Excerpts:

What would be the number of students entering Higher Education Institutes every year?

The number of students entering Higher Education increases each year as the number of Post Basic Education graduates increases and the system of Higher Education expands.

This academic year, 2007-8, 66,301 students graduated from Post Basic Education. Of the 66,301 high school leavers, approximately 49,856, or 75%, applied for seats in Oman's Higher Education Institutes.

Of the total of 49,856 applicants, 19,815, or 40% were accepted.

The 19,815 students who entered higher education in 2007-8 represent 30% of the total (66,301) high school leavers.

Are there existing Higher Educational Institutes  with vocational or professional programmes oriented to the job market? 

As the private sector in Oman undergoes a boom with several new mega projects in the tourism, construction and industrial sectors, a number of specialised private Higher Educational Institutes  are responding to the opportunity to train Omanis in skills for a diversified economy. Job-oriented programs include Tourism, Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Fire Safety Engineering; Port Management and Marine Science, Design, Management and IT.

The Ministry of Higher Education is proactive in ensuring that its Higher Educational Institutes  are graduating students with key skills needed in Oman's changing marketplace. All new Higher Educational Institutes  undergo a process of approval through which the government ensures that the programs offered are ones which will serve the needs of the targeted student groups as well the aims of the national economy. 

The former Colleges of Education, having met the national requirement for teachers, are now offering programs or majors in high demand areas like international Business, Tourism and IT. Soon they will offer new programs in areas of Engineering related to Oman's rapidly growing industrial sector. 

Is there campus recruitment?

The MoHE Colleges of Applied Sciences are in the process of establishing Career Guidance Centres which will have a job placement function, including a system for employers to recruit graduates.

How active is the Sultanate in International Education?

All of Oman’s private Higher Educational Institutes  are required to have academic partnerships with reputable international universities. Normally the international partner provides course material and quality assurance. 

As an independent Higher Educational Institute Sultan Qaboos University engages in partnerships with a range of prestigious universities around the world, mainly for faculty and student exchange and for joint ventures in research.

Although some international universities offer degrees through local Higher Educational Institutes, to date, the only international university approved to operate ‘independently’ in the Sultanate is the Arab Open University which is affiliated with the British Open University.

At present, the emphasis of the Government of the Sultanate is on capacity building of its own Higher Educational Institutes in-country.  Oman's Higher Educational Institutes; in particular, colleges such as the International Maritime College of Oman and the International College of Management and Engineering (formerly the Fire Safety Engineering College), attract students from the Gulf region; and, as Oman's reputation in Higher Education spreads, we anticipate that students will be attracted from farther afield.

The Sultanate is cognizant of the need to send Omani students abroad to take specialties not available in-country and also to keep abreast of international trends and standards. Accordingly, a number of scholarships are offered for students to study at recognised universities abroad, mainly in the UK, the USA and Australia, but covering a spectrum forty-four different countries around the world. 

Could you tell us something about the e-learning initiatives in the field of education in Oman?

All of Sultanate’s Higher Educational Institutes have good computer laboratory and multimedia facilities including internet access for academic research. Most have some electronic classrooms. The MoHE is actively encouraging e-learning as an important instructional strategy.

In establishing the Colleges of Applied Sciences, the MoHE built e-learning into the curriculum plans. All faculty will be educated in the philosophy and use of e-learning technologies.

Distance Education will be a core feature of the new Arab Open University branch opening soon in Muscat.