Muscat: The Unified Admission Centre at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation announced on Wednesday August 16, 2023 the admission results for the first screening for the academic year 2023/2024.
Dr. Hamad bin Khalfan Al Numani, Director General of the Unified Admission Centre, said that the number of students admitted to governmental higher education institutions, internal and external scholarships and grants reached 27,629 students.
Al Numani indicated that governmental higher education institutions saw 55.6 percent of the total admissions, and the percentage of those accepted in internal scholarships reached 42.2 percent of the total number of accepted students. The percentage of those accepted in external scholarships reached 2.2 percent.
The percentage of occupied seats amounted to 93 percent of the total number of available seats. The high percentage of accepted students is due to the intensity of competition because of the high final rates of successful applicants in the unified admission system. 7 percent of academic seats have become vacant due to an insufficient number of students who fulfill the admission requirements.
Al Numani explained that the process for completing registration procedures for accepted students will be available from Thursday morning, corresponding to August 17, 2023 until 2:30 pm on Wednesday, corresponding to August 23, 2023, through the unified admission system, and other announced electronic means.
The centre will allow the mis-choice service from August 28, 2023 until August 30, 2023 for students who wish to compete for vacant seats, provided that they fulfill the service controls. it is not necessary to reject the first screening offer to compete for this service. After the end of the mis-choice service period, the centre will announce vacancies for study programmes - if any - for the second screening stage on October 1, 2023, as it will be possible to apply for these vacancies from the 1st October until the 5th October 2023 .
About developments in admission for this year, Dr. Hamad Al Numani indicated that the number of scholarship seats offered by private higher education institutions and private sector companies increased by 59.4 percent compared to the previous academic year.
"The centre provided the opportunity to choose the educational institution and specialisation directly through the unified admission system for students admitted to flexible programmes in internal scholarships (STEM, ESAM) within the private higher education institutions shown in the list announced by the centre. The student gets the final acceptance response within the first three days of the period specified for completing registration procedures," Al Numani added.
Al Numani explained that the centre organised the process for students to apply for registration in educational majors at their own expense - if they wished - after the first screening. This is so that every student applies to the educational institution he or she wishes to study in, and after making sure that the student does not obtain a government scholarship through the unified admission system - otherwise he or she will be asked to withdraw from the system before registering at private expense. Students can apply for educational majors at private expense directly at the private educational institution, according to the mechanism used by it.
The Director General of the Unified Admission Centre stresses the need for students to follow up on the developments and announcements issued by the Unified Admission Centre through its various channels, and to obtain information from its source. With regard to students whose final academic results will appear after the results of the first screening, they must contact the centre directly after obtaining their academic results, and provide it with the necessary documents. He also noted that their right to compete for the academic programmes they have registered for is preserved according to the mechanism used annually.