Whether your ideas of knowledge are embedded in an essentialist mesh or not, you
must all agree that to some degree our knowledge comes into being as a result of
the environments we are located in. Regardless of the degree of truth, there is
some truth in the assumption I have made and as such it warrants me to question
and relate the recent shifts I have had in location and environment – shifts
that have located me where I have perhaps never seen myself. So join me as I
trace the travels I have had through location and pick at an important issue –
grandeur and size – which often determines one’s preference in University.

In the summer of 2005 I was your regular (still am) Dubai born teenager ready to
embrace the norm and dig deep into my parent’s pocket for a University
education. My mind was set on pursuing psychology as well as media and when I heard
that Middlesex University’s nouveau Dubai campus was offering the exact same
course, I filled out my paperwork and presented myself for admission. Admission
was granted and I found myself with hundreds of new faces excitedly ( nervously
too ) entering into a space heard of but relatively unknown – the space known
as University!
Like an immigrant to a new country, a student’s first day at University is about
realizing the new space. University has a culture to it : orientation day was
meant to initiate me into this culture and with time the routine settled in.
However, an idea of a University space which I had always had was one of size –
when I entered Middlesex the following thought echoed through my brains, “ Jeez.
This place is small.”  The smallness had its advantages – I knew where I was. Or
did I?

As time progressed the size of our Dubai Campus became a hot topic of
discussion and I began to realize that I truly did not know where I was. The
overwhelming sense was that the demands of academe were far too many to be
squeezed into a campus of three or four floors. There was much appreciation for
the variety on offer at Middlesex – however, questions were being asked as to
whether such a small campus could cater to the overwhelming sea of students
eager to avail of the opportunity. These questions began to plague my mind and
as conversations continued the lack of resources began to manifest itself
further and I began to feel that the education in general was beginning to
suffer as a result of the minimal space. The constrained space was damaging to
the avenues Middlesex aimed at opening for students : my worry was that
Middlesex Dubai was not matching up to par with what exists elsewhere and in
terms of its space and resources it was clearly not set to compete. My issue
more precisely put was with the “grandeur” of the campus and since it lacked
the size and architecture of those across the globe, I began to feel the urge
to head elsewhere. And head elsewhere I did – to Canada’s York University!

Truth be told, I was only going to spend one year at Middlesex Dubai, regardless
of my issues with the space. I was waiting on my paperwork to get into York
University and figured it best to transfer credits and spend one more year
where my heart will always be. However, as I spend more time at
Middlesex Dubai, I began to feel the need to break away : a need to get the
“real” thing. I made plenty of friends and grew close to members of the
faculty, yet my ideas of the “real” and the grandeur of a University pushed me
to leave.

However, I have spent three years at York and a year at Middlesex Dubai and I now have to ask myself an important question. Was my shift in location based on anything that was even remotely real? Was I right in comparing Middlesex Dubai to my “real”? My answer surfaces on an unsettling negation.

The grandeur and size of a university speak to a university’s privilege and all that is socially constructed. Universities are dressed in robes of privilege which classify them into a hierarchy – yet these very robes need not determine the intellectual prospects a student stands in line of embracing. I speak from example and experience – I read Ronald Barthes and Ferdinand De Saussure at both Middlesex Dubai and York University and I dare not say that the text read any differently on paper. Indeed the shift in spaces determined the context within which the texts were presented, yet the essence of intellectual stimulation remained the same within both spaces. The difference though came in me: the difference was in how I came towards the text and the stimulation with which I aimed to unpack the package of information.

The difference was within me. I realized within a short span of time that the mission to convert an education into something meaningful rested solely on my shoulders – if I wanted it to be, it would be. It was all a question of the head: what could I make of my education?

Studying in a three floor or a three acre sized university was not the determinant factor in a productive education ( unless your measures of productivity lie solely in the dirham ). I agree, that the history of the university brings to its system a tradition of thought and practice yet this should not curtail a student from galloping forward with his/her education. Of course environment does influence our behaviour – but what about the environment within our selves? The instant the self is motivated to succeed, all other barriers become challenges ushering the person to succeed.

Regardless of a three floored Middlesex Dubai, if a student is keen on empowering education, he/she can surely attain it and match to par with the highest of all intellectuals. The centre of a successful education is the student!

So, before most of you dismiss an education at Middlesex Dubai as incomparable to those at more “grander” universities, take a step back to analyze your stance. My illusions of the “real” were unveiled and I realized that by simply going with the masses I was heading for the path of a blind follower.

Am I saying that exploring the world and heading abroad for an education is wrong? Am I saying that you should stay put in Dubai? Far from. But if your mind is set at pursuing the image of the “real” as I was, then you ought to scrutinize this image. What you and I take for the real is often glossed in vested interests – hence, beware.

“To be fully an object then was to lack the capacity to see or recognize reality,” says Bell Hooks and I strongly agree. If all of us students hail our culture and ability, then we must recognize reality.

Be real, keep it real: make of your education what it is that makes you. Locate you, be you and live in reality.

Author: Ali Abbas