Dr. Abdullah bin Ali Alaaraj has been the dean of the Makkah College of Technology (MCT) since 2018. He is also an adviser to the president of Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) and a columnist at the Makkah daily newspaper.
In 1990, Alaaraj attended UQU, where he attained a bachelor’s degree in English with a focus on education. In 2004, he was awarded a master’s degree in TESOL studies from the University of Queensland, Australia. In 2013, Alaaraj gained a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Essex, the UK.
Alaaraj worked as an English language instructor in a number of government and private intermediate and secondary schools for nearly six years. After that he moved to the MCT to teach general English and English for mechanical, electrical, economic and computing purposes.
From 2002 to 2003, Alaaraj chaired the English language center at MCT where he set future plans for learning and teaching development.
For three years beginning from 2005, Alaaraj supervised all the teaching units of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) in the Makkah region.
Alaaraj, who has worked as a freelance journalist during his professional career, was an English language trainer in a number of education institutions including King Abdul Aziz University and the Arab Open University.
He has attended many conferences and academic assemblies in the US and the UK, where he presented papers on applied linguistics at renowned universities such as the University of London, the University of Warwick and the Canterbury Christ Church University. Alaaraj’s Twitter handle is @dralaaraj.
