The Los Angeles Times runs a story on King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST and the potential it holds. The piece also notes the obstacles it faces and raises the question of how it will interface with the traditional Saudi society around it. Doubts are raised that a new ‘Western enclave’ will achieve very much, but there’s strong opposition to some of the school’s goals, such as co-ed education. Worth a look.
New Saudi Arabia university will have a Western feel
Jeffrey FleishmanTHUWAL, SAUDI ARABIA — Up the corniche, along a coast where boats carrying pilgrims bound for Mecca sailed for centuries, a thicket of cranes rises over whitewashed mosques along the Red Sea.
Steel flashes and blowtorches glow as 20,000 workers build a $10-billion university ordered up by a king who hopes Western ingenuity will revive the economy of this ultraconservative Muslim nation. When finished next year, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will offer coed classes, Western professors, a curriculum in English and other touches loathed as dangerous liberalism by Islamic fundamentalists.
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July:13:2008 - 14:34
Has anyone warned the male professors and female students that even telephone conversations related to research might be construed as a front for affairs by vindictive exes? And that such research efforts could lead to jail time and flogging sentences handed down by judges who seem to have left their brains in the 6th C?
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/07/06/saudi_man_woman_face_flogging_for_research_work/
With such incentives for research, I could not be paid enough money to teach OR study there.
July:14:2008 - 04:59
I’ve done my own research on KAUST and I’m quite confused on what it really wants and how it intends to accomplish these goals. I don’t think the KAUST executive board really knows yet itself. For example, it has engaged a US exec search firm out of Chicago to identify and recruit key personnel. Yet I know with an interview on one Saudi who was imminently qualified for a public relations position was discounted because his previous experience which included some of the governmental ministries made him be viewed as “old school” rather than look at the new and innovative concepts he was proposing KAUST would need to introduce and implement its mission and vision. And to my surprise, I submitted my CV to KAUST as well for any applicable position as I thought it would be enjoyable to be a part of this new institution and I received a politely worded rejection letter that I did not have the suitable qualifications! Got to admit, that was a bit of surprise after my diverse international experiences but it just further reinforced to me that KAUST is unclear and uncertain on what it wants and needs to make its projected goals come to fruition.
July:14:2008 - 06:59
Hi Carol at least you got a response. Do you know how many times I applied to the U.S. embassy in Riyadh and got no response at all? I never even got a response that your C.V. has been received. I gave up and said to myself “I shall not render my services to the U.S. embassy by seeking employment.” The salaries are so lousy there anyway. Honestly,I don’t know how they can offer such low salaries to people and ask them to work such long hours.
July:14:2008 - 08:00
Sparky: as far as the rudeness of no acknowledgment of our applications, I can only say–rude people in HR apparently.
On the salaries, well that’s to be laid at the feet of Congress that sets budgets and State Dept. HQ that tries to have a uniform, global policy. That policy works very well in both well-to-do places like Europe or poorer places like Africa. It doesn’t do well where there’s a huge disjunction between salaries paid to host country national employees and third country national employees, as in the Gulf.
An American who is not sent to the country by the USG will get the same salary as the lowest-paid person in the country willing to do the job on the local economy, based on regular surveys of the local job market.
I think it’s a horrible policy, argued against it, had to live with it. The salaries offered in most instances are practically insulting. But tripling the salaries of locally-hired employees, just because they’re American has its own problems, in addition to what it would do to budgets.
July:14:2008 - 08:05
Carol, I expect that you would have been rejected even if you had a Nobel Prize in Physics. That’s because you’re married to a Saudi government official. KAUST, I suspect, is afraid that it might be inadvertently opening its doors to some sort of mole or otherwise destructive/disruptive force.
I think KAUST is pretty clear on what it wants: A Western university transplanted to the KSA. It is going to shy away from anything and anyone who could be a threat to that. It’s already fighting to keep basic things like co-ed education.
Hiring Saudis (and those married to them) is going to be very difficult for KAUST–though of course it must. But it will be vetting applicants for all sorts of indicators of possible future trouble: family name, married relations, previous jobs, personal and professional relationships, etc.
Think of the job search as something like skin: there to prevent viruses from leaking in to the body/organization. Some things will look like viruses, even if they aren’t, and will be rejected out of hand because it’s safer to do so.
July:14:2008 - 11:22
John,
I agree with you for the rejection letter I received was so vaguely worded and I knew full well that I more than met many of the qualifications for positions available. In fact, I wrote in my accompanying cover letter how I believed my marriage to a Saudi would enhance my ability to contribute to KAUST mission and vision! (ha ha on me!)
And further agree with you on the local hire job opportunities. Basically I feel like local hires, formerly referred to as TCN’s or FSN’s, are volunteering their services. They are usually exceptionally qualified individuals working at a mere pittance to have a position at an embassy. I say an embassy because it is not just the US embassy which has such menial salaries. The British embassy was circulating a notice for someone to work in the visa section. They wanted someone with a Masters Degree and the salary…around 6,500 riyals! And yes, this was for a full time position.
July:14:2008 - 14:54
You know nowadays is so easy for someone to google someone’s name. Actually today a male colleague said that I spit out commands like he has never experienced even when he served in the Syrian army. I had to bite my tongue. I felt like saying “not a very impressive military experience if I am more hardcore”. I wanted to say drop and give my twenty do it do it do it NOW. Anyways, I am going back to the US and am not sure if I will return or not. I revealed my identity in the spirit of Fouad but he is free now. I also wanted my children’s case of food poisoning to be publicized. It seems as if nothing happened as this princess is content to feed children feces and other crap and all that is out there is my name. John can you please delete my two duplicate comments when Sparky reveals her identity. It probably won’t serve me well if I am going to stay in the US and as well as with other a holes who make sly comments like Syrians who like decapitating children.
Deletions made
July:14:2008 - 14:56
I am going back to the US to become a big JEW and possibly talk to Oprah “who knows?”
July:14:2008 - 15:05
It is the same for the Saudi Embassy here in the USA. I know Saudis who work there, two in particular, have Masters degrees and would probably make more money being mid level management at a local fast food joint. It must be something about governments hiring their own citizens that live internationally to do the work.
At least at the Saudi Embassy here they get very liberal working hours, and as is usual, they dont have to work too hard. Show up and you get your lousy pay packet. I guess lack of work ethic has some benefits! }:>)
July:14:2008 - 15:09
John thank you for the explanation of salaries of US embassy local hires.
July:14:2008 - 23:35
It would seem that the vetting process would exclude 99.99% of the general population. Is there any person in the world without a couple of bad apples in their family and past? I would think that a place of learning should be looking at intelligence and ability of its candidates rather than the existence of crackpot relatives if it wants to gain any credibility as a center for academic excellence.
It seems the vetting process is set up to pre-select for a tiny exclusive population that most probably would be able to get the benefits of a liberal education without having to go KAUST anyway.
July:15:2008 - 00:27
I don’t think it’s ‘bad apples’ that are the problem. If you’re a member of that Aal-Alsheikh, you’re probably not going to get hired, even if your record’s spotless.
On the other hand, if you’ve done time in prison for terrorist activities, that would probably count against you, too!
July:15:2008 - 02:04
I see KAUST being composed of a number of individuals with various connections to ARAMCO, particularly so among the Saudis who are hired.
July:15:2008 - 08:30
Right. Having a long history of living (and administering) somewhat separate lives within the KSA, ARAMCO has demonstrated that it won’t go nutz over things like women driving and integrated offices. Pre-vetted employees, if you will.