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Response by University of Kurdistan-Hawler
UKH to Carrere's article
21.6.2011 |
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June
21, 2011
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — A Letter from the
University of Kurdistan-Hawler.
This is a letter from University of Kurdistan-Hawler
(UKH) in response to an article that was published
on Rudaw English in April titled (Is
the End Beginning) on some professors
sacked by the university. Following UKH’s letter,
you will be able to read the original article.
We fully believe in freedom of press and support its
important role in investigating the truth and
implementing journalistic code of ethic which
requires evidence for accusations as well as giving
equal opportunity for both sides to present their
case. We believe Mr. Jean Carrere unintentionally
missed important facts. This resulted in an unfair
and inaccurate image of our university and the
extraordinary achievements of the past year, which
were highly recognized by the Ministry of Higher
Education and number of important regional and
international universities.
Mr. Carrere also claimed in the end of his article
that he “made several attempts to speak” to the Vice
Chancellor and the PR department and that no one
arranged an interview for him. It is very important
to highlight the following:
Over a week ago while Mr. Carrere was already inside
UKH campus, he coincidently came across the Director
of PR at the cafeteria and
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University of Kurdistan-Hawler UKH, Erbil, Kurdistan
region of Iraq.
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expressed that he would like to make some interviews
with the students about student life in UKH as well
as taking few photos. Our Director of PR welcomed
him to the university and informed him that as per
UKH policy he would need to officially request for
conducting such interviews and as a standard support
we will send one of the students or staff (if
available) to support him and arrange for logistics.
They exchanged phone numbers and Mr. Carrere did not
mention anything about interview with the Vice
Chancellor or requested for UKH response to any of
the accusations in his article.
On the 24th April (same day the article was
published) Mr. Carrere sent an SMS to our PR
department claiming that as we did not contact him,
he wanted to let us know that he will be publishing
a story next day about UKH and he mentioned “if you
have any comments on that matter let me know today”.
This message arrived only 5.5 hours before the story
was published online and he did not mention in his
message what were his inquiries or the topic of his
article so we can prepare the information he may
need. The message arrived while the PR team was
engaged in an event and they were surprised to find
out that Mr. Carrere article was already published
less than 6 hours from his SMS unclear message (not
the following day as he claimed). W are sure you
would agree that such an unrealistic short notice
and a claim that a story would be published next day
while it was really published the same day is not
really a true attitude of giving the other side of
the story the chance to share their point of view.
Prof. Serwan Baban, UKH Vice Chancellor did not
receive any calls from Mr. Carrere, in contrary to
his claims.
To be very fair with Mr. Carrere, we checked the
record of all our emails just in case he or the
newspaper would have sent any official request and
we did not find any record.
We believe what Mr. Carrere referred to as several
attempts is only the coincidental meeting at the
cafeteria, where nothing was mentioned at all about
the story; and the SMS he sent less than 6 hours
before publishing his story.
We are not sending this clarification to request for
our rightful right to answer the incorrect claims
the article carries. We only wanted to highlight
this unfortunate incident and to urge your young
intern journalist to always give both parties equal
time and opportunity and to make sure that his
genuinely appreciated work would not be abused by
one side against another. UKH is a big educational
initiative that succeeded in a short time to be
recognized among the best in the country. We do not
claim that we are flawless but it is definitely not
in the way and pattern portrayed in the article.
What is alarming and concerning for us in this story
is that many sentences in the article were almost
repetitions of another similar article that was
written by couple of previous staff members who were
dismissed due to poor academic performance. This
unusual similarity makes us wonder to what extend
was this article a pure work of journalistic
investigation or just a channel where certain people
managed somehow to use it for their own personal
interest.
Mr. Editor in Chief with your permission we have
below a list of clarifications for Mr. Jean Carrere
which can help him to see a broader picture of the
issue he tackled in his article. We would also like
to invite him officially to request answers to any
other questions or inquiries he may have in this
regard. We are as keen as Rudaw is to portray the
truth and the reality behind any story that is of
public interest.
Finally, we would like also to invite your kind self
to visit UKH campus so we can share with you an
experience that has been described by several
leading academic institution as “unique and
promising in the region”.
Comments on some of the
points claimed in the article:
Claim: English
language professor was dismissed on 20th April.
Comment:
Firstly, this person is not a professor nor does she
carry a PhD degree. She was a language instructor.
Secondly, the University set very high academic and
professional conduct standards for its staff and
uses rigorous processes to ensure that they comply
with these standards. The English instructor
mentioned was dismissed after a 3 month process. She
failed both the academic standards requirements
(through the probation process) and the professional
conduct standards (through an investigation panel
formed by the Governing Board and found her guilty
of gross misconduct). Both cases went through the
standard procedures mentioned previously. For the
record, Vice Chancellor was not in any of the panels
overlooking this person’s case.
Claim: Around 20
teachers were dismissed over the past year.
Comment: We are
surprised that such obvious false information
appeared in the article although investigating the
truth about it is rather straight forward. The
number mentioned in the article is extremely
exaggerated and unrealistic. In fact, the total
number of those who left us during the past year
(for all different reasons) is less than half the
number claimed for dismissal. Most of these were
resignations,www.ekurd.netseveral
of them during the very first months of their
probation period. We have to highlight that all such
universities in the region suffer from high turnover
of faculty members due to many reasons which most
are not related to the academic institution itself.
To summarize, we can categorize the faculty members
who left UKH in the following segments:
1. Those who were not able to adapt to the lifestyle
and the situation in the region. Over 40% of those
who left UKH resigned for this specific reason, most
of them during their probation period.
2. Faculty members who chose to pursue their career
in other universities inside and outside the region.
Of course, it is natural for any individual to look
for better job opportunities whether financially or
career wise. Throughout the years, many faculty
members who we dearly respect have left UKH to other
universities. Many of whom we are in touch with and
from which two came back to UKH after a year or two
of teaching at other universities.
3. Faculty members who were unfortunately dismissed
due to failure to achieve UKH high standards and
academic performance. We claim that we provide the
best education in the region, and to deliver this we
need to regularly and systematically evaluate the
performance of our faculty members. We also have
alliances with a British universities to further
help us in training the faculty members and update
their teaching and research skills Unfortunately, it
happens every now and then, a faculty member for one
reason or another exhibit poor academic performance.
We have a rigorous procedure for assessing faculty
performance and make informed, fair and objective
decisions. Of course, we feel very sad when such a
decision is taken but at the end of the day this is
a university that has a mission and vision that
commits it to high academic performance. We have to
admit that unfortunately individuals who were
dismissed for this reason did not accept it full
heartedly. Some of them unfortunately, expressed in
a degrading manner that we should not expect more
than what they have to offer in Kurdistan?!; and
therefore considered dismissing them unfair. While
we respect the academic advancement in the West, we
do not believe we should accept performance less
than what is acceptable there in our university.
Their argument is unfortunately unfair to the
university and to the students they claim they love.
Claim: UKH
management does not respect standard university
procedures.
Comment: Of
course, it is very easy to throw a claim such as
this. We wonder what kind of evidence led to such a
harsh conclusion. As mentioned above, we adopt very
rigorous procedures monitored by the governing board
and the Executive Management Board. We invite you to
come and review the procedure and be a witness of
how strictly and fairly they are implemented. Please
select time and date and we will be more than happy
to arrange for this.
Claim: Vice
Chancellor behavior led to serious degradation of
the Access program.
Comment:
1. It is important to highlight that no single
person can claim the success that have been achieved
at all different departments including Access. This
was the result of team work of current faculty
members and previous one whom we respect and admire.
2. UKH as part of its continuous quality assurance
system appointed 2 independent external professors
from the University of Brighton and University of
Plymouth to evaluate Access program. The result of
this was a thorough recommendation document which
UKH adopted and implemented to make sure that we are
providing the best education to our students and
properly preparing them to pursue their
specializations. A key recommendation was to move
Access from a literature based English foundation
program to a more academic language skills based
program. This meant, restructuring Access and
introducing new courses and methods. It is true that
a small number of our previous Access members did
not appreciate such a change. They were happy and
comfortable with what they were providing. Majority
of faculty members welcomed and embraced the change;
however, few seem to have had some sort of ownership
emotions towards what they were used to and hence
some resigned. Unfortunately very few didn’t take
the change seriously and therefore their academic
performance fell which led to their dismissal (as
per the procedure mentioned above).
3. The irony is that in the past year UKH -
partially due to this change - received highest
number of recognitions since its establishment.
Today we are adopting the British Academic Quality
Assurance System, all our programs are evaluated
with high academic standards, we even have
postgraduate degrees approved by leading regional
and international universities which are the first
of their kind in all of Iraq. Of course, not to
mention the important role UKH started playing in
developing higher education in the country. We
invite you to review the comments made by the
Minister of Higher Education and many independent
academic institutions.
Claim: … one of
the previous faculty members: all that was done in
the past 3 years is now gone.
Comment: we
believe that the best answer to this, is the
recognition UKH received during the past year.
Thanks to collective efforts of many people at UKH,
today the university is ranked among the top in the
country.
Claim: Academic
status of several individuals mentioned in the
report.
Comment: It is
important to highlight that none of the individuals
referred to as “professors” in the article are
actually professors. Only one of them has a PhD
degree (Assistant Professor NOT Professor).
Unfortunately, we have noticed that some of them
have the habit of referring to themselves as
“professors” even in their personal sites. For the
record, the only person that enjoys a professor
status in the article published is the Vice
Chancellor who was always referred to by his name
only, while all the rest were referred to as
“professors” do not have that status.
Claim: Chris
Whitney was forced to resign this month (April 2011)
Comment: Chris
Whitney resigned end of May 2010 (1 year ago) before
most of developments were implemented. We wonder if
any effort was made in this regard to check the
credibility of the information presented in this
part.
Claim: Mr.
Daniel Wolk was deported from the country within 10
days of his dismissal.
Comment: Is it
really possible for a university to have so much
power to deport people from a country? This really
brought a big smile to all of us at the university
especially that we know whose promoting this false
and unrealistic piece of information. Deportation of
this faculty member had nothing to do with UKH or
his work relation with the university. It was
related to other unethical issue that we do not wish
to involve ourselves in.
Claim: Comments
reflecting students’ emotional bond with previous
academic members.
Comment: It is
definitely very important and natural to have
positive bond between an instructor and his/her
students. We at UKH encourage this and believe it
can help in developing student learning. However,
universities cannot take decisions regarding
academic performance of its faculty members based on
how popular they are.
Claim: the
article carried numerous claims questioning Vice
Chancellor’s experience and managerial skills (some
of these claims are very biased and to some extend
insulting)
Comment: It is
very obvious from the way the article is structured
that whoever was the source of information was
trying his/her very best to attack the management of
the university. Almost all arguments did not have
clear explanations but somehow ended up pinpointing
the Vice Chancellor himself. We believe that this in
itself is a clear indictor of the motives behind the
source of this article.
On personal level, Professor Serwan Baban (Vice
Chancellor) has the full right to protect his
personal reputation. We believe that his long and
rich experience and high international academic
achievements and recognition he enjoys are above
such claims. He chose not to comment about the many
biased comments the article carried.
It is worth noting that Prof. Baban has recently
been awarded a DSc from one of the most prestigious
Schools of Environmental Sciences worldwide
(University of East Anglia, UK). This award is only
given to few renowned academics in the world. A
simple search on google can highlight for you his
distinguished performance and long experience.
The article mentioned that the only managerial post
that the Vice Chancellor had before joining UKH was
being Head of the School of Environmental Science
and Management at an Australian university. The
editor referred in his article to the Vice
Chancellor long CV on the website. We invite him to
read the CV and if needed seek help of independent
academic to explain how many of his posts were of
managerial and academic managerial status.
Finally, the above is only a short response to some
of the points mentioned in this article. We have
much more to say, but we don’t wish to take more of
your precious time. We repeat our invitation to the
journalist to officially come and ask and search for
the truth and give equal opportunity to all sides,
so that his journalistic efforts and work would not
be indirectly used as a channel by people who like
to pass their own personal interests.
Once again, we would like to emphasize that UKH is
determined to meet its mission and vision and to
provide Kurdistan and the country with the highest
academic quality that it deserves and to be a true
engine of building human resource and leaders that
can build this nation.
Regards,
Department of PR & Media
University of Kurdistan Hewler
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