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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 />

86 87

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