Championing for an Increase in the Number Female Majors in HCT

Championing for an Increase in the Number Female Majors in HCT

Increasing the Number Female Majors in HCT

Introduction

About 28 years ago, women made strides into undertaking courses in higher education, with HCT as a specific example. Since then, they have ventured into HCT based colleges in order and have made pioneering steps to measure up to the workforce, which is mainly dominated by men.

This was seen as a bold step since the UAE had social and religious rules that placed the place of women to the home, nursing children, working on domestic chores, and doing housewife duties. But efforts to have Women enjoy equal rights and privileged bore fruit and sensitization were done by the UAE govt as well as women rights lobby groups, and which subsequently saw women being granted equal opportunities as men.These efforts saw the number of women enrolled in such campuses

Situation Analysis

Currently, after approximately more than thirty years, it has noted that there are women no shows, and the decline in female attendance has been attributed to the cultural preconception that discourages men and women from mixing up and operate communally in the same environment. According to statistics, the number of female no shows has been observed to rise from 18 percent in 2009 to more than 20 percent currently. There is more than 2000 slot that is reserved for women at the campus, and this is majorly attributed to the opening of the Men’s school at the Abu Dhabi Hct, and which will see men and women mixing up in the same compound, although they are on different learning complex. This is an alarming matter, and focus should be attached to find out how this should be resolved.

Therefore in this paper, we intend to dispel the misconceived notion that while the campus enrolls men and women on the same site, learning is done at different facilities, and there are no mix-ups between men and women.

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

The ministry of higher education and scientific research came to light on this matter after complaints were registered through the media. As a result, they partnered in the year 2005 with the admissions department of the institution, and in a bid to lure more and more men and women into the institution, they saw the need to partner in an effort to have free slots to students enrolling for HCT courses. Precisely the ministry granted 13,775 student places in the three top colleges, namely HCT, the United Arab Emirates University, and Zayed University. Of these mentioned numbers of slotsn400, students were offered scholarships opportunities for the undergraduate and the post-graduate programs as well as an additional ten slots per campus for the individual needs students to study abroad.

Despite these efforts, women no shows were observed to increase from then onwards, according to the observation from HCT. This was seen as a massive blow to the efforts in reducing the number of no shows at HCT, even when every bold step had been made to increase the number of women enrolled at HCT. Considering the move by the government and the higher education based colleges, of giving out scholarships and free study, only bearing fruits only in the number of men enrolled and more women increasing developing a now show status.

OBJECTIVES

After investigation, right from private stakeholders and the government arm in charge of higher, together with the HCT research and Admissions departmental, it was observed there was a prevailing continuous belief in the Emirati population, that men and women undergraduate and post cannot mix in the same site as they are seen to share the same facilities and which was viewed otherwise as a taboo according to the Emirati culture. This necessitated the need to dispel this myth that men and women students at HCT, do not mix as they don’t learn in the same building, but in different facilities in the separate faculty buildings e.g., the library at HCT cannot be used by both men and women but during separate or distinct times.

Consequently, we intend to hold a drive that will be aimed at posting a decline in the number of women majors at HCT. The overall intent in this drive is to dispel the negative notion hence reducing the number of drops out from the institution. This will be done through the use of social media campaigns and holding orientation sessions that slowly gives focus to asserting the fact that women and men students do not share facilities such as the library even when the men and women campus is in the same compound.

Target Audience

Going by the fact that little can be done to avert the number of female majors in the ongoing HCT programs, more efforts will be shifted to the new student entrants, as this will as a sustainable solution and a permanent opportunity to set the record straight with regard to the misconception. Strategy

Social media focus groups will be formed and will have a massive campaign to recruit the new students, and the task force will be bestowed with the responsibility of creating a distinction on how exactly facilities are in HCT and women will have their own sections, therefore ensuring no mixing with fellow male students.

Tactics

While discharging the core responsibility of having a predominant percentage if not all, the task force will partner up with the school students’ welfare department. This partnership will see the task force and the Welfare Department jointly identify strong points and value propositions that will consist of the mainstream media, orientation forum, social media platforms, and student lobby groups. This partnership will take advantage of the inclusion and the presence of the Admission department and which will embed or entrench in the admission requirement documents the mandatory membership and attendance to meetings by new female students.

Timeline

This will be enforced predominantly during the registration, and partially immediately, the admission letters are forwarded to the students. This will give time to internalize the taskforce recommendations and messages contained in the forwarding letters.

Budget

This will enforced on a no-cost basis as the partners in the task force have been already allocated budgets as the campaign will be undertaken additional along with the admissions mandate. The welfare program will contribute an amount from the welfare kitty, plus a proposal will be sent to the donors to amass funds. Additionally, the task force will undertake a funds drive, with well-wishers and Nongovernmental charity organizations as the specific targets.

Personal Reflection and Role in the Plan

I will personally assist in seeking funds from the mentioned target groups.In order to create an individual attachment from enrolling students to these sessions, i.e., the orientation forum, social media and focus study groups, we will use a part of the amassed fund to purchase refreshments that will be served during the session, besides printing t-shirts with the central theme on it.moreover,we will encourage senior students to volunteer as mentor and each will be allocated a certain number of entrant female students to mentor and educate more on the school facilities and who specifically, male or female students are entitled to use e.g., the library and at which time.

Challenges and Recommendations for Solutions

The culture values in the UAE still place the position of women in society as secondary to that of men. Again, with these efforts, the number of entrants will depend on the pass score rate, which determines the exact amount of students that will meet the minimum entry requirement to be enrolled for a course at the HCT. This implies that there lack specific, definite figures on the number of females that will be registered, and this proves as a challenge in order to allocate resources exact to this drive.

The solutions will mainly constitute what this drive recommends, but which will only serve to discharge its duties to only a certain percentage. The Government should fill up this by formulating policies that mandate the need for career advancement, in all job sectors and will define the minimum number of entrants for enrolment that either of each gender will constitute.

Reference

Aswan, M., (2010) Zayed University No Shows on rising. Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/

UAE National Bureau of Statistics. 2013. Various statistics. Available online.

UAE Higher Education and Scientific research. 2018. Various statistics. Available online.

World Bank. 2013. World Development Indicators – GDP. Available online.