By Rumana Shaikh
Hamad Bin Khalifa University will no longer provide jobs for student workers at the branch campuses in Education City. The new policy takes effect on May 1, 2015.
This decision was sent out in an email to students and staff at Northwestern University in Qatar, among other campuses before spring break.
This change comes a few months after HBKU cut the student employment program in EC by 50 percent. Student jobs at branch campuses also ended early in the fall of 2014 and resumed late in spring of 2015. In addition, students could not work in these positions during December and January.
The Ministry of Finance has reduced the total budget for Qatar Foundation, which has forced these changes to adjust costs. This, in turn is impacting the student employment program, said Barry Sexton, director of business and finance at NU-Q.
In light of these changes, NU-Q plans to fund student jobs within the school to reduce the impact of HBKU’s decision on student employees.
“We’re being pressured to lower our budget overall by Qatar Foundation, and absorb the costs of the Student Employment Program,” Sexton said.
“A possible positive outcome is that I will always get my pay on time with no delays [if the university funds my job internally],” said Basmah Kamran Azmi, administrative assistant for student affairs at NU-Q.
While students working at branch campuses will be affected, the situation of those working directly for HBKU such as in the Student Center or for Housing and Residence Life (HRL) will not change too much.
With the previous budget cuts in November, changes were made to positions in HRL such as Front Desk Assistants. While a 24-hour desk was previously operated, working hours for students now end at 11 pm on weekdays and at midnight on weekends. Salaries of community development advisors working for HRL were also reduced by fifty percent. There have been no further reductions since, said Dr. Matthew Nelson, acting assistant director for housing and residence life.
“From a university/departmental perspective, I think the impact is on the programs and services branch campuses provide. With fewer student staff as a support, there may be a drop in those,” Nelson said about the latest decision from HBKU.
Awais Farrukh Shamim, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, believes that while this measure might tighten the [financial] screws further, CMUQ has already been financing a few jobs since the beginning of this academic year so the impact on it might not be massive.
But Syed Areeb Ali, a student worker at Texas A&M University, said the cuts would make a difference to him since he uses the money he earns to pay his housing fees. “It has made a huge impact on many of the students around EC because they depend on their student jobs for a lot of things,” he said.
However, working as a student employee of the Student Employment Office at TAMUQ, he said that he has not yet been made aware of these changes. He said that there had been discussions suggesting that if HBKU stops funding student jobs at branch campuses, TAMUQ would begin to pay its student workers.
Reductions may also be made to QF Financial Aid grants awarded to students and to the number of new students receiving HBKU scholarships in the near future, according to Sexton. But these changes have not yet been confirmed.