Thursday 19 / December / 2024
Muscat: The Higher Education Admission Centre (HEAC) at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation announced the start of applications for admission to higher education institutions and external and internal scholarships for the Academic Year 2023/2024.
Students who are holders of General Education Diploma (GED) and its equivalent have to submit their applications for the academic year 2022/2023 via HEAC’s website (www.heac.gov.om), along with their desired programmes of study, during the period from the 1 April to 1 June 2023.
Speaking about key developments in 2023, Dr. Hamad Khalfan Al Numani, Director General of the HEAC, said that as many as 28,725 study seats are available in various government higher education institutions, as well as scholarships and study grants in private higher education institutions within Oman and external scholarships and grants.
The number of study seats in government higher education institutions stood at 16,515 as against 11,586 scholarships and grants in private higher education institutions, he said.
He added that the total number of external scholarships and grants stood at 624, including 59 external scholarships provided by Arab countries and 15 provided by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
The academic programmes covered a variety of specialisations in the fields of health, natural and physical sciences, agriculture, environment and related sciences, engineering and related technologies, architecture and construction, information technology, education, management and commercial transactions, society and culture, creative arts, religion and philosophy, Dr. Hamad explained.
He added that study programmes vary in terms of target groups. Some programmes are offered to the general public, other programmes are dedicated to the social security segment of society and other programmes serve low-income groups. Other programmes seek to localise teaching in distant villages or target people with disabilities.
Upon the start of the registration stage, a Student Guide was issued to help students enrol in higher education institutions for the Academic Year 2023/2024. An electronic version of the Student Guide is available on the website of the HEAC and it was announced through the social media accounts of the HEAC.
Al Numani pointed out that the guide has been developed and tallied with the lowest rates of competitiveness required in higher education institutions and scholarships.
This rate was determined based on the results of students’ performance in the first semester exams and in comparison, with indicators of admission to higher education institutions in the past years, he said
The guide was designed to assist students in arranging their choices of study programmes, depending on indicators of their chances of admission to those programmes (high chance of acceptance / low chance of acceptance), he explained.
