Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?

[qatarperegrine]

The talk of the campus today is the New York Sun's recent article Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?, which slams Education City as well as other plans to bring Western cultural institutions to the Gulf.

The final paragraph of the article reads:

A good example of what can happen when modernity is faked can be found in Qatar, where a pretentious emir, Hamad bin Khalifa, and one of his even more pretentious spouses, Sheikha Mozza, became enamored with the idea of creating a Harvard-like educational atmosphere in a land that is a desert of thought and culture and a center of Wahhabi Islamic fundamentalism. Their billion-dollar ventures with Weill Cornell Medical College, the Rand Corporation, Texas A&M University, and Carnegie Mellon University stand today as an embarrassment. Nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found, nor have foreigners, even when offered full scholarships, joined what in effect are gated communities in a society living in the 18th century.

Needless to say, this article has not been well-received in Education City. One of our associate deans responded here; the dean of Georgetown responded here; and, as I write this, one of our students is sitting in the ARC writing her own response.

I'm somewhat perplexed. That's not even an accurate list of the Education City branch campuses (Rand isn't a university, and why didn't he lambaste VCU or Georgetown?), and what exactly does it mean to say "nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found"? Nowhere near enough for what?

Then again, the article also says that Dubai and the UAE are rival cities, which is rather embarrassing. Dubai is in the UAE.

I think it's good to have some frank discussion of what these Western Universities are contributing to Qatar, not to mention some skepticism of the materialism rampant in this society. It seems a shame to have it discussed in such a needlessly condescending way, though.

Comments

I dispute that!

[rockinhejabi.livejournal.com]

It's the 17th Century, silly!

It's not the 18th Century in Qatar...That would be the Enlightenment!

...a little Sunday am humour...

Re: I dispute that!

[qatar.livejournal.com]

rofl! Nice one!

Re: I dispute that!

[qatar-cat.livejournal.com]

Wrong again, it's 1428 now. That would be 15th century.

:P :P

[provoca7eur.livejournal.com]

I must visit Dubai to see hwat all the fuss is about, Qatar is nice but if I can get away from the hammering sound... ahhh.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm not sure you can get away from the hammering in Dubai either.... But I'm going there for the first time in three weeks, so I'll let you know!!

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

The New York Sun is the same paper that started up the fuss about Dubai buying ports in the US. And the tone of this article ("...Saudis, Kuwaitis, Qataris, Bahrainis, Emiratis, and other oil-rich Arabs have grown accustomed to buying anything. They have bagged whole foreign governments...") was about as annoying.

But I'd love to see your thoughts sometime on the standard of education there: To what extent are they really on par with top American universities? Are enough courses being offered for students to get to do whatever they want to? Are there enough events on campus and around town to keep people busy? Is academic freedom restricted in any way? What is the atmposphere like on campus? Do people of various backgrounds mix easily? Are there a lot of intellectual exchanges? What do students gain and lose by not actually going to America?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Way to ask the tough questions! I feel squeamish about answering them for two reasons: first and foremost because as a lowly writing tutor I don't think I can accurately assess students' experience here, and secondarily because I don't (and shouldn't) speak for Carnegie Mellon. But I'll give it a stab, because I think these are important questions that ought to be answered with more than just PR jargon. :-) So here are my gut responses, which absolutely don't represent anyone's viewpoints but mine.

1. To what extent are they really on par with top American universities? Well, our students here in Qatar go through the same curriculum as students in Pittsburgh; they take the same core courses and similar electives and so on. On the other hand, it's silly to think that you can just pick up one system and drop it into another environment without making some adaptations. The nature and extent of those adaptations is an ongoing debate. :-)


2. Are enough courses being offered for students to get to do whatever they want to? Obviously a campus with 120 students can't offer anywhere near the range of electives that a campus of 6000 can offer, but we do as much as we can. This semester, for example, we're offering 34 classes, and our students are cross-registered in several other classes in other Education City campuses. I think the bigger barrier to students "getting to do whatever they want to" is that only a few majors are offered. If a CMU student here decides they don't want to study computer science or business after all, they have to transfer to another university to change majors.


3. Are there enough events on campus and around town to keep people busy? I think that varies from person to person. I feel pretty busy most of the time. :-) But I miss the activity of Pittsburgh; I miss plays and concerts and temporary museum exhibits.


4. Is academic freedom restricted in any way? I haven't experienced any restrictions, and to my knowledge the Qatar Foundation does not want to restrict academic freedom.


5. What is the atmposphere like on campus? It's an extremely close-knit community, which is pretty awesome. Sometimes our students go to Pittsburgh for a semester and come back complaining about the lack of community there.


6. Do people of various backgrounds mix easily? I'm not sure I'm close enough to the students to answer that question. My perception is that there's a significant gap between Arab and non-Arab (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) students. Of course that would be the case on any college campus.


7. Are there a lot of intellectual exchanges? Hmm. What do you mean by "intellectual exchanges"?


8. What do students gain and lose by not actually going to America? That's a huge question, and I'm not sure I'm equipped to answer it. I think there are, in some ways, more opportunities in America: more majors to choose from, more electives to take, a wider range of people to meet. But they also gain a tremendous amount by being here, I think: a real sense of community with the other students, individual attention from instructors, the ability to do internships in the actual companies they'll be working for in the future, etc. And of course, studying in the States is not an option for many of our students, so having the branch campus here is an enormous gain for them. :-)

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

Way to ask the tough questions!
Hey, if I wanted to ask softball questions, I'd send them in to the local press, or better yet, the government. There's nothing quite like getting an answer from people on the ground.

I didn't realize just how small CMU was. This helps explain why the list of students on the Dean's List was so small.

My perception is that there's a significant gap between Arab and non-Arab (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) students. Of course that would be the case on any college campus.
There? Maybe. This certainly was the case in the UAE. As a foreign student in the US, however, I certainly don't feel like an outsider by virtue of my nationality; Americans are as happy to mix with me as with anyone else.

What do you mean by "intellectual exchanges"?
Bit of an open-ended question, that one. Visiting speakers who stimulate discussion, debates held on campus, people getting together for pizza every week while talking about the state of the world, anything, really.

I also forgot to ask you about the consequences for students of being in a newly established institution, one which would presumably have teething troubles, and be bereft of traditions.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

"There? Maybe. This certainly was the case in the UAE. As a foreign student in the US, however, I certainly don't feel like an outsider by virtue of my nationality; Americans are as happy to mix with me as with anyone else."

Yeah. But I shouldn't have expected this to occur seamlessly here.

"Visiting speakers who stimulate discussion, debates held on campus, people getting together for pizza every week while talking about the state of the world, anything, really."

We try to bring in visiting speakers; we haven't had many, so far, but our students can take advantage of the other universities'. And that includes people like Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton, so no complaints there. I'm not sure the students are as equipped to handle controversy as I'd hope, but the speakers are there.

Same thing with debates -- the Doha Debates go on here, and our students get to participate. Tomorrow I'm going to one on whether veiling is an obstacle to integration.

Talking about the state of the world -- I haven't seen a great deal of that. But it would happen in Arabic, so who knows.

"I also forgot to ask you about the consequences for students of being in a newly established institution, one which would presumably have teething troubles, and be bereft of traditions."

It means they get to create the traditions; they like that part. :-)

19th, 20th ....

[(Anonymous)]

Where is the beef ?!

[douglasperkins.livejournal.com]

Is that author actually asserting that Western-style education in Qatar is a bad thing? I don't think the author wants to be part of this "frank discussion" you mention.

What is "fake modernity" anyway?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

You're right; I don't think the author wants to be part of frank discussion. I just don't want to jump on the bandwagon of saying, "Ooh, he criticized Education City, obviously he doesn't know what he's talking about."

I think he's pretty explicit about what fake modernity is: it's thinking that the way to create a modernized, Westernized society is to build pretty university buildings and shop at Prada. I think it can be reasonably argued that Qatar is acquiring the trappings of modernization without having actually demonstrated (at least that I've seen) much of an understanding of what is involved in trying to create a hybrid Muslim/Western society.

Of course, this article completely fails to reasonably argue this. :-)

One for QL

[(Anonymous)]

This would make an excellent article for QL news :)

Re: One for QL

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Somehow I doubt my employers would be thrilled about me circulating this article around the larger Qatar community. :-)

Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[(Anonymous)]

I have to say frankly, that I think some of the issues discussed in the article are valid as they apply to the comparison between the home campuses and branch campuses of CMU, WCMC and to a considerably lesser extent TAMUQ. I say this, having some limited experience teaching students from all those programs. I suspect from what I have seen that the average student -- particularly at CMU and WCMC -- would not fit the academic profile of their counterpart when you consider that the home campuses are some of the very top American academic institutions. The bottom line is you are still drawing from a pool of students who frequently have not had access to quality primary and secondary education (especially if they attended Arabic institutions); have rarely had much experience with critical thinking; have underdeveloped analytical skills; and are, after all, pursuing a university degree in what is most often a second language.

By comparison, VCU is a state university that has an excellent reputation specific to its School of the Arts. We still have to deal with the above mentioned issues but to a lesser degree as students are pursuing design degrees and generally have considerable artistic talent and some experience in the practical application of the arts. By keeping our classes small; designing specific courses to support development in weak areas; relating the curriculum to culturally specific applications; and maintaining a strongly committed faculty with very low turnover (I am completing my 8th year here and approximately half of the faculty have been here at least 4-5 years) we have been able to maintain the quality of education relative to our home campus. The proof is in the successful employment of our graduates in lucrative and challenging positions both here in Qatar and internationally; not to mention a number awards and honors our students' designs have earned in various design competitions.

Ultimately, though, I think the biggest factor in the success of any of these programs will come down to the quality of instructions and commitment of faculty to TEACHING. In my opinion an educationally emerging society requires an emphasis on teaching first and if you have a faculty who is most concerned about research, promotion and earning their, chances are that TEACHING is going to come in dead last. I am not leveling this as a criticism of the faculty themselves, as much as at the academic system that prevails at this point in time. I think we have all had uni professors in our own past that couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag -- and couldn't care less about it -- where we as students essentially had to teach ourselves most of what was learned.

You can imagine my sadness when I hear some of the experiences EC students have related about classes at other universities where professors have no qualms about expressing their disdain for Qatar and the desire to get out after a year or two of collecting fat paycheck with a tax-free bonus (probably a good thing for the students that my uni is notoriously cheap!). What would you think if a student told you that their professors don't control the classroom environment to prevent cell phone interruptions and students milling about during lecture and they have a hard time hearing or concentrating? Or how about if students told you that everyone at their uni cheats and the professors don't even pay close enough attention to catch the most flagrant violations? As a professor teaching cross-registered students I have discovered student cheating twice and upon failing the students involved, informed their administration. Consider my disappointment when I discovered that neither uni followed up with any Honor Council disciplinary action....

(t be continued)

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[(Anonymous)]

All of this is to say that we are a "work in progress" in EC, as is Qatar itself. We are making progress but the task is huge and we must insure that we bring and maintain faculties that are committed to instilling the best undergraduate education in their students. I don't think the Emir and the Sheikha can be faulted for their vision and putting their money towards making that vision a reality and transforming the future. However, there is still so much to be done that we must not turn away defensively from the criticism leveled at us. There is a great lesson in all of this -- and after all, we are trying to cultivate life-long learners so we might as well start with us the educators! ;-)))

Thanks for letting me vent – I think I’ll have to link this on my own blog.

Regards and salaams,
PM

PS: I am assuming the reason Georgetown wasn't "slammed" in the article is because they are too new and have no proven track record.

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Hi, PM! I just realized I never responded to this post.

"The bottom line is you are still drawing from a pool of students who frequently have not had access to quality primary and secondary education (especially if they attended Arabic institutions); have rarely had much experience with critical thinking; have underdeveloped analytical skills; and are, after all, pursuing a university degree in what is most often a second language."

Indeed.

We have also made some adaptations like the ones you mention. Small class sizes, a ridiculously low student-faculty ratio, and hiring a lot of academic support personnel (like me) are all efforts to help students make up for lost time, so to speak. Our main campus doesn't even have a writing center, but one was opened here because it was acknowledged that students here might need extra academic support -- not because they are themselves deficient, but because they haven't had all the advantages that the average Pittsburgh applicant has.

"The proof is in the successful employment of our graduates in lucrative and challenging positions both here in Qatar and internationally"

We haven't graduated any students yet, but I think we're all very anxious to see what happens when we do! :-)

"In my opinion an educationally emerging society requires an emphasis on teaching first and if you have a faculty who is most concerned about research, promotion and earning their, chances are that TEACHING is going to come in dead last."

A friend of mine commented that he thinks the level of teaching on this campus may in fact be higher than the level on the home campus, simply because so many classes taught on the home campus are taught by researchers who are forced to interact with undergraduates against their will. ;-)

"...professors have no qualms about expressing their disdain for Qatar and the desire to get out after a year or two of collecting fat paycheck with a tax-free bonus"

Wow. I've never heard that. How horrifying!

"What would you think if a student told you that their professors don't control the classroom environment to prevent cell phone interruptions and students milling about during lecture and they have a hard time hearing or concentrating?"

Heh. I may know who you're talking about. I think that new professors over here -- particularly in 2004 -- sometimes overcompensated for cultural concerns. One in particular decided that if our students live in a polychronic culture, we shouldn't impose our monochronic expectations on them. I don't think any other professors have accepted that behavior, and as a result I don't think our students display it any more. (Tell me if I'm wrong.)

"Consider my disappointment when I discovered that neither uni followed up with any Honor Council disciplinary action...."

That's rather horrifying, and I deeply hope CMU wasn't one of them.

"However, there is still so much to be done that we must not turn away defensively from the criticism leveled at us."

I agree -- that's why I linked to this article at all. I don't think the author had all his info straight, but I do think some critical questions ought to be asked of the universities here. And if we are doing what we claim to be doing, we shouldn't shy away from people thinking critically about anything, including us. :-)

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

I don't mean this comment in any way to detract from your statement, and I have no experience with Qatari education or EC to comment on that. But having been through several universities in the US and one in the UK, I think it's safe to say that underdeveloped analytical skills and little experience at critical thinking is a fairly common trait across the US and UK universities as well.

And while I know nothing of Qatari primary and secondary education, I would also hesitate to hold the US students up as having come from a successful primary or secondary education system.

*Backing out now as I have said what little I know, and the rest is all well beyond my expertise...*

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[qatar.livejournal.com]

"And while I know nothing of Qatari primary and secondary education, I would also hesitate to hold the US students up as having come from a successful primary or secondary education system."

I would have said the same thing, three years ago. Everything's relative. :-)