GSE Joins HUSS
By: The Caravan
In order to overcome the challenges of a changing scholastic landscape and secure its future, the Graduate School of Education (GSE) has strengthened its position at AUC by merging with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS).
This merger means that GSE’s department of International and Comparative Education (ICED) has been relocated as a new department within HUSS. Provost Ehab Abdelrahman said that the transition will run smoothly and that there will be no changes to the programs offered by ICED.
“Since there was no restructuring/consolidation of programs, there are no effects on faculty nor on the students who are studying in this department,” the Provost told The Caravan.
He believes that the merger will benefit graduate programs in education offered by AUC such as Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) as they will now be housed in a single school.
“Faculty and students in our graduate programs in education now benefit from the support of the HUSS Dean’s office, including a dedicated Associate Dean of Graduate Studies,” said the Provost.
The merger was based on a decision made by the Provost’s Council in September 2018 to restructure the school as a department.
Based on a report prepared by the Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, three scenarios were presented to the Provost: continuing to grow GSE; combining the master’s degree in TAFL and TESOL with GSE; or to merge GSE with HUSS.
“This decision was based on identifying the most appropriate and sustainable administrative structures to support our programs in education, as we found that having a School which had only one academic department was not an efficient use of the university’s resources,” he told The Caravan.
To ensure the transition was facilitated smoothly, the Provost said that many administrative actions were taken prior to the merger.
“These include[d] communicating with the relevant national and international authorities and accreditation bodies, transfer of budget cost centers, updating the AUC catalog, the graduate admissions and fellowship cycles, and updating the AUC website,” the Provost added.
He explained that with regard to academic programs in particular, faculty from GSE have taken the lead in helping facilitate the merger, as is customary.
Senate Chair Hanadi Salem explained that the Academic Affairs Committee, which was approved by the Executive Committee of the Senate, was shared with the Provost in September of 2020.
“The Senate Executive Committee’s, in consultation with the GSE, recommendations was to support the school’s evolution and growth as stipulated by the 2015 external review of the school and the recommendations of the 2018 task force,” Salem told The Caravan.
Salem explained that the merger option presented to the Provost proved to be the most beneficial for AUC as a whole.
“This was presented as a positive global trend that will help maintain the image of AUC and its reputation,” she added.
In November 2020, AUC’s Board of Trustees issued a resolution affirming the decision of merging the two schools. It was put into action immediately and was handled by the Provost, Interim Dean of HUSS Zeinab Taha, and former Dean of GSE, now Chair of the department of ICED Heba El-Deghaidy.
The department of ICED offers an Education minor for Undergraduate students, and a Master’s program in ICED. It also offers a Graduate Diploma in Inclusive Education which is offered by the department of Psychology and ICED.
