OUTRAGE!

“MA STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BORROW BOOKS OUTSIDE THEIR CORE READING LIST FROM THE LIBRARY.” This would be outrageous enough, but when the core reading list comprises TWELVE BOOKS, the angels simply weep.

I did not weep. I spat fire when I was told this by the librarians at Majan University College, where the Leeds University MA TESOL program is being hosted (at astronomic costs to the students, I might add). To understand the predicament, it is important to note that there are no libraries in Oman, except for governmental, university and college collections which are, of course, closed to the public. One student kindly arranged permission for the students enrolled in this programme to borrow from the state’s Sultan Qaboos University library, but I have not found anything relevant to my current module there, nor much that is recent. So effectively, it seems that students enrolled in this programme are being prohibited from performing well and, more significantly, from learning.

Before I launch my crusade full force, I will confirm this with the head of the English department at Majan, who will hopefully arrange a polite explanation that this was a misunderstanding. Face-saving is, after all, far more important than the facts on this soil. If the facts are, however, that reading widely is taboo, the implications for foreign students of accredited universities are profound.

I can understand that in some circles higher learning is mainly about the piece of paper in the elaborate gilt frame, the status or the money. For me it is not. If any establishment tries to reduce me to that, there will be war.