In January, a U professor and graduate student will be trading Utah’s snowy climate for a taste of the Middle East, traveling to the rapidly developing cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai to participate in a partnership with Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.
For its new Executive Masters in Public Administration program, Zayed University has partnered up with the U, Indiana University and the University of California, Berkeley, to teach courses that will improve students’ abilities to manage government agencies and programs and bring the United Arab Emirates into the 21st century.
In this EMPA program, government-employed students will take 12 six-week courses in the course of two years to learn about public administration and policy in the UAE and around the world.
Steve Ott, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is spearheading the project.
“We’re helping Abu Dhabi develop modern government,” he said.
Zayed University has completely funded this program, which receives no public funding from the state of Utah.
“There are lots of countries that we could do this in, but not a lot to make it worth our while financially,” Ott said.
Ibrahim Karawan, a professor in political science and director of the Middle East Center, will travel to Abu Dhabi to teach a three-day course about governance in a global context.
Students will prepare for the course ahead of time, reading all the required material. The class will be held for eight hours per day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and will include individual and team assignments and special case studies.
Following the course, Karawan will continue to teach using a computer software called Blackboard, with which students can participate in interactive dialogues, give feedback, receive assignments and talk in chat rooms on their computers.
Students will then complete a seminar to finish their reports, which will be conducted through a two-way television. The whole course will have 36 to 40 hours of direct instructor contact.
Because of his work with the Middle East Center, Ott said Karawan is more than qualified for the teaching position. And since Karawan is from Egypt, Ott said, “(He) has the advantage of knowing the region.”
To prepare for the program, the Middle East Center will provide cultural immersion training for professors going to the UAE to teach. “It is still an Islamic country, but far more progressive,” Ott said.
Anne Luecke, a second-year graduate student in political science, will be going to Zayed to act as a research assistant and help with government change. Luecke will be assisting Karawan in his teaching and will help develop the EMPA program. She will stay at Zayed for at least one semester.
“I have an international background myself, having received an MPA from Germany,” Luecke said. “I’d like to see how our countries are handling administrative affairs.”
Luecke will also conduct her own research while at Zayed University and explore themes for her dissertation.
“On an academic level, it is interesting to help establish a new program in my major field and do research on-site,” she said. “Personally, I am excited to experience another culture, learn the language and become familiar with another part of the world.”
Ott said he hopes Luecke will be the first of many to go to Zayed. This first course could open the door for the placement and housing of undergraduate and graduate students to work with the UAE government at Zayed, he said, starting as early as next fall. These internships could be offered through the Hinckley Institute of Politics.