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International Exeter<br />
annual report<br />
2013/14<br />
international rankings<br />
United Arab Emirates<br />
Exeter has been teaching an EdD in TESOL in Dubai since<br />
1999. Taking advantage of local regulations, which allow us<br />
to operate from a FreeTrade Zone, the EdD is ‘housed’<br />
in a business incubation unit in Knowledge Village, with<br />
faculty flying out to teach. In local terms, this confers on us<br />
the status of an ‘overseas campus’.<br />
Two developments during the year required<br />
the intervention of the International Office,<br />
working closely with senior staff in the College of<br />
Social Sciences and International Studies (SSIS).<br />
In June 2013 Dubai’s Knowledge & Human<br />
Development Authority, which has oversight of<br />
academic programmes delivered in the Emirate,<br />
announced that it was bringing in the UK’s<br />
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to inspect<br />
programmes offered in Dubai by overseas<br />
institutions.<br />
The International Office provided support to<br />
the SSIS College Manager in order to ensure<br />
that the QAA audit proceeded smoothly and<br />
without delay. The Dean of SSIS flew to Dubai<br />
to attend the audit on 7 February 2014, and the<br />
International Office provided substantial guidance<br />
for the College, including participation in a mock<br />
Audit Panel before the event. In April 2014 the<br />
UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) issued its<br />
report on its findings concerning the delivery of<br />
the University’s EdD in TESOL, and gave a highly<br />
satisfactory evaluation of the programme and<br />
its delivery.<br />
Secondly, in December 2013 the Compliance and<br />
Assurance Department of the Dubai Technology<br />
and Media Free Zone Authority announced that<br />
it was suspending administrative services for the<br />
EdD. (The DTMFZA oversees facilities provided<br />
to campuses.) The International Office worked<br />
closely with the SISS College Manager to resolve<br />
this issue satisfactorily after it was shown that<br />
lines of communication had been less than clear,<br />
and that information held by the authorities in<br />
Dubai had not been completely brought<br />
up to date.<br />
In mid-April the International Office was able to<br />
help effect renewal of the University’s License<br />
to operate in Dubai, the handover of ‘Manager’<br />
status for its operations there (from the Head of<br />
the International Office to the College Manager<br />
of SSIS), and to host an informal visit to the<br />
College’s office in Knowledge Village by the<br />
Regulations & Compliance Commission of<br />
the KHDA.<br />
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