Oman to get a new private university for engineering and medicine

Muscat: A private university will be created by merging Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman Medical College and another pharmacology college.
Approval for the merger came at the Education Council’s third meeting of the year held under the chair of Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal Al Busaidi, Minister of the Diwan of Royal Court and Chairman of the Council.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Chairman of the Council expressed sincerest greetings for His Majesty the Sultan on the occasion of new Hijra Year 1439.
Springing from the interest shown by the Council to promote the quality of higher education and expand its horizons to be consistent with the higher education aspirations and trends and in response to earlier recommendations by the Council to merge some private colleges, approval has been given to establish a private university by merging Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman Medical College and another pharmacology college. The Council instructed the Ministry of Higher Education to complete formalities.
On the other hand, the Council disused the recommendations of the ‘education, development trends, current and future job opportunities in the local market’ seminar, which was organised by the Secretariat General of the Council last May.
The seminar aimed at identifying the international trends for the 4th industrial revolution on education and labour market, the status of the Omani economy, its future trends and the effect on education and employment.
The council gave instructions to take necessary measures to implement the recommendations of the seminar.
Out of the Council’s keenness to enhance the role of Omani higher education private institutions as strategic partners in the development process, the Council discussed the outcomes of the study conducted by TRC in collaboration with a number of relevant organisations on the reality and future of private higher education in the Sultanate.
The Council instructed the relevant organisations to take necessary measures to implement the recommendations of the study.
Within the framework of its endeavors to enhance the quality of education at the private sector institutions and improve their performance, the Council discussed some applications by a number of private higher education institutions to restructure its colleges.
The Council gave instructions to take necessary measure to enhance the capacities of these organisations to meet the needs of the development plans and programmes in the Sultanate.