighting system of QS Arab Region Rankings are grouped into nine areas (Corrected as of June 27th):

  • 30%: Academic Reputation Based on a Global Survey of Academics
  • 20%: Employer Reputation Based on Global Survey of Employers
  • 20%: Faculty/Student Ratio
  • 10%: Web Impact from Webometrics
  •   5%: Proportion of Staff with PhD
  •   5%: Citations per Paper from SCOPUS
  •   5%: Papers per Faculty from SCOPUS
  • 2.5%: Proportion of International Faculty
  • 2.5%: Proportion of International Students

Times Higher Education produces a top 400 world ranking and a top 30 MENA university rankings. Three universities from the UAE are included. They are

  • #11 United Arab Emirates University
  • #17 American University of Sharjah
  • #20 The Petroleum Institute

The weighting system of Times Higher Education are grouped into five areas:

  • 30%:  Teaching: the learning environment
  • 30%:  Research: volume, income and reputation
  • 30%:  Citations: research influence
  • 2.5%: Industry income: innovation
  • 7.5%: International outlook: staff, students and research

The primary idea of the QS University and Times Higher Education rankings are to help students and parents make informed comparisons between their university options. It has also become an important part of the performance criteria used by Board of Trustees and Presidents in determining how their school compares to others.

Unfortunately few Arab universities have achieved a top 400 or 500 world ranking and it will be years before additional schools make the top 500 or if ranked move into the world top 100. However many universities in the Arab region are quality institutions and should be compared with other Arab universities.

QS and Times Higher Education are to be commended in developing regional ranking systems but QS needs to re-think its categories and weighting system. After the top fifteen Arab institutions, many of the other universities ranked in the top 100 seem too high or low. There are schools I wonder why they are on the list. Conversely, I was stunned The Petroleum Institute in the UAE was not ranked by QS while the Times Higher Education MENA list had them as #20.

So what do you think? Who is your top ten universities in the UAE.

 

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