Associate and Assistant Deans in the Middle East: Careers, Roles and Responsibilities in United Arab Emirates University

• In Event: Issues of identity, internationalization and leadership in higher education in Iran and Arab states

Proposal

Introduction.

Associate and Assistant deans appear to play a central part in the administration of most universities in U.S but it is also becoming important part of many universities the Gulf Region (Abdulla, 2018), but there no research literature on this group in the Gulf Region especially, United Arab Emirates University ( UEAU). One reason for this lack of knowledge is that although associate and assistant deans may have considerable decision-making autonomy, they virtually always act in the name of another (the dean). They tend to influence more than decide, to implement policy more than to make it. Their authority, while often extensive, is usually delegated (Applegate, Jane H. and Book, Cassandra 1989, Ayers, J. B., & Dock, J. L, Jackson, J & Mulch, Walter H. 2003, Montez, J.M., White, G. (2014, Wolver ton, M., & Mulch, W.H. 2003)

However, our research suggests that, because of the work they do and their positions in organizational hierarchies, the de facto influence of assistant and associate deans far exceed their de jure power. Consequently, an understanding of university academic management is aided by a fuller knowledge of how associate and assistant deans function in colleges' administrative structures in the University and United Arab Emirates University. Thus, the purpose of this paper is

1. To examine the Roles and Responsibilities of University Associate and Assistant Deans in United Arab Emirates University in Abu Dhabi
2. To provide recommendations and practical ideas about the associate and assistant deans positions in these universities; and
3. To build the research base of professional in higher education in the Gulf Region in which no empirical research exists.

Methods and Sample.
To begin to fill this gap in our knowledge of university administration, we sent survey Questionnaires of associate and assistant deans of all colleges in United Arab Emirates University Since this is an exploratory study, not a sample survey, considerations about sampling frame and sample representativeness are less important than they might be in other contexts. What matters more for our purposes is that we hope to receive a substantial number of completed surveys, which included an open-ended question about career goals. The net result will a sizeable amount of quantitative information concerning a professional group in higher education administration in United Arab Emirates about which no research knowledge exists.
The survey asked associate and assistant deans to describe their degree of responsibility for a wide range of activities including: budgeting, accounting, curriculum, facilities management, technology management, grants management, planning, personnel, public relations, community relations, student recruiting, student advising, student grievances, and liaison to student and faculty committees, and representing the dean. In addition, they are asked what percentage of their time they devoted to those activities as well as how much time they spent on teaching and their own research. The survey also inquired into whether their positions and administrative work was full-time or part-time and whether they worked with other associate and/or assistant deans and, if so, to “briefly describe their positions and how they relate to yours.” These questions constituted the “job audit” portion of the survey. Further questions asked respondents about their career paths and goals as well as some demographic information.

Significance of Study
Typical sources of information about occupations in higher education yielded Zero or little data in the case of assistant and associate deans in the Gulf Region. We could not find one empirical research that explains University Associate and Assistant Deans in the in the Gulf Region, especially UEAU. Thus, the results of this study help fill the gap in the literature on leadership and administration in the Gulf Region, especially the roles of Associate and assistant deans in UEAU.

Some preliminary Findings (Please note that we still collecting data for this study)
The modal university assistant and associate dean at United Arab Emirates is a male in his 50s. Nearly nine-tenths (90%) of our respondents are Nationals as opposed to expatriates. (93%) of them were male. In addition, they averaged more than 10 years of experience in higher education. Virtually all had doctorates. Although males dominate the position, only a few differences in the characteristics and work of associate deans differed by gender. Men in our sample had experience in higher education than women. Men were somewhat more likely to focus their work on budget and facilities. However, the similarities on a wide range of variables are more striking than these modest differences.
Most assistant and associate deans, around three-quarters (70%), shared the college's administrative work with one or more other civil servant in their collages. When a dean’s office had two or more associate (and/or assistant) deans, two patterns of dividing the labor among them appear to have been most common.
These two groupings of duties, though common, capture well less than half of the cases for which we had information so far. More striking than any patterns we found in the data is the lack of many clear patterns and, to put it another way, the very great range and diversity of the work assistant and associate deans do and the variety of ways in which their duties are clustered. Even associate and deans in different colleges at the same university rarely perform the same clusters of job activities or devote the same time to different aspects of their work or have similar levels of responsibility for their various duties. Nevertheless, we have so far (we still collecting data) identified number of types or categories of associate and assistant deans at these institutions. While these types are distinct, they are not mutually exclusive.

Faculty member on loan to the dean’s office. Often the post of associate and assistant dean is not considered a permanent career, but is rather something one does as part of one’s “service” obligations (and for some extra pay, of course) before returning to the faculty. Probably the most important role played by this type of associate and assistant dean is liaison with faculty committees and with academic departments. Such an assistant and associate deans can be seen by the faculty as “one of us” and often continues teaching (quarter time is a norm) and maintains, however fitfully teaches sometimes and has sort of research agenda, the threads of which can be picked up in a few years.
Substitute dean. When the dean is not available, or has to be in two places at once, the associate dean can fill in. On occasion, this means representing the dean at important meetings, but usually it involves standing in for the dean at less important meetings and functions. Another version of this kind of work is meeting with individuals, often individuals with grievances, who want (or demand) to talk to the dean. The substitute dean role, according to the subjective impressions of the Associate Deans we talked to, appears to be growing in importance as the dean increasingly has to spend time other duties that demands their time including endless meetings at provost offices and off campus dealing with various external groups, such as Ministry of Education officials, setting with partnership with business community , and attending other meeting with important officials at their universities’, the number of which seems to increase steadily.
Ranking civil servant. If we think of the dean as head of an agency and the political appointee, often brought in from the outside, then in this model, the associate dean and assistant Dean would be head of the permanent staff. This kind of relation seems less common for associate deans than for assistant deans, who are sometimes civil service appointees. But, whoever plays it, the “permanent-staff” role is important.

Administrative diversity for Emirates women.

Clearly, leadership at the assistant and associate dean level in our study does not reflect gender diversification expected in the rapidly changing society in the Gulf Region, especially United Arab Emirates. For example, Of the 9,363 undergraduate and graduate students that registered at Zayed University in 2017, 89.9 per cent were women. At the United Arab Emirates University, 82% are women and Males comprised only 18 % of the studen.body on campus last academic year” https://www.thenational.ae/uae/women-continue-to-dominate-uae-federal-colleges-and-universities-1.622982 In similar vein women made up 62 per cent of the student body at Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), United Arab Emirates country’s largest public federal institution of higher learning HCT (https://www.thenational.ae/uae/women-continue-to-dominate-uae-federal-colleges-and-universities-1.622982 So far, the results of our study shows that males dominate the position of Assistant and Associate Deans. Thus, we recommend that institutions of higher education in United Arab Emirates capitalize on the ambitiousness of women who seek the assistant and associate dean position as the stepping stone for higher administrative positions

Selected references:

Abdulla, A (2017) Personal interview with Abdulla, December in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates University

Jackson, J & Gmelch, Walter H. (2003) How Associate Deans' Positions Are Designed Within the Context of the Top 50 Colleges and Schools of Education Peabody Journal of Education 78(2):88-110
White, G. (2014). First-year experiences of associate deans: a qualitative, multi-institutional study. Research in Higher Education Journal, 22. http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/131695.pdf

Authors

• Mohamed A. Nur-Awaleh, Illinois State University

• Shaikah Al-Taneiji, United Arab Emirates University