The troubled Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee faces a summer of discontent after it was revealed its validation contract with Aberdeen University is not being renewed, meaning the college will not be able to recruit any new students for next year’s courses.
News of the ending of the collaboration, on September 30, came after it was confirmed that a series of four separate employment tribunal cases involving former employees among them former principal Professor Malory Nye will start next week.
Professor Nye is claiming unfair dismissal through unlawful racial and religious discrimination and his wife Isobel is also taking the college to a tribunal.
Two other women are also due to appear at the tribunals, which will run through to late July.
The ending of the three-year arrangement between Aberdeen University and the Al-Maktoum College, which this week celebrates its 10th anniversary, was confirmed by the university, while the Dundee establishment remained tight-lipped on its future arrangements.
A university spokesman said: ”The university regularly reviews its current collaborative agreements and their alignment with the university’s future strategic priorities.
”In this context, the university management group agreed that it would not be able to support continuing validation of research and taught degree provision at the Al-Maktoum Institute after September 30 2012 when the existing agreement comes to an end.
”The Al-Maktoum Institute was notified of this decision in June 2011 and since then the university has been working with Al-Maktoum colleagues to ensure that the interests of students are safeguarded during this transition period.”
The news was initially broken by Professor Malory Nye who told The Courier no new validation partner is in line to take over the arrangement, meaning no students will be able to earn post-graduate or masters degrees or PhDs.
Aberdeen University had been its validation partner since 2004, when the college’s first partner Abertay University pulled out of the deal.
The Al-Maktoum College of Further Education was officially opened in its Blackness Road building on May 6 2002, when its patron, the late Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum of Dubai, visited Dundee with a high-level delegation.
Continued…
Professor Nye said during the last 10 years the college has made a significant contribution to Dundee as a centre of learning, as a place that has drawn international students from across the globe and in particular through its twice yearly programmes for female students from the UAE and Qatar.
The professor was principal for four of those 10 years and before that worked in other senior roles at the college.
He said he remained proud of what the college had achieved under his leadership and still believes in the college’s stated values of multiculturalism and building bridges between people from across the world.
”The Al-Maktoum College could be much more than it currently is and could and should be putting Dundee on the map for the right reasons,” he said. ”Unfortunately this is not the case.”
He said the college had dismissed five members of staff, mainly women who had been complaining about the college’s management.
”To add to this, the college face the next academic year unable to take on any new students their validation from the University of Aberdeen comes to an end in September and no new university partner will be in place for the new year.
”The obvious question is what has gone wrong with the Al-Maktoum College? Why at a time when they should be celebrating their achievements over 10 busy years, they are instead facing public exposure?
”The failure has been the lack of corporate governance of the college this has been left to a small board of directors (trustees) that have only two effective members, the College Chancellor Lord Elder (who Professor Nye had called on to resign in January), and the Dubai-based chairman Mirza al-Sayegh.”
He said neither of the board members had spent much time on college affairs recently.
A college spokesman said: ”At forthcoming Employment Tribunal cases, the Al-Maktoum College will vigorously defend its reputation as a centre of excellence within the higher education sector and the good name it has established over the last 10 years here in Dundee, nationally and internationally.
”In the run-up to the tribunals we have been determined to conduct ourselves with dignity and to make sure internal matters relating to our former employees have been handled strictly in private, out of respect for them.”
He added: ”Discussions about a validation agreement for college programmes are a confidential business matter and while they continue we are not in a position to discuss them further.”