Zayed University reviews about "people"

The discrepancy between the corporatist philosophy and the educational values and mission of a higher ed institution.

The pay could be better. It’s too low ranging from 25-39 dhs/hour if I’m not mistaken.

Owing to terrible staff morale, deep unhappiness, and resulting high staff turn-over, ZU is continuously seeking staff to work in its mirage in the desert we like to call a University. The following criteria are deemed essential for upcoming revolving door positions. 1. Candidates must be docile, meek and highly deferential to incompetent line managers. These managers are generally less qualified than you, have zero management training, frequently dismal research records, become malevolent if you ever disagree with them and have been selected solely on the basis of their unwavering loyalty to the Dean. 2. Candidates are advised they must dispense with any old fashioned notions that they are important and valued by management. Our HR practices revolve around Stalin’s dictum of ‘no man, no problem’ (yes that is the Russian dictator). In the interests of gender equality, this applies to women also. 3. Candidates must understand, and accept, from the outset that their respective Dean is Gods representative on earth and his/her divine will must be done at all times. It is irrelevant if your Dean lies constantly, promotes only their friends, lacks any genuine integrity, bullies staff, is despotic and couldn’t manage a pizza order properly not to mind manage people. 4. Candidates must be willing to ship their integrity, sense of fairness and all ethics back to their country of origin on taking up the position. ZU will however not pay for any associated shipping costs. 5. Candidates must have a strong stomach for nepotism, blatant favouritism and bullying and be willing to ignore instances of the above especially when they negatively affect hard working and excellent colleagues. Representatives from the University’s happiness committee will however try to make you feel better by giving you a happy face sticker. 6. Candidates must understand that ZU is primarily only about ‘presentation’. If the building is shiny and bright then the place must be amazing right? Employees must answer in the affirmative at all times to this question. 7. Candidates must understand that their three/four year contract is in fact meaningless. You will endure an annual faculty review assessing your performance by your incompetent line manager based on goalposts that shift like the sand outside your cell (office) window and whatever is flavour of the month. In addition, your Dean will over-ride this system in the interests of promoting their personal brand of nepotism. 8. Candidates must be world class researchers but also excel at teaching, advising, serving the community, being on multiple committees and being innovative. Sub-optimal performance in any of these categories will result in your immediate deportation as we believe these are things you can achieve over night by merely willing them into existence. After all, God created the universe in a mere six days. 9. Candidates must be aware that the greatest sin that can be committed is a perceived lack of collegiality. This can be avoided by always saying ‘yes’ no matter what, turning a blind eye to blatant abuses of power and position, never disagreeing with management and stroking our infantile egos on a constant basis. Please remember your employers have very thin skins. 10. Candidates must be aware that the University has zero real interest in staff development or staff retention. Irrespective of your abilities and accomplishments, management reserves the right to get rid of you for any reason we invent at any time (particularly if we suspect you don’t think we are amazing). 11. Candidates must continuously stress themselves with innovation. This is an important KPI dreamed up by an important person in senior management in the hope that someone will develop a better mouse-trap. 12. Candidates must understand that the majority of students have very poor English, have minimal interest in learning, and that attendance at University is a way of getting out of the house to hang out with their friends before they get married off. Our students like to regularly visit one of the several beauty parlours in the University so please ensure that assignments do not negatively impact on this important activity. Also note that the university bookshop closed down due to a lack of student interest in actual books. 13. Candidates must not over-tire students, and certainly never upset delicate student sensibilities. Never suggest that things in the country are anything other than perfect and please limit all assignment activities to an eight grade level and a workload of half a page maximum. Please provide students with a nap in class as required. 14. Finally, candidates are advised that all of the above criteria for a successful candidate are endorsed by senior management whose preferred management style is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and by promoting those that excel at these activities. Candidates who are desperate, washed up or have no-where else to go, and who meet the above criteria and accept our way of doing things are strongly encouraged to apply. Candidates are also kindly asked to interpret the negative reviews on this website as ‘lurid fiction’ by the disgruntled and place their trust in the, albeit few, positive reviews (which have been written by members of our HR department with really poor English ability).

Bad pay and not much to do

The university has completely collapsed in the past few years. Claims that the university’s problems are due to staff shortages from unprecedented growth and faculty discontent stems from expats not understanding the culture are simply lies. Do your research - the previous president went on a rampage and was fired, or rather silently moved to another plush government job. In the aftermath, incompetent administrators continue to literally rip everything apart in an attempt to placate higher powers who obviously don’t know what they want. Administrators, deans, chairs, and managers are mostly unqualified puppets barking orders and have absolutely no understanding how to manage people, let alone run a university. They are now hiring anyone with a pulse so don’t expect anything to get better. The quality of the undergraduates is atrocious; indifferent and ill-prepared students who blatantly cheat and plagiarize. The courses I taught were continually “dumbed down” so everyone could pass. These programs cannot even be compared to real accredited degrees. In fact, they don’t even measure up to high school diplomas. I’m amazed that they’ve been able to hang on to accreditation, but according to all the rumors, seriously doubt they have done so legitimately. Pay and benefits have seriously eroded and have not kept up with the high cost of living in the UAE. Forget savings, especially if you have children, as school fees subsidies no longer cover costs. The tyrannical push for faculty to publish research to improve rankings is comical, especially given that NO support is offered. I was personally embarrassed to affiliate myself with this “university”. Colleagues tended to fly under the radar and managed to do the minimal amount possible out of fear or indifference. Morale is low and the environment is toxic. The human resource department is extremely dysfunctional probably because, like most departments, they can’t keep competent people from leaving.

ZU disempowers people; it takes every opportunity to wrangle money out of employees even when there have been no substantial raises for 10 years (salary scale not adjusted for inflation for a decade). While paying less and less (because of cost of living increases), more and more is required of faculty in terms of research, advising, needless paperwork. Most faculty teach 4 classes per semester, with multiple preps.

No salary rises for several years unless you were on a very low point on the scale. Going over to cash housing (as opposed to uni paid housing where ZU took on the tenancy) meant that unless you are a couple with no children - (families with kids really came out badly) - you might find that you would have to go for an inferior apartment (the decrease in rents in Abu Dhabi, however, did make going on to cash housing beneficial to some people, as they could pocket the difference). Cash housing also means you are liable for the municipality charge added on to the electricity and water bill every month. With a couple of exceptions, I didn't find colleagues particularly friendly or supportive - you only really met people in your own department unless you were a smoker. Apparently the smokers corner is the place to meet people and socialize - and I even heard of non-smokers dropping in to get the latest gossip. HR (human capital) is a nightmare. Nasty and unhelpful people who think you should be beholden to them and that they are doing you a special favour. One colleague dubbed them 'sub human' resources - even lower than 'inhuman resources' that they were often called. We often wondered why we weren't asked to rate them, as all the administrators, professors and teachers have to be, by their peers or students. But I think the rating would be so low as to be an embarrassment to the university. Students are mostly nice enough but in what was ABP before it morphed into something else, it was difficult to motivate them. The English entry level to the uni is now supposed to have been raised, so maybe not having those very low level students will make a difference. I found when I was there, a lot of students, did everything possible to get out of doing any work but wanted the maximum grades. You kind of get into the way of how it is in the Gulf, grade adjustments so even weak students pass, etc. There is also a huge move towards catering for special needs students, so teachers who have no experience of this are often obliged to have one or two special needs students in their class with very little back up. Having had this more often than not, it has been both good and bad - I enjoyed trying to help my special needs students, but I would say I would spend on average about 3 hours a week extra catering to their needs - and it is the luck of the draw whether you get them or not (though if you have done a good job, you are more likely to get a special needs student again - so maybe don't do a good job if you think it a burden!) I might add that when I left in May 2019, it was the biggest cohort of leavers ever - across both AD and Dubai campuses. I wonder if this is significant!

Salary & benefits gap between grades and doesn't correspond to the years of experience, qualification, load and quality of work

Too many strategic shifts far too quickly