Why staff ratings are vital for UAE's universities

By Melanie Swan. DUBAI // Student and peer assessments of staff is becoming increasingly important to universities' efforts to improve, academics believe.
And now, some of the country's struggling universities are turning to such assessments in an effort to revive their fortunes.
Ittihad University in Ras Al Khaimah was put on probation by the Ministry of Higher Education in 2011 after the Commission for Academic Accreditation found "serious problems" with its teaching, curricula and management.
Now a senior academic at the university is studying other universities in the hope of helping it make the changes needed to satisfy the ministry's Commission for Academic Accreditation.
Until it does, the university is barred from recruiting new students and so faces an extremely uncertain future.
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