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...

[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.

[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?

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?

One for QL

[(Anonymous)]

This would make an excellent article for QL news :)

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)