Nearly 30,000 higher education academic seats for students in Oman this year

Muscat: About 30,000 higher education opportunities are available this year, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

“The number of study seats available for students at the public higher education institutions, the internal scholarships, the scholarships sponsored by the private sector at the private higher education institutions and the foreign scholarships by the sisterly states for the academic year 2018/2019 is 29,226”, said Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Sarmi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education in a press conference held at the Ministry’s headquarters on Tuesday.

“Five hundred internal scholarships have been allocated for study at the private universities to study the educational majors at A’Sharqiyah, Nizwa, Sohar and Dhofar universities. The move comes in a bid to meet the needs of the Ministry of Education with relation to science and math majors,” he added.

“The number of study programmes at public higher education institutions, scholarships and grants for academic year 2018/2019 stood at 392, including 93 at the public higher education institutions, 191 for the foreign scholarships and grants and 108 programmes for the internal scholarships and grants.

‘The Ministry of Higher Education represented by the Higher Education Admission Centre (HEAC) prepares to open registration at the e-admission system for the students of the general education diploma and their equivalents for the school year 2018/2019 with effect from April 1st 2018 to June 1st 2018, he furthered.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education added that Omani students of the age group 16 to 25 years can register at the e-admission system and apply for the offered study programmes at the public higher education institutions, domestic scholarships and grants at the private higher education institutions, as well as foreign scholarships and grants for study at the higher education institutions outside the Sultanate.

He pointed out that in a bid to improve procedures for the foreign scholarships, the Ministry of Higher Education introduced a new study program for students who have direct admission to the major from one of the recommended universities. The admission for studying the major will be direct without having to study the English language programme or the foundation programme for one of the universities ranked from the top 150 universities in Shanghai ranking.

“There is no other requirements for such programme in terms of the study subject that the student has already studied or his marks. The student only needs to give evidence that he/she has been admitted for study at one of these universities. The internal scholarships programs for female students with high marks has been merged at the scholarships for the bachelor degree programme. He noted that the results that will be announced on June 1st 2018 are based on the performance of the students at the first semester and their selection of the study programs during the registration period.

During the event, Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Sarmi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education launched the updated website of the HEAC and the upgraded version of ‘Iltahiq’ smart phone application.