American University of Kuwait - Essay Example

Interview Analysis Interview Amer El-Assad Ali works at the American of Kuwait, or AUK, which is a private, independent, and co-educational higher education institution of liberal arts. AUK’s administrative, cultural, and educational standards and methods are based on the higher learning model of the United States with instruction in English (American University of Kuwait 1). According to the University’s website, the Ministry of Higher Education, which is the Private Universities Council of the State of Kuwait, established AUK in 2003 via Amiri Decree 139 with original accreditation in 2006, throughout to June 2015. The University offers quality education to students through 13-degree programs based on the US college model. Its curriculum gives students an education that is generally broad with in depth studies to support a student’s professional and personal growth. Its staff, including the interviewee, is highly qualified academics who are experienced in the US higher education style (American University of Kuwait 1).   Amer El-Assad Ali is an employee of the American University of Kuwait who was the interviewee for this interview. The interview was carried out at the university using a tape recorder. The interviewee was asked about his experiences before he joined the American University of Kuwait, where he used to work, and how his job was like. The interview was meant as part of a set of interviews that sought to get information on current and past employees at the American University of Kuwait with regards to their experiences, how working at AKU was of benefit to them, and how they benefited the University. The interview took place at the university and lasted for approximately one hour and twelve minutes. The interviewee was quite candid about his experiences at AKU and gave us deep insight into the formation of various administrative departments at the university.   Amer began by telling us about his experiences prior to joining the university where he worked at the Central Mall Plaza as an advertising agent. They were forced to close shop because of the Iraq War in 2003 due to reduced business, which left him looking for work. At around this time, he met Emal Hassan, who was the founding HR director of the new start up university, AUK. While his background was in marketing and advertising, this department was not at AUK yet, and Emal told him to apply and see what happened. His only experience working at a university at the time was in student affairs at his former university, which helped since they were looking for people with experience at university level. At this point, he applied for the position of HR coordinator, got an interview with Dr. Shaffie Kabra, and got the job. After gaining experience at AUK for a year, he again applied for a job in the marketing department and got the job, which he still works in. His experience at Human Resources was almost pioneering at the university since the department was new. He contends that he learnt about HR working in this department, which was easy as most of the work here was about the administration with compilation of CVs and contacting personnel who are willing to work in the faculty positions. However, his best experiences at HR at the time had to do with the interview process, although the routine process like database management did not appeal to him, especially because of his marketing, design, and advertising base. At this point, his previous director recruited him at HR to work on a few designs at her advertising agency, for example, with the faculty fact book and how the faculty would be received into the campus in order for them to get a feel of Kuwait, especially since some were from outside Kuwait. By making Kuwait appealing to incoming staff, despite the Iraq war, this helped her to get the job in marketing, as well. While she was not very comfortable working in HR, he was proud that he left a mark on the department since the forms used still had some of her designs. Leaving for AUK, after his previous company shut down, was a new challenge since he had a good experience in the United States as a student. He liked the idea of working at a university, although he hesitated at first because the campus was yet to start. His family was also not sure about him taking the job because he was leaving his area of expertise and leaving agency advertising for the client side, as he called it. However, it was also an opportunity for him to get more experience from the HR dimension for, especially administrative experience with reporting and database management. In addition, on seeing AUK, he was open to being concerned about the size of the university, its lack of office space. In addition, immediately after joining the AUK, or ASK as it was known then, his boss was on his way out, which left him alone in the department. According to Amer, the university has not changed much structurally since the time he joined with the initial buildings now housing the science department and the liberal arts center created was created after two years. The growth of the university was upwards with the addition of new floors, rather than outwards. According to him, ministry restrictions have held back the expansion of the university. Amer was also candid about the challenges that faced him and the university from its formation up until the present. The initial challenges had to do with the new faculty members who would cancel their appointments at the last minute because of family issues and security. The Iraq war was a major challenge and the lack of willing faculty members had begun to affect classes with students continuing to apply. The segregation issue was also a problem in the beginning, especially with students from private schools who were used to mixing and coming to AUK where the government had insisted on the issue. In addition, trying to explain to the students why they should apply to AUK was a challenge and the marketing department had to come up with ideas and concepts to make the university appealing. His experiences at AUK were also interesting, especially with the working weekends, which he was not very happy about as he had worked at an agency that allowed him to work one day weekends. He was also quite animated talking about his move from HR to marketing where, unlike his earlier work at the agency, involved working almost entirely in-house. However, he liked the corporate feel of the marketing department at AUK and the freedom he had. His initial work in the newspapers to get students interested in AUK was also interesting to him as he came up with the adverts, unlike the earlier work at the agency. They also used word-of-mouth to whip up interest in the university. During his talk about his experiences at AUK, the issue of having to buy his first suit was interesting, especially as he had no idea that the suit came with sewn pockets that one had to open up, which made him a center of attention with his workmates making fun of him. Finally, his best experience at the university was his award for five years of service. The first graduation was also a good experience, especially since his brother was one of them. Finally, AUK’s achievement of a super-brand status was incredible for him as he had been at AUK since the beginning. The interview ended on a light note with him insisting we spell his last name right and that his name, Assad, was the reason he was yet to get a job in the US. Interview #2 The second interview was with Mr. Assem, who was born in 1970 in Kuwait. The interview was done using a tape recorder on 24 April in the interviewee’s studio. The interview lasted for roughly one hour, and five minutes and the interviewee was open about, his past and present as a Kuwaiti national and his work in Syria. He talked about his childhood experiences in Kuwait, how his interest in music began, his move to Syria and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, changes that occurred in Kuwait while he was away, and his general experiences in Syria and when he came back home. The interview began with his earliest memories of Kuwait, which started with his memories of the early years in school, where, as a Syrian, there was no segregation between Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis. He was also nostalgic about the fact that the schools provided meals for the children. His memories of the teachers were less clear as he said the teachers were mostly from Palestine and Syria and were superb, which he says has changed with more teachers from Egypt and other countries who come to Kuwait for the money. One terrible memory from this period that he talked about was their experience with the police when coming to check for their results late in the day. The police became violent, which he says has changed over time. He also had good memories of his childhood with one teacher in particular who gave them advice on marriage, as well as another Arabic teacher who lent him books to read. The beaches, in his childhood, were also a good memory with his father taking him to play in the water, although he claimed that the beaches were now dirtier than they were in those days. The interview then moved to his siblings with Assem telling that he had five brothers who are all in Kuwait except one, who was in Saudi Arabia and one sister who is now a doctor in Kuwait. The interview switched to his music career, Assem told us that he became interested in music as a five year old when he began to play piano. Assem claimed that he had learnt how to play the piano by listening to the Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson on his cassette player and headphones. At 12, he began to make Jazz music, after which one of his brothers got him to make an advertisement for Pepsi, and this got him his big break when he was 18. This opened up avenues for him as he got to study by mail at the Audio Institute of America, after which he went to the Syrian High Musical Institute. At the Institute, the manager refused to admit him without certification because he was not into music engineering. However, his father encouraged him, and the same institute picked him after they heard him on the piano on a demo. He was also thankful to his family’s support, especially his father who bought him an organ as a child, as well as his older brother who was a guitar player. In addition to music, Assem also told of other activities like swimming with his brothers, which he would abandon to play the piano. His interest in music from such a young age, according to him, is what played a part in his success as a musician. After his story on how he found success in Syria and how he had more money than twenty one year old Syrian should have, he talked about the changes he found on returning to Syria. He talked about the differences he had seen in the Kuwaiti people and the general infrastructure of the country. In the beginning before he left, the country was full of camels, cattle, and single story buildings, which has now changed to shopping complexes and cars, in addition to, the building of new bridges. The price of some commodities has also gone up with a pair of Nike spice shoes rising from 7KD to 55 KD. The buildings have also become more modern with houses now having more bedrooms and bathrooms than they did in the 70s. The people have also changed and become more distant. For example, Assem remembers that while growing up, his neighbors all knew each other and borrowed things from each other. His mother and other women in the neighborhood also took coffee together in the morning, although this has now changed, as he does not even know his neighbors. The children do not also play with each other as they used to in the beginning; the parents pick their friends for them. However, he claims that the new Kuwaitis have become more brilliant and know what they want and that the generosity of the Kuwaitis has not changed much. Assem also talked about changes in the wider Arab culture with people becoming less specialized, which he feels is wrong. He called it the “one man show” where one person wants to do everything. He feels that the culture should encourage people to be more specialized and creative, which he says he achieved by working and studying. However, he seems to contradict his stance against generalization by saying that he wants to turn to making movies. At this point, we moved towards his young family, which he was very proud of, saying that his wife is supportive of his music and has a nice voice. For his son, he is still trying to discover what he likes to support him. Finally, we got to talking about the future, and he was very optimistic that Kuwait was growing up, although he thought that the country should have a new direction to be more specialized in some areas. He was not supportive of the generalized education system, as well as the creeping uncaring attitude, giving an example of unconscious littering. The interview ended on a good note where he asked for our e-mail in order to communicate later, and we obliged. Work Cited American University of Kuwait. Welcome to the American University Of Kuwait. 2013. Web. 28 may 2013 . Read More