The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 20th, 2015
Across the board, faculty have been skeptical of their college
administrators’ enthusiasm to build campuses in illiberal societies,
like China and the Gulf states. What agreements have been made to smooth
the way? How much money is changing hands as part of the deal? Who will
oversee the curriculum design? And, above all, who can guarantee that
basic protections for academic freedom will be honored in countries
where dissenters are locked up, physically abused, and deported on a
regular basis?
The United Arab Emirates has made a strenuous effort to lure universities, along with top-flight cultural brands like the Louvre, the Guggenheim,
and the British Museum. At the same time, its human-rights record is
deteriorating rapidly, and several critics of the abusive treatment
accorded to U.A.E.’s migrant work force have been barred from entry or
deported. I joined their number when I was stopped
from boarding a flight to Abu Dhabi on March 14. The airline
representative checked with the U.A.E. authorities and confirmed that I
could not enter the country “for security reasons.”
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