What 'excitement' lurks behind the glass doors of HCT?

As most readers of these pages are aware, the gulf between the reality of working at HCT and the bullshit spouted by the HR department when recruiting is substantial. The advertised promise of working for an “exciting organization” soon morphs into a nightmare as the organization turns on its own staff and attempts to chew them up and spit them out.

Don’t believe me? Well, the most recent postings at glassdoor.com hardly leave a positive impression. I fact, the overall Rating Trend is a mighty…

1.9 !!

Even better, 18% of the posters would ‘Recommend to a Friend’, whereas the figure relating to those who ‘Approve of CEO’ stands at … ZERO!

Take a look at some of these headlines…

"The Place is a Sham"

"inexorable death"

"Legacy gone!"

"slash n burn"

"Great Institution spoilt by nepotism, cronyism and greed"

"Fire the VC"

"Just avoid it"

"Deteriorating"

And if those headlines don’t send out immediate warning signals, just take a look at some of the detail. After all, it is where the devil tends to reside.

In recent years the organization has deteriorated. Awful autocratic management by unqualified people who do not have experience in education and certainly have no idea how to motivate people. Continuous changes of policies. Culture of punishment and threats. Very frustrating. Co workers were excellent and salary was excellent but the environment was toxic.

Abusive and unprofessional administration, including unethical, immoral, and illegal activities.

To sum up how they operate, in 2012, I was given a 2.5 year extension to my contract one day and a 6 month termination letter the next day. My college director and HR officer knew nothing about it.

Things have got much worse since. HCT has lurched from being an excellent vocational training organisation to a very poor "university" and now it doesn't know what it is!

Cons: Unmotivated students can become shockingly malicious towards teachers having professional integrity and who steadfastly will not manipulate results or attendance records to halt the malicious behaviour.

There are ever changing and unclear rules and policies that make working life equate to climbing Mount Everest without the correct equipment. Some HR policies are cruel. The impact of these on the well being of the staff is noticeable.

Cons: Senior Management. Was always bad but with Emiratisation is now worse beyond belief.

Click below for more great news about HCT!

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/HCT-Reviews-E384204.htm

'Tiny' Tim Smith gets a Taste of his own Treatment!

Tears of joy have recently been reported to have flooded the streets of Al Ain. The reason? HCT’s ‘Tiny’ Tim Smith, also known as ‘The Timinator’ (on account of his propensity for firing people), and ‘Napoleon’ (due to his diminutive stature and autocratic demeanour), has finally fallen on his sword!

The wonderful story here is that several faculty members complained to the Ministry of Education about Tiny’s bullying and grossly unfair conduct, and he was finally dismissed. Apparently, the said members went to the ministry with reams of evidence regarding his repeated abuses of power, including unjustified terminations, and they promised to investigate. Amazingly, they actually kept their word, and – hey presto! -  six months later Tiny Tim was history.

Tim was like the dragon in a Lord of the Rings nasty, but instead of breathing fire his roar was full of bullshit. Surrounded by ass lickers like Rob Miles as goblins – albeit a lot uglier - Tim eventually ended up more like Darth Vader with his light saber shoved up his own ass.

Tim, like all dictators, just had to fall. And what a spectacular fall it was in the end! So it’s back to the trailer he came from for The Timinator of Al Ain.

As for his despicable sidekick, Rob Miles, the clock is ticking for him also.

PS: read more about the terrible tyrant here: http://hctsucks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/profile-of-timinator-of-al-ain.html

Do YOU have a Tiny Tim story to tell? If so, please unburden yourself below, and keep us entertained at the same time. Or just email us at suede.oasis@yahoo.com .

We look forward to hearing from you SOON!

"HCT is a disaster ... a very dark and sad institution"

Suede is very happy to present the latest correspondence from an extremely disgruntled former HCT employee. Any further comment from me would be superfluous, so just read and ... Enjoy!

Dear Suede 

Would you please post my story on your website. I had an awful experience, which fortunately ended in May 2016, at the Abu Dhabi HCT for Women.  

I was recruited to teach on the MBA program, only to arrive and find out that ... there was no MBA program! It had been suspended in 2015! So I had no role, no office, no desk, and no courses to teach. What I did face, though, was confusion and pure hate from other staff.    

From my perspective, HCT is a disaster, and a  very dark and sad institution.      

HCT is originally a vocational school – two years certification for the UAE high school system's weakest graduates who are not academic and have limited abilities.  Its administration, structure and educational learning model is based on some past Australian institutional example from the 1970s.  It seems that it worked well in the UAE for a period of time and produced graduates that the labor market accepted. However, after three decades, HCT grew to 17 different campuses all over the UAE and currently grants bachelor and master degrees among other certifications which totally different than what it is originally designed for. 

Due to these vast changes beyond its mandate, HCT is currently a seriously disfunctional institution for both vocational or higher educational colleges (BA, MA, .etc). Its graduates are very weak and the UAE labor market is generally avoiding hiring them. In the last two years, the central accreditation committee (CAC) of the Ministry of Higher education, who is in charge of evaluating all higher educational institutions in the UAE, hassuspended all the HCT master degrees’ programs and gave HCT a one-year final warning to fix all the major institutional problems that were pointed out by the committee for all the bachelor degrees’ programs, or it will be also suspended by the end of 2016/2017 academic year. 

Several serious violations have been reported and pointed out to be fixed by the CAC, such as the faculty's minimum qualifications should be Ph.D., not bachelor or master degrees, which is currently the majority among the current faculty.  Furthermore, the CAC demanded a complete review of all courses’ curriculum as they did not see any changes since 1980s.  Also, the CAC requested a reduction in the number of weekly teaching loads which is currently 20+ hours of contact teaching, and must be in the specific research and teaching specialization of the faculty member.  Currently, there are no specific specializations in each field of study, and there is no academic research by the faculty to speak about. 

Actually, HCT is known in the UAE as the lowest and weakest level of educational institution in the country. The students are the weakest high school graduates or rejects from other higher educational institutions, and the faculty are mostly under qualified and mainly at the end of their career - so they are desperate to have a job at any price and play alone. In short, everyone pretends: the faculty pretend to teach, the students pretend to learn, and some dubious curve is utilized to up students’ grades and pass almost everyone. That is exactly what happened in 2015 by the deliberate intervention of the upper management, and faculty are currently required and directed by the upper management to do so as part of their duties.  

The HCT is very sad place and I would not recommend it to any one with good qualifications, specially with a decent Ph.D.  There is no academic freedom or academic environment at all. You will be at a disadvantage and everyone without a doctorate will hate you and conspire against you to make you look bad and fail. I personally know of several Ph.D. qualified faculty who are actively searching for other employment opportunities in the UAE, or will just resign soon and go home.  In my opinion, you would be better off flipping burgers at MacDonald’s restaurants than teaching very lazy students, totally dependent on cheating and with low morale, and totally stupid management.  

Run away and stay away …. this is my advice to everyone applying to work at HCT.   

HCT SUCKS.    

HCT USE NO EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS!

The message below was sent to me earlier this week, and reveals that HCT regularly and continually flout the UAE laws regarding the issuing of employment contracts. This news will, of course, be nothing novel to many current HCT staff, but will be a complete surprise to new recruits.

My thanks go out to the 'deep throat' at Central Services who has taken the brave decision to publish this information. I am releasing it below almost exactly as it was written.

Enjoy!

HCT USE NO EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS

It tends to surprise people when I tell them that the Higher Colleges of Technology do not use employment contracts. It is perhaps the largest government educational institution in the UAE and one of the oldest.  I was told by a longer term employee that they used to use employment contracts. However, I have worked for HCT for more than 7 years, and I have never seen an employment contract; and I have heard the same story from other employees.

For the last decade or so they have been using something titled an Employment Offer Letter, which is usually offered for signature several months before the new employment period begins. It is usually one or two pages long, has a few elements that might be in a regular contract, and then makes a reference to the HCT policies and practices on the HCT website as though they are an extension of the employment offer. I have been told by two other government bodies and a legal expert in the UAE that the HCT Employment Offer Letter is not equal to an employment contract underUAE law.

There is one problem with those HCT policies and practices, of course.  A prospective new employee has no idea what the HCT policies and practices say at all, since they are not included with the employment offer and he/she will never have access to it until starting work and getting set up with portal access by the IT department. Even then, finding them in the HCT portal is from difficult to impossible. Another problem is that there are frequent changes to the policies and practices reported by HR in global emails. This is fine, but since HCT considers them to be an extension of their employment agreements, the employee agreement in effect is not static but can change in any way at any time.

While this situation is probably not legal in other countries, it seems to be an acceptable practice in the UAE for the public sector.  Yet if an organization in the private sector does this and the labor department finds out about it, the result is court and penalties.  The only overt governmental body that HCT HR has as oversight is the spineless and compromising Federal Authority of Human Resources, which does very little or anything, even when problems are officially brought to their attention. The reputation this body has is that of an agency that lacks the power to give it any teeth, but from experience dealing with them I think they just don't have the will to bite.

My opinion is that the labor department should have authority over all UAE employers including the government and semi-independent entities such as HCT.

Re: Lower Colleges of Hypocrisy

The message below from an HCT student was first sent as a comment to my previous posting about the college's reluctance to respect its own written contracts. However, I have decided to offer it star billing of its own, as it proves that HCT is about as popular as camel shit with its own Emirati students - and not just Western staff and faculty!

*******

Greetings, Mr Oasis, 
I hope that you are doing well.

First of all, I would like to inform you that I have the exact same opinion as you do regarding the hypocrisy and nonprofessional assertiveness of the administration. 

I'm speaking of my experience as one of the direct entry students in a Women Higher Colleges of Technology student, and I'm not ashamed to say that the Higher Colleges of Technology is nothing but a sugar-coated pile of absolute garbage.

We all need to stand up to these pathetic and wretched individuals, which the warped HCT management system produces with such apparent regularity. If these bullies are allowed to continue their campaigns of vendetta and intimidation, they ultimately wreck people's minds and make their lives utterly miserable. 

I was forced by my parents to admit in this college, although I had very high grades in High School and was qualified for full paid scholarships in better colleges than this hell hole asylum. Little they did know how the HCT was a place full of corruption and malevolence. 

This vile sad excuse for a college has no respect for hard work, education or work. If you say one thing, you are out. None of the students or facility have rights. This place is toxic, and if it was not for respecting my parents desires, I would have never set foot upon this horrible, horrible place. In addition to that, guess what happened to me when I decided to fight for the rights I deserve? I got dispelled.

So I'm not ashamed to raise my middle finger out loud and say FUCK HCT, they shouldn't even be called "Higher" Colleges of Technology, more like Lower Colleges of Hypocrisy.

I rest my case. 
Again, Fuck HCT.

Wow, that is some 'recommendation' from a former student!

If there are any other current or former HCT students who would like to add their words, please do so below.

i look forward to hearing from you soon!

HCT show contempt for their own contracts!

The text below was sent to me just after Christmas, so forgive me the delay in publishing it.  What is patently clear though is that an HCT contract is quite worthless, as they have no intention of honoring their (written) word.

*******

I was recently granted a contract from HCT Ras al Khaimah. It had taken four months to finally receive an offer and a signed contract. So I quit my teaching job in the US, sold my belongings and made my final preparations.

However, just five days before I was scheduled to travel, I got a phone call from HR informing me that my contract had been canceled without any reason. I wrote to the chair of the business school in RAK for an explanation, but she simply ignored my request for information.

In fact, when HR called me, it was a bizarre conversation. I asked them: 

Is there something wrong with the background check?  No

Is there something wrong with my credentials?  No

Did I say something wrong?   No

So, there was no explanation given, and no reason offered; in short, they showed no respect for the concept of a signed contract or agreement.  

I would strongly recommend that everyone avoid HCT like the plague, no matter how much money they offer you. Based on my experience, they can revoke your contract at any time, for any reason or for no reason.

Anyone with a PhD from a decent university beware.  If you trust HCT or their signed contracts, you may find yourself without a job or immediate employment prospects.  The HCT administration has no honor, no decency and no concept of the meaning of an employment contract.

*******

A terrible experience, I am sure you will agree, and a stern warning to all those who might be considering making the desperate step towards working for HCT.

In fact, what I have been informed by a mole in HR at HCT is that they are so desperate for bodies that they are actively over-recruiting, as they know that there will be many no-shows.

Well guys, there will probably be a few more non-arrivals now that this information is in the public domain!