Zayed University

History

Zayed University was established in 1998 by the Emirati federal government. Until 2008 the university was accepting only UAE national women, but after the opening of Sweihan campus, a collaboration between Zayed University and the UAE Armed Forces, approximately 200 male students were admitted.

The university is currently engaged in cooperative relationships with a number of institutions throughout the world such as: Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Scotland, Australian National University, School of Business Management and Organization of the Foundation Antonio Genovesi Salerno in Italy, Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain and Waseda University in Japan.

In November 2014, Zayed University was ranked 23rd out of 25 in the QS World University Arab Rankings. It does not feature in any world rankings.

Accreditation

In 2008, Zayed University announced that it received accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Zayed University announced it had received re-accreditation in 2013. The University is one of only 16 overseas institutions accredited by the MSCHE, and one of only 4 in the Middle East.

Programs within its College of Technological Innovation obtained accreditation through the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in the summer of 2012.

Programs within its College of Business obtained accreditation through the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) accreditation in June 2013.

Through the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation Continuous Improvement Commission (CAEP), in 2013 the College of Education received accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Zayed University College of Education is the first university, outside of the USA, to be internationally accredited.

Programs within its College of Communication and Media Sciences obtained accreditation through the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) in May 2015.

Programs within its College of Arts and Creative Enterprises were recognized as substantially equivalent through NASAD in July 2015.

Outcomes-based academic program model

Zayed University has adopted an outcomes-based academic program model. The programs are outcomes-based and designed with reference to the Zayed University Learning Outcomes. These were designed by hired U.S. consultants as a means of developing the necessary outcomes to prepare students for the world.

The major outcomes-based programs are housed the six academic outcomes-based colleges. Outcomes-based majors are based on Zayed University's learning outcomes; they are discipline specific, yet outcomes based!

The university incorporates meditation.

Campus

The university's campus in Abu Dhabi moved to a new campus in Khalifa City in 2011. Its Dubai campus moved to its current Al Ruwayyah location, near Academic City, in 2006.

The original campus was near the northern end of the Abu Dhabi peninsula, on Delma Street. Plans for future campuses in other Emirates have been in development since the early 2000s. Land was allotted in the Emirate of Ras al Khaimah for the building of a new campus in 2001, but building was delayed due to a drop in interest in the venture.

Management concerns

In December 2010, the Federal National Council queried the competency of the university's senior management. According to The National, Zayed University was reported to owe over Dh33 million in unpaid water and electricity bills.

According to The National, three people held the position of provost between April and June 2011, with a total of seven provosts between 1998 and 2011. This was confusing.

In 2012, the effectiveness of its teacher education program was questioned. According to The National, none of the 110 teachers it produced between 2010 and 2012 were employed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC); ADEC allegedly claimed the university produced lazy and poorly skilled graduates.

In early 2013, the founding president of Zayed University, Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, was dismissed as the U.A.E.'s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. He was surprisingly moved to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development. This was announced on Twitter by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Sheikh Nahyan was subsequently displaced as president of Zayed University. Most members of the university's senior administration were also dismissed in 2013, including vice president Sulaiman Al Jassim and provost Larry Wilson. Management was also shaken up within colleges and departments, such as the University Library. Maitha Al Shamsi was then instated as president in 2013. Al Shamsi was soon followed by Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, who was appointed president in 2014.

As well as existing concerns over academic integrity, transparency, and plagiarism at Zayed University, concerns have been raised about the weak academic credentials and lack of international experience among the new management.

In 2013, then-president Maitha Al Shamsi announced Zayed University would be completely restructured. Though Al Shamsi did not explain what kind of restructuring she would implement, she said Zayed University would now be based on the U.A.E. government's Charter for National Values and Ethics and would undertake a total revision of all "academic programmes and management polices."

Salary controversies

In August 2008, Emirati staff received a 28% pay award, whereas foreign faculty received a 5% pay award. The university would not comment on the case.

In May 2010, a salary freeze was imposed at the university.

In January 2011, The National reported that Zayed University staff would receive a 2% pay raise retroactive to August 2010, which reportedly would be their first pay raise in three and a half years. The provost later acknowledged that "salaries have not kept pace with inflation."

Student concerns

On 16 September 2013, The National reported a torrent of complaints by students at Zayed University against policy changes introduced by the new president, Maitha Al Shamsi. These changes include sending SMS messages to parents when students arrive or leave campus, increasing faculty teaching loads, and preventing students from changing their class schedules. Then-provost Abdalla Al Amiri angrily rebuffed the article the following day, explaining that the SMS system is optional, no faculty teach 15 credit hours per semester, and that student schedules can be changed in University College.

On 18 September 2013, the Gulf News reported that Zayed University would be completely restructured.

Lack of academic freedom

In 2012, an American journalism professor working in the College of Communication and Media Sciences was dismissed from the Abu Dhabi campus. The professor, Matt J. Duffy, expressed concern that his activities-—which included writing for Gulf News, launching a student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and teaching objectively about the U.A.E.'s media laws—-may have led to his dismissal. Duffy's dismissal breached policies on academic freedom laid out by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which state, "To impose political considerations upon faculty selection and retention harms an institution intellectually and educationally, not only by reducing its options in the recruitment of talent, but also by creating pressures against dissent on important policy issues." Despite claiming to follow Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its MSCHE Self-Study ("Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"), the university would not comment on the case in public.

Materials deemed to be offensive are removed from the University Library, or are deposited in a locked holding space called Special Collections. Students must obtain faculty approval in order to access these materials, which include books on nursing, art magazines, human sexuality, and books containing views critical of religion.