Academic Staff in the UAE: Unsettled Journey

Academic Staff in the UAE: Unsettled Journey David Chapman, University of Minnesota Ann Austin, Michigan State University Samar Farah, Dubai School of Government Elisabeth Wilson, University of Minnesota Natasha Ridge, Dubai School of Government March 2011

Growth and transformation of higher education across much of the Middle East A remarkable success story

Government seeks a knowledge-based economy High level of government support for higher education in the UAE

Rapid growth also poses serious challenges • Main challenge: Improving the quality of instruction and research in UAE universities • At present, no UAE university ranks among the top 300 in the world.

Challenges • Faculty are dedicated teachers…but they will need to stay current in their fields and expand their teaching strategies to meet student needs • Research is important to international standing…but it is a new expectation, and usually only at research universities

In moving forward…choices to make • How to mobilize, deploy and manage human resources • Institutional excellence depends on the quality of the faculty • Example: Student learning depends on instructional quality

UAE faces a somewhat unique challenge • Heavy reliance on expatriate instructors • All of whom are on short term (usually 3-year) contracts

Conceptual framework: Used Gappa, Austin and Trice’s (2005) model of the essential elements of faculty work Five essential elements: • Autonomy • flexibility • professional development • collegiality • equity

These essential elements do much to define the professional satisfaction, motivation, commitment of faculty members. • In turn, these essential elements are central to establishing the conditions for educational quality.

Equity-- fair employment policies and access to resources • Autonomy -- freedom of expression in research and teaching without institutional censorship. • Flexibility -- suitable work arrangements, benefits, and opportunities for a career change. • Professional growth -- opportunities for faculty to pursue projects, programs and knowledge-exchanges that lead to their development and satisfaction. • Collegiality-- opportunity to feel part of a community, which values their contribution and engages them in decision making.

The Study • Random sample of instructors at 3 public and 3 private institutions in UAE (undergraduate courses: arts & sciences, engineering, chemistry, biology) • Interviews with random sample of 32 instructors; 4 senior level administrators

Results Characteristics of UAE instructional staff: • Male outnumbered female instructors by 2:1 (21 males; 11 females) • Heavily expatriate; broad range of nationalities • Terminal degree: About ½ of instructors had Ph.D.s; 20% had BA

Motivation to teach in the UAE Motivations clustered into 5 categories • Adventure seekers • Root seekers • Redemption seekers • Comfort seekers • Meaning seekers

Adventure seekers • Academic nomads - young, mobile, seeking novelty • Recent retirees - end of career but not ready to stop working • Good at their work • Committed to well-being of students • Little long-term commitment to the institution • Thinking about their next adventure

Root seekers • Proximity to extended family members in nearby countries • But…better salary and quality of life than if they relocated to those countries. • Professional advancement was not a primary consideration

Redemption seekers • Difficulties in previous position or personal lives (divorce, denied tenure, fired, experienced conflict) • Seek another chance; a new beginning

Comfort seekers • Mixed-race or cross-ethnic marriages • Find multi-ethnic character of UAE to be attractive, more comfortable

Meaning seekers • Mostly Emirati instructors • Committed to building UAE • Mostly teaching in public universities, hence, teaching Emirati students • If Emirati, received better salary and job security than others

Instructors saw themselves as being ‘away from home’ Many instructors coming to teach at UAE universities do not expect to stay • Current government policies do not typically grant citizenship to expatriates. • Neither universities nor many instructors seek or want long-term organizational commitment. • Everyone wins

Transience has consequences for higher education institutions • Hard to build institutional loyalty or commitment on the part of faculty

Equity (in compensation) • Emeratis and Ex-Pats are in different compensation categories. However, within each group, considerable comparability in compensation and benefits within institutional types • Salaries are competitive, but not necessarily a windfall • For most, compensation levels are an attractive feature but not a major magnet in attracting them to a faculty position in the UAE

Flexibility policies and procedures that enable instructors to adjust their work arrangements as needed to do well in both their jobs and their personal responsibilities

Faculty said: • Flexibility is problematic and limited • Not safe to challenge leadership, express dissatisfaction, or raise criticisms • Take safest course –”hunker down” • Net result: Limited ability to push for changes in their teaching load or other working conditions

Administrators said: • Some administrators discounted these concerns • They think faculty stories of capricious firings were overblown and overstated • But fact or fiction, these concerns were salient in the minds of instructional staff

Collegiality • Many expressed positive regard for their colleagues, quality of their working relationships, & atmosphere of workplace • Yet decision making processes caused concern and dampened collegiality (top-down, lack of transparency) • Faculty feel expendable, “hired hands”

Little identification with institution • While most instructors reported having little interest in institutional governance, most administrators showed little interest in having them involved • Given short-term nature of faculty contracts, why involve faculty in long-term decisions

Professional development Administrators varied in the value they attached to professional development activities • Most thought their institution offered relevant opportunities Faculty members tended to see this differently • Faculty thought professional development opportunities tended to be highly structured, limited in scope, and not particularly helpful

Autonomy Similarities to other well-developed higher education systems: • Considerable autonomy in their classroom teaching methods • Appropriate but less autonomy with respect to curricular decisions

Autonomy (continued) Differences from other well-developed higher education systems: • Autonomy tended to end at the classroom door • Little autonomy in terms of larger issues of academic freedom • Perception that criticism of institutional policies was not welcome and poorly tolerated

Conclusion As the UAE seeks to build a world class higher education system….a central question: How will universities engage, support, and respect instructional staff in ways that encourage them to view themselves as professionals committed to the overall quality and welfare of the institution?

Academic Staff in the UAE: Unsettled Journey