Majlis Ash’shura hosts minister of higher education, research and innovation

MUSCAT: Majlis Ash’shura hosted Dr Rahma bint Ibrahim al Mahrouqiyah, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation during its 14^th ordinary session here, on Wednesday.

The members of Majlis Ash’shura stressed the importance of adapting the outputs of the higher education institutions to the requirements of the labour market. They called on supporting and investing in scientific research and introducing the specializations of the 4^th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the university programmes.

The minister of higher education, research and innovation, presented her ministerial statement which included six main themes the first of which touched on the ministry’s policy for higher education and scientific research and innovation in light of Oman’s Vision 2040 as well as the adaptation policies between higher education and the requirements of the labour market.

In this context the minister disclosed figures and statistics related to the higher education outputs and the labour market. She said that there are 47 higher education institutions in the Sultanate of which 19 are public and 28 are private in addition to 416 private vocational training institutes. The number of graduates from the higher education institutions inside and outside the Sultanate stood at 23,816 in the academic year (2019-2020). Of this total, female graduates made up 60 per cent, the minister said, adding that the graduates survey for 2019 indicated that the employment rate of female graduates was just 8.8 per cent compared to 39.5 for male graduates.

The minister pointed out that the small size of the Omani labour market, its insignificant orientation to investment in the knowledge-based economy sector, and its failure to utilize modern technologies have all led to lack of growth in its demand for skilled Omani labour, and its continued demand for unskilled labour that does not require university or higher degrees.

In her statement the minister spoke about the Ministry’s efforts to achieve harmony between the outputs of higher education and the requirements of the labour market. She also talked about the policies of academic, institutional and academic accreditation in government and private institutions, and the policies of international cooperation carried out by the ministry in the field of higher education, scientific research and innovation.

Regarding the draft law on higher education, the minister explained that the law was reviewed previously, however after restructuring the state’s administrative apparatus, cancelling the Education Council, changing the name of the ministry, including vocational colleges and the scientific research and innovation sector, and establishing the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, it became necessary to revise the law to reflect the changes that were introduced. Accordingly, a committee was formed by a ministerial decision to conduct the review, take advice and gather opinions on it in preparation for moving forward with the other procedures followed regarding the issuance of Royal decrees.

During the session, the minister touched on the National Education Strategy, 2040 and the National Strategy for Scientific Research and Development 2040, in addition to the alignment of the Strategic Plan for Vocational Education and Training (2016-2025) and the National Strategy for Innovation in line with Oman Vision 2040.

The minister also spoke about the ninth Five-Year Plan and its executive programmes for the higher education sector, the scientific research and innovation sector, and the vocational training sector. In this regard, the minister also spoke about the challenges of implementing the plans and strategies of these sectors in light of the economic crisis, stressing that the ministry faced many challenges due to the annual reduction in the current budgets of the Ministry’s General Office and the Higher Education Admission Centre.

The minister explained that the financial allocations for scholarships have been significantly reduced and there are great differences between the actual expenses and the financial allocations, adding that one of the most important challenges that the ministry faced in the development budgets is the lack of required funds for some internal and external scholarship projects, in addition to setting a ceiling for the annual disbursement which is less than the actual expenses.

In the axis of scientific research and innovation, the minister, in her ministerial statement, addressed the issue of activating and supporting scientific research in higher education institutions at the level of academic staff and students. In this aspect, the minister reviewed programmes and activities to support and build research capacity, especially research programmes and strategic research programmes. She also spoke about the programmes and activities for supporting and building innovative capabilities. The minister referred to the fields of scientific research and identifying priorities in accordance with Oman’s Vision 2040.

Regarding the challenges facing the scientific research and innovation sector, the minister mentioned several challenges such as the reduced scientific research and innovation budgets, the multiplicity of the competent authorities related to scientific research and innovation. She also indicated that there is no legislation motivating private sector companies to contribute to spending on scientific research and development. Another challenge lies in the poor efficiency of spending.

As regards vocational training, the minister indicated that the ministry supervises 7 vocational colleges and the Vocational College of Marine Sciences in Al Khaboura, in addition to (416) private training institutions, all of which are geographically distributed in various governorates of the Sultanate.

The minister stated that the vocational education and training sector witnessed a significant development in terms of an increase in the total capacity of the vocational colleges that offer various educational and training tracks and engineering, commercial, agricultural and marine programmes, where the total number of students and trainees was (5,465) in the academic year (2017-2018), while the total number of students and trainees in the academic year (2020-2021) reached 5,782.

The statement said that in order to meet the requirements of aligning the outputs of vocational education and training with the requirements of the labour market with high quality standards, the Board of Trustees of the Vocational Colleges and the Council of Vocational Colleges were re-formed according to the participation standard of 50 per cent representatives of the private sector and 50 per cent of representatives of the ministry, within the framework of the National Program for Enhancing Economic Diversification. (Tanfeedh).

The statement of the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation said that the number of the academic and administrative staff in the vocational colleges has reached 553 and 317, respectively during the academic year (2019-2020). The Omanisation rate in the academic staff has reached 43.6 per cent while the rate for the administrative body has reached 100 per cent.

The minister said in her statement that during the past 25 years, the private higher education sector witnessed a significant development in terms of increasing the number of its institutions from one institution in the year 1995 to 28 universities and colleges in 2020, which included 9 universities and 19 colleges. The academic year (2018-2019) witnessed the establishment of the latest private university among the existing universities, the National University of Science and Technology, which came as a result of the merger of the Caledonian College of Engineering and Oman Medical College.