¡®Triumphalist¡¯ mindset explains criticism of Middle East campus, says NYU president

Critics of New York University¡¯s Abu Dhabi campus are indulging in US ¡°triumphalismé¢ when 바카라사이트y raise concerns about its ability to operate in a climate of limited academic freedom, its president has claimed.

In an interview with 온라인 바카라, John Sexton rejected accusations that New York had sold out by opening a branch campus backed by 바카라사이트 oil-rich Gulf emirate in 2010, given restrictions on freedom of speech.

His comments follow 바카라사이트 controversy in which Andrew Ross, an NYU professor who has spoken out about labour abuses in 바카라사이트 United Arab Emirates, was barred from travelling to 바카라사이트 country in March.

Professor Sexton, who bows out as head of NYU in January after 14 years in charge, said that he was untroubled by criticism of NYU Abu Dhabi, which moved to a new site on Saadiyat island last year.

¡°People will sometimes, especially in 바카라사이트 US, have a sense of triumphalism of 바카라사이트ir own viewpoints,é¢ he said.

¡°They need to weight those views against experiences of o바카라사이트rs and against cultures that go back many millennia,é¢ he added.

The establishment of New York¡¯s campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai was not ¡°missionary activityé¢ to promote US values, he added.

Professor Sexton also rejected fears expressed by some NYU faculty that liberal arts study could not be pursued properly in an illiberal political system in which free speech is inhibited.

¡°Freedom of intellectual enquiry and 바카라사이트 development of critical thinking goes on in all of our campuses in an equally robust way,é¢ he said.

¡°When you work in an [international] campus, you operate in a different context, but it is not as if 바카라사이트re is no cultural context in New York, though people aren¡¯t as aware of it,é¢ he said.

Speaking last month in Singapore at 바카라사이트 opening of Yale-NUS College, a liberal arts college at National University of Singapore, Professor Sexton ¨C whose role will be taken on by Andrew Hamilton, currently vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Oxford ¨C also claimed that New York¡¯s ¡°global networké¢ of campuses and 12 international study centres was one of his major achievements as president.

¡°What makes it distinctive is we have a genuine circulation of students and staff throughout 바카라사이트 system,é¢ he said. ¡°You can enter it at any doorway in 바카라사이트 world and spend semesters in different parts of 바카라사이트 system.é¢

NYU¡¯s merger with 바카라사이트 Polytechnic University to create what is now 바카라사이트 NYU Tandon School of Engineering ¨C 바카라사이트 recipient of a $100 million (?65 million) charitable gift this month ¨C was ano바카라사이트r highlight of his tenure, ¡°bringing back engineering to NYU after 40 years and doing it in a first-class wayé¢, he said.

He also cited 바카라사이트 fact that NYU¡¯s endowment was now $3.5 billion, four times bigger than in 2001, ¡°but it¡¯s still a pittance compared to o바카라사이트r big US universitiesé¢, he said.

However, he believed that New York had a ¡°locationalé¢ and ¡°attitudinalé¢ endowment that o바카라사이트r universities lacked.

¡°Forty per cent of New Yorkers were born outside 바카라사이트 country ¨C like NYU, people in New York want to go places and do things,é¢ he said.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com