Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering - Sharjah, United Arab Emirates - American University of Sharjah

Description

The successful candidate must be a dynamic,collaborative, visionary and innovative individual withdemonstrated leadership experience that can promote the continuedadvancement of the department. He/she is expected to have strongcommunication skills to effectively engage with a wide variety ofconstituents within and outside the university. His/her leadershipstyle should include positive attitude, transparency, integrity,trust, fairness, promptness and collegiality. In addition to thegeneral and wide responsibilities of the department head position,as partially outlined in the Faculty Handbook , the selectedapplicant will be required to:

• provide effective leadership withwell-defined plans to nurture and elevate the standard of thedepartment, accompanied with the development of short-term andlong-term strategies in alignment with the strategic plans of thecollege and the university
• ensure high-qualityteaching as well as holistic development of the students, usingapproaches such as technology supported delivery, problem-basedlearning, and other cutting-edge trends in engineering education,in addition to leading the continuous improvement of thecurriculum
• facilitate the conduct of innovativeand cutting-edge research of high-quality and impact and promotemultidisciplinary research with the optimal use of research fundsand research facilities
• empower, mentor,promote, inspire and support faculty and staff to develop andsustain excellence in teaching, research andservice
• foster a positive culture of innovationand entrepreneurship among faculty andstudents
• improve continuously teaching,research and service through benchmarking
• leadthe department in achieving student recruitment goals byestablishing and implementing recruitment plans for undergraduateand graduate students
• enrich thestudents' experience via enhanced services, exchangevisits, invited speakers, field trips, student clubs, professionalcertifications, competitions, conferences,etc.
• secure full-time and internship positionsand provide undergraduate research experience to thestudents
• participate in outreach activities,including maintaining ties and collaborations with alumni,industry, government, advisory boards, other university units andcommunity members, and maintaining involvement in local andinternational professionalorganizations
• advertise locally and publiclythe achievements and expertise of the faculty, staff and studentsof the department through web, newsletters and media exposure toenhance the academic reputation of theprogram
• collect data systematically andcontinuously from the department to plan and execute informeddecisions
• ensure and increase diversity andequity in faculty hiring and studentrecruitment
• maintain and actively promote apositive, safe, transparent, fair, open, respectful, collegialworking environment at the department, college anduniversity
• interact and communicate effectivelywith individual faculty, staff and students (and parents) on arange of professional and personalissues
• represent the faculty and staff andconvey their needs to the college's anduniversity's administration.
• overseethe department's operations including scheduling,advising, registration, lab preparations, budget allocation,compliance and risk management, etc.
• review andcoordinate faculty course releases, sabbaticals and leave withoutpay requests