Working at the GAU

Warning: The following may be quite boring to some, but read it at your own peril.

I promised that I would write a bit on my experiences of work, the university and so on. Well, here it is. Looking back on the writing below, it seems a little incoherent, stream of consciousness in places, but perhaps it’s informative.

Girne American University is a relatively young institution (est. 1985). The Psychology Department is even younger. The first Psych Graduates (4-year B degree) are finishing off now. (Our academic year, of course, ends in June.) There are four other universities in North Cyprus, with its population of about 260 000 people. All these universities’ reason d’etre is to deal with the surplus of school leavers in Turkey that want to pursue tertiary studies. Although there are students from all over the Middle-East and Eastern Europe, the majority of students are from Turkey. As the University purports to be ’American’ in style and presentation, the language of instruction is in English, and English, she is not big with the students, ja? This presents severe challenges is the classroom where there are students with varying degrees of command of English. The problem is particularly severe on the first-year level. It seems that the one’s who make it through the first year either do so because they have better English, or because they managed to learn English sufficiently in their first year. Fortunately the classes are very small and one can approach the work with baby steps. Similar questions that I had at Mamelodi come up here. What is the minimum one can teach to make this count as a legitimate university course? How does one balance the needs of the University and the Community for a quality education, with the limitations of the learners? I suppose one can go into complex arguments about the place of a University education in society. Should it be for everyone, or should I be elitist? Is the knowledge that people leave with useful for society, or, should it be? I suppose in something like engineering it better be useful because these people build bridges and skyscrapers. I suppose in the Humanities and Languages it is not so easy to tangibly define usefulness. Despite all the assessments of knowledge and skills, one is never sure what students really know when they leave. I have opted for a reduced content, more process oriented style of teaching. This means that I believe if they know how to engage properly with three out of twelve chapters from a textbook, they will know how to relate to the other content, should they be called upon to do so in future. For these students it is of no use to overload them with facts and content knowledge. As in other academic settings, we have learned that the 18 to 24 year old brain can memorise vast amounts of facts for long enough to vomit them out on a piece of paper during the exam. After that, they might not even remember the name of the subject.

Another factor that makes teaching difficult is the very rigid Turkish educational and social system. It reminds a bit of South Africa 20 years ago. The society is patriarchal and thus prescriptive. Students do not seem to have an internal locus of control – even less than at TUKS. Combined with their lack of confidence with the language, it is quite difficult to get them to actively take charge of their learning. I must say that, despite my misgivings, some of them surprised me when I assessed their work.

It is not too bad to be part of the Psychology Department. The HOD is Tulin Bodamyali, a Turkish Cypriot who spent many years in England. She is not a psychologist, but a biologist. She has however done a number of counselling qualifications in the UK and is registered as a counsellor. (For now, the British system will take too much explanation.). Tulin is a very dynamic and energetic person with a great sense of humour, but, by her own admission, lacks some assertiveness. Both the students and the management exploit this inability to say ‘NO’, which results in her being over committed to the students and the institution. The problem is that we hardly get time to sit down and discuss important Departmental matters such as the expansion and development of the programmes we want to offer. Currently there are only undergraduate courses on offer (A B degree is four years and leads to a Masters). There is one Masters degree registered, but it is dormant at the moment. Part of Bob Boyer’s (my American colleague) job is to do curriculum development. This proves to be a major administrative challenge, and as in my previous experience of this sort of thing, there is a lot of bureaucracy involved. This involves educational bodies in Turkey and professional bodies in Europe. Bob is very optimistic about getting all these new programmes up to Ph D level in place. I am more sceptical. (I have worked with optimists before like Linda and survived it. In fact, its amazing what Linda achieved in organizations despite all the odds – including my pessimism - being stacked against her) My pessimism may be a result of systemic thinking. There just seems to me to be too many possible constraints outside of our sphere of influence, to make it work. One of the biggest problems is that expansion may need continuity of staff. This brings me to question many have asked, here and back home.

Will, I be tempted to stay on in Cyprus? The answer is an unequivocal ‘maybe!’ In terms of institutional politics, the biggest challenge is that the power that be might no see the value in expanding the psychology curriculum. Because of this, they may not necessarily put measures in place to retain staff. GAU is a private university, which means it is a business. Bottom line is profit. The problem is that the owner might not see the profitability of a bigger Psych curriculum and department. Traditionally universities are very old-fashioned, conservative institutions that resist change and innovation – quite ironic, isn’t it? What does all this have to do with me contemplating staying on? Well, to make it viable for me and the family, I will have to earn at least double my salary and Jeanne-Marie also need employment. (I believe that teachers are paid much better than faculty.) I need to be able to maintain my financial responsibilities back in the good old R of SA and I need to purchase the trappings of any permanent resident, such as insurance, medical aides, pension provision etc, etc. Currently my salary only barely pays the rent and the food. Why would I want to stay? First, it is great to live in a country without any crime to speak of. The only crime here is the world’s continued isolation of Turkish Cypriots. Second, for people who always wanted to travel and who have an insatiable interest in recent, old and ancient history, there is no place on earth more interesting than the Middle-East. From where we are it is about four hours from Moscow, not very far from India, Europe is within reach, Egypt, Israel, Tunisia, Central Asia (Countries with amazing histories that we hardly ever hear of, talk or think about in out Anglo-American way of life in SA) and so on. Third, the children are very happy here. Daniel never wants to go back. He says we must go back just to get a toy that he forgot in SA (a stupid little McDonalds toy which he calls “double swingy”). If, on the odd chance, we can stay, I do not see it as a permanent or long-term option. We will probably then look for other overseas opportunities in the next 5 years.

On the downside, if I want to pursue an academic career further, I am not too sure whether this University is the right environment for it. It is primarily a teaching university and it doesn’t have a big research culture. But then, I am not sure whether I am able to play the academic publish or perish game anyway. Too many ideas and too little structure to sit down and get the work done. Further, one may ask what the future of North Cyprus as a place holds. For the foreseeable future it looks stable, but it is still awkward to live in a non place. Also, outside of my university employment, I do not see many other opportunities. I think there are many more opportunities in SA. Bob wants to start an institute where we can provide psychotherapy and consultation services to the public. I listen with interest, but I am not sure how viable this is. Lastly, I miss many things in and about SA. I would have loved to watch the Super 14 games with my mates. Instead I had to listen to it on radio and I had no one to share the immediate excitement with. There are more examples. What we are certain of is that we do not want to go back to SA and resume our lives exactly as they were when we left. If we do that, this year may have been wasted in some respects. I will have to find ways to supplement my income. This may mean moving out of academia anyway, or I must find ways to consult outside the university, while staying in my job. Jeanne-Marie does not want to stay in her oppressive job.

But, then I often read South African news pages, and not a day goes by in which someone is not murdered in a most horrible way. I suppose it does look worse from far away.

Nothing is cast in stone. At the moment it does not look as if we’ll stay. We shall probably be back at the end of January next year to reinvent our lives in South Africa, unless…

(The opinions expressed above are Gerhard’s and are not necessarily shared by Jeanne-Marie)