Dr. Rabah, Iman

Dean

Quality Assurance

Education

Doctorate of Education: Management, Leadership, and Policy

Awards

Best paper Award for ANZAM conference- New Zealand, December 2011: Stimulating Deep Learning through innovative case Assessment: A case study from the UAE
Best instructor evaluation in the American University in Dubai (AUD)
Sheikh Rashed’s Award for Research, UAِِِِِE

Short Bio

Dr. Rabah’s administrative and academic career in higher education spans over twelve years in the registrar, faculty coordination in University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), and then as a faculty member in the American University in Dubai (AUD) and University of Wolverhampton in Dubai. Her main teaching experience is in Business Research, Business Statistics, Research Methods, Quality Management, Cross-Cultural Management, Leadership, Strategic Management, Educational Management, and Change Management at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr. Rabah is also the Dean of Quality Assurance at MUBS handling accreditation and institutional effectiveness.

Besides pedagogical research at the higher education level including curriculum design and critical thinking, Dr. Rabah’s area of research is in quality management and leadership models using qualitative and/or quantitative research methods. In addition to a special interest in paradox theory building that exploits theoretical tensions to construct new models that accept the paradox, clarifies analysis levels, separates the two levels at the preliminary stage of research, and then finds innovative terms to resolve the tension and paradox.

Dr. Rabah’s teaching and research philosophy is based on professional autonomy including academic freedom and academic quality in teaching and research. She believes that teaching in higher education is to help students develop and mature intellectually into critically thinking democratic citizens. Students should also learn and be trained to be successful and keep pace with industry and business development. In addition to a high quality of teaching, research is also essential for academics. According to Dr. Rabah, the occupation of academics is called a profession because it has distinctive privileges, but also special obligations. Some occupations like engineering, medicine, and law are also considered professions, however those professions apply knowledge whereas the academic profession receives, assimilates, and discovers knowledge by methodical study and then interprets and transmits that knowledge; it transmits knowledge about the methods of discovery and especially of the validation of knowledge. Dr. Rabah states that faculty members have to update their courses' material and develop teaching methods in addition to their pedagogical research and research in their field which could even improve the quality of education. Individual faculty members have three basic responsibilities. They should have ample knowledge in their disciplines, develop pedagogical approaches and techniques, and give feedback on student performance. Different from industry, in higher education the customer and the product are the same and it is 'community development' in Dr. Rabah’s philosophy. When professors, top administrators, and universities work to serve community development the product would community development as an ultimate result according to Dr. Rabah.

Current Research Projects & Grants

Internationalization of Higher Education: Current realities, Challenges, and Future Opportunities (under review)

Publications

A New Management Model for Higher Education in Dubai-UAE: Quality Management in Alignment with Professional Autonomy Review of European Studies Journal, Canadian Center of and Education, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2018), pp.165-175
Total Quality Management Meta-Analysis: Founders, Awards Criteria, and Successful versus Failing Cases in Higher Education-Review of European Studies Journal, Canadian Center of Science and Education, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2016), pp. 38- 60
Critical Literature Analysis of Leadership and Cross-cultural Management: A Glance on the UAE Higher Education Context –The International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, IJHSS, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2016), pp. 137-144
Introduction of Managerialism into University Administration: Erosion of the Collegial Model, Shared Governance, and Academic Tenure- Global Journals of Management and Business Research, GJNBR, US, Vol. 15, No.2 (2015), pp. 25-35
Total Quality Management in Higher Education: Defenders, Opponents, and Attempts for Modifications- Global Journals of Management and Business Research, GJNBR, US, Vol. 15, No. 11 (2015), pp. 55-70
Research Methods in Public Administration: A Critical Review of a Quantitative Article- International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, IRSSH, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2015), pp. 26-32
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Accreditation Standard: An Analytical Study of its Importance on Business Faculty Members- International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, IRSSH, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2015), pp. 219-230
The Influence of Assessment in Constructing a Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education: Can Self and Peer Assessment Bridge the Gap between the Formal and the Hidden Curriculum? International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, IJHSS, USA- Vol. 2, 11, pp. 236-242 (June 2012)
Stimulating Deep Learning through innovative case Assessment: A case study from the UAE (Best paper Reward for ANZAM conference- New Zealand, December 2011)