American University of the Middle East? Please help

uncomfortable, why?

Because the university does not have high reputation and from what I can read online, they invited so many people to visit the campus and so many were rejected, any help please?

to be honest Mike i never heard of it.

on another note, if u have an offer from the uni, how does it compare to what u are making currently? are u reimbursed for the ticket or is it at ur own expense?

if their offer differs greatly from what u are currently making, then the age old adage of you gotta spend money ot make money comes into effect.

if it is a bust in the end, u can always cross off kuwait from ur list of countries to visit around the world.

Hi legacy, do you know the location of AUM? Some said it is in South of Kuwait city, and some said it is in Ahmadi City, thanks.

http://www.aum.edu.kw/contactus/index.asp

its a bit farther than ahmadi, inthe south technically

if u need any help in term of stay here in kuwait i will give u free accomodation until you would get the job. my phone number is 0096555194464 because you would be guest of mine and dont worry if u will come here for face to face interview it means you would 100 percent have the chances of selection. my name is usman. and also a teacher. bye

I was invited to AUM on 12/14/2013 after completing a Skype interview with Yasmen, and HR recruiter. I was invited to the university do conduct the final interview along with a teaching presentation. Upon arrival at the airport someone met me, took my passport and gave me my visa. Then someone took me to the Ibis hotel. On Sunday the 15th at 11am I went to present my lesson and met with the dean from the business department and Yasmen. The dean entered the room and I stretch my hand to her and she refused to acknowledge to do so. I went on to present, only Yasmen was involved in the presentation. The dean was too busy looking over my CV. Throughout the entire presentation that lasted about 10-15 mins the dean looked at me may 2-3 times. I can see that the HR lady was a bit agitated because the dean wasn't paying attention and frankly was being quite rude. Once I completed the presentation she decided to ask a few questions which I answered. For some reason, she kept asking me what  do I think is the difference between university and community college professors. She asked the questions 3 times in different ways and I gave her the same answers. Frankly, there are no difference between them, the university professors have access to vast amount of resources unlike the community college professors and they may  spoon feed the students a bit more. Then she asked if I had any questions, I said yes. So, ,I asked her the questions then she said, why don't  you answer that question for me. So I did. 
Yasmen told me to sit tight she will be right back not to worry everything went well. A few minutes later I was told by someone else that Yasmen wants me to sit in another room for the final interview. I waited for 1hr and 30mins and no one came. The a tall man came to the room and asked my name told him I am Dr. T. He left the room and later came back and called me by my name. He said lets go.So, I followed him thinking I am going to see Yasmen, instead he went to a car. I said to him, Yasmen wanted me to wait in the room to take back some documents to sign. He said he was just following instrucitons. I replied to him, please call her. He did and was told to take me back to the hotel and pick me up at 1am since my flight leaves at 3am. I went to the hotel room and send Yasmen an email. Haven't received an reply as yet. I send her another one just now and send a message to her on Skype.

I am not sure why Purdue University would have such a university use there name.  After this incident, I spoke with several people and told them that the Caucasian woman had a accent sounds British or Australian, I was informed that she was neither. Instead, she is from South Africa and since I am African American she would not hire me. They failed to give Yasmen who is the HR lady the color guideline along with the other requirements. I spoke with a Lebanese man who is a GM for car insurance, and several other people I met while I was there and was told the same thing. The South African woman didn't want you to be apart of her team because of your skin color. Once again, let me say this, Yasmen presented her self to be nice up until now. I will say this, those who I spoke to talked about AUM as  trash university. I did read a few post but decided that I would have my own experience. I regret doing so as I miss my son xmas show at his school because my flight left in the morning.

Please Please be cautious of this university or better yet, a supermarket at thinks it is a university

Hey NLW779
Thanks for detail info.  I was thinking of linking with them to do some research in my spare time as they are across the road from me but now will reconsider. 

Anyhow, as to skin color, it's an issue here in the Middle East though not fully acknowledged.  I know two persons, highly qualified women, both applied (at different occasions) to a school to teach English part-time to occupy themselves but were turned away because one looked Indian and the other African. The school director, who was in my MBA class, said later to me that the idea is that students feel comfortable being taught by white American/Europeans/Westerners and it gives the impression that the school is offering quality tutors.  Never mind the qualifications it's the impression.  Passport may get you the interview but not necessarily the job. Most of the African American working in Universities (NYU, Georgetown), in the Middle East I know were sent by the head school. 

Mind you, there are other schools out here where this does not apply and that's how you tell how professional the school is.

Hi everyone, I read blogs and many comments about this university, so much so that when they offered me a job I declined to sign for two weeks while trying to make up my mind. Eventually, I took the risk and decided ' what is the worse thing that can happen, if I do not like it I will just pack it and leave!'  I have been here six months now and I can say the following about AUM: the job is challenging, difficult, and if one does not have near excellent time management skills they would get really stressed out. It is definitely not a racist place. The dean of Arts is an Indian lady.  I came across at least three lecturers who are Indian. There are several mixed race lecturers and the absolute majority of lecturers are Americans/European educated Arab lecturers. In fact, there are just a handful of white Americans/European lecturers. I would not necessary agree on the racist being a criteria here but I do feel they have obsession with PhD's and track record of teaching. They pay so much, I suppose they can afford to be picky. Reading between the lines, I suspect that HR called you in for interview without consulting or without the approval of the dean. The dean got the hump and you got put in a rather unfair situation. But as a working environment, you need to come in with determination to get the job. The pace of work here is like twice or three times back home, but they are supportive, friendly and they do look after you.

One of my relatives is a student there
& she always complain about her professors..she says they r alwa angry and unhelpful

I think AOU or AUK and KCST is better than these places

Long story short, two years ago AUM flew me out from NYC for an interview.
I have to say, it was one of the most unprofessional interviews I've ever had, conducted by the most unfriendly people you could imagine: a lady from Romania and Tbilisi Georgia.
I could go on and on about it but, I'm tired...
I was surprised to hear you say that they pay so much.
Two years ago, they offered me: an American with a Masters Degree just over 800KD a month with NO housing allowance.
That seemed pretty low to me but, I didn't really know the market here.
I'm glad I didn't wind up working there cause I now earn double that.
I'm assuming they pay more than 800KD now if you're considering it a lot...

Oh yeah, they paid me much more than that. The pay of lecturer varies. As I said before, they are obsessed with making sure you have a PhD and having a track record in teaching. I agree, the interview process is hasty. They had so many people to interview, I was left waiting three hours, I think they forgot me. Still once the process got going they were very helpful.

The universities in this region are all similar, they use American - Australian - British or Canadian names. Student also prefer these universities, I worked in A.U.M. for more than 3 years .It was good experience. do not worry too much. I left because now I am getting more money.
your aim should be clear - either you need to move out of your unstable country or you want to get more money than your current job.
if you are thinking about professionalisam, good HR etc etc then forget. the creame students of these countries will move out for studies, only girls or average students are left who are interest in driving Ferrari than study . on top of this the government is paying their fee and study amount.
I do not know why people talk about ethics etc. most of the professors in this region are outsiders and they bring politics. these professors try to control and copy their previous experience. Kuwait students are rich and try to bribe or threaten professors. the A.U.M. management control too much because of all these issues but professors feel that they are not giving freedom .I saw many professors taking advantage so they got terminated in one day. Now they write everywhere that this university is bad.  the truth is that other universities are much bad than this and full of politics. AUM is very good if you compare with others in same region. there are many many professors who are with A.U.M. university since many years.
don t forget your objectives which I wrote above. and if you are more intelligent and have enough money than go to western countries.

Hello,
I am having a skype interview next week with the dean. I have few questions in regards to job security, professionalism and work environment.  Can you please let me know if you are still active in this forum and happy to answer my questions. Cheers!

I received an offer too and after hearing what people said I'm worried to go for the campus visit.

Hello Loza88,

Have you received the offer or invitation for interview in Kuwait?
How was ur skype interview?
Cheers!

Hello,
Have you visited the uni? i am also going to make a visit soon, what do you think.
Thanks

Avoid at all costs...

Hi, a week ago I had the first interview and then the academic interview, the man who interviewed me told me that I was going to be contacted  by someone from his department, but I didn't get any mail from them. Does anyone know how long does it take them to answer after what they call the academic interview?
Thanks

Hi, I did the two Skype interviews, and they ask me for a campus visit. I am planning to go and give the presentation, in case of acceptance can they accept to postpone the job starting date, originally they asked me to start on 1st Of September 16.

I am sorry I am unable to answer your question

What they asked you in the 2nd Skype interview ?
Is it academic or not ? And what is your major ?

mkiki wrote:

Hi, I did the two Skype interviews, and they ask me for a campus visit. I am planning to go and give the presentation, in case of acceptance can they accept to postpone the job starting date, originally they asked me to start on 1st Of September 16.

Miki
What they asked you in the 2nd Skype interview ?

yousefsinjlawi wrote:

What they asked you in the 2nd Skype interview ?
Is it academic or not ? And what is your major ?

I don't think they will accept the postpone of starting working date.
Sorry, i asked you about the second Skype interview, do you remember the questions that they asked in the 2nd Skype interview ??

I am desperately looking for job in undergrad college or university. My preference is gulf countries because of some reasons. I uploaded my CV on all job sites and career pages but no luck yet. Kindly help me.