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Teachers give bad grades to
U. of Missouri-linked school in Kuwait
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A private university in Kuwait operating in cooperation with the
University of Missouri at St. Louis falls far below par
academically, say two of its teachers.
They contend that the Gulf University for Science and
Technology, which opened in the fall of 2002 in Kuwait City:
–Admits students unprepared for college work.
–Allows them to register until late in a semester after
they have missed many classes.
–Pressures faculty members to give students passing grades
even if they don’t deserve them.
The teachers describe attendance as lax, with an absentee rate
as high as 50 percent for some classes, and cheating on tests as
rife.
Joel Glassman, political science professor at UMSL and director
of its Center for International Studies, said Gulf University
administrators have never mentioned to him any of the alleged
problems with registration, attendance, grades and cheating. But
they are aware, he said, of “concerns about quality
control” and are working to eliminate them.
“They know the students are not well-prepared to do
college-level work and they are not prepared in the English
language,” he said.
Glassman said UMSL had agreed to help set up Kuwait’s
first university not run by the government, largely to open a
pipeline of transfer students.
UMSL’s goal in cooperating was “to create a more
diverse student body” on a campus where most students come
from the immediate area. “It is an UMSL institutional
priority to make our institution more internationally
diverse,” Glassman said.
A Gulf University teacher said in a telephone interview from
Kuwait: “I find that I am daily thinking, `Why am I
here?’ I’m so frustrated with the students not working,
missing too many classes. It takes two to learn.” The teacher
asked not to be identified for fear of losing his job.
Former teacher Ronald Singleterry, who started teaching American
literature and English at Gulf University last fall, said he was
fired midsemester. “They never gave me any reason why,”
he said. He assumes he was let go because he objected to what he
perceived as low academic standards, administrative censorship of
his class materials and overall mismanagement.
Singleterry returned home to St. Louis and is teaching this
semester at St. Charles Community College, where he had taught
before. He said he complained to Glassman in person about Gulf
University, Glassman said the university has made “some
unfortunate hires.”
Like Singleterry, the other teacher criticizing Gulf University
is an American with experience teaching college in this country,
who signed on at the university last fall. Both say they never saw
anyone from UMSL at the university or any evidence of UMSL
oversight, even though the words “in cooperation with the
University of Missouri St. Louis” appear prominently on Gulf
University’s building and literature.
The university, a for-profit operation, promotes itself as
offering classes in English leading to bachelor’s degrees in
English, computer science, business administration, accounting and
management information systems. To make them easily transferable,
courses bear UMSL numbers and descriptions.
A contract signed in July 2002 pledges that UMSL will provide
consulting services to the university for two years for a total of
$100,000, plus $10,000 for overhead expenses.
The money, Glassman said, has gone mostly to pay the salary and
benefits of a full-time employee of the international
center’s office who also spends time on a similar,
American-style university UMSL helped start several years ago in
Oman. Travel being expensive, UMSL communicates with both
universities mostly by e-mail, he said.
Gulf University’s new president, hired last month to
succeed the original, temporary one, and the chairman of the
university’s board, did, however, travel to UMSL earlier this
month for three days.
Glassman said that as a result of those meetings, UMSL has
agreed to start evaluating Gulf University’s courses and to
take a more active role in recruiting administrators and “a
long list” of needed faculty. Some of the openings stem from
departures from Gulf University last spring around the time of the
Iraq war.
By Glassman’s reckoning, Gulf University has about 1,000
students, half of them women, a total higher than expected by
now.
UMSL has yet to get any transfer students from the university,
which is offering only the first two years of college courses, so
far. Glassman said plans call for developing some junior and senior
courses, including online ones, in the next six months. The schools
also are giving thought to adding a one- or two-year prep program
for students not ready for college work.
The UMSL-Gulf University contract expires June 30. Glassman said
the two schools are talking about extending it for five years.
“Rather than focus on what went wrong” at the
university, Glassman said, “I would rather focus on what
we’re going to do to get a better outcome.”
The teacher who wondered why he was still there is working
toward the same purpose. He followed up the telephone interview
with an e-mail: “I am at GUST to help start a new university
and to make a difference. I am holding my students to U.S.
standards and asking the other faculty to do the same. … I put in
a large effort to make the programs here at GUST a success. GUST
has an excellent opportunity to be successful, and the board is
making the effort to be successful.”
Susan C. Thomson
St Louis-Dispatch
(KRT)