National University launched

Muscat, Dec 3 - National University of Science and Technology was officially inaugurated on Monday by His Highness Sayyid Asaad bin Tareq al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs and Personal Representative of His Majesty the Sultan, in presence of a number of ministers, officials and faculty. The university was born out of the merger of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, College of Engineering and College of Pharmacy. In his welcome speech, Shaikh Salim bin Saeed al Fannah al Araimi, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chancellor of National University (NU), said, “There is no doubt that education is a crucial factor in life of societies for cultural, social and economic development. Education is one of the most important pillars upon which development and social welfare rest, and that investment in human mind is the most important and finest types of investment at all and one of the most important goals of human development.” Talking about the importance of private sector participation in the development of the nation, Al Araimi said that Caledonian College of Engineering and Oman Medical College have gained great importance as they represent a scientific pillar in higher education by the private sector, which comes in line with the Royal directives by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos that the private sector should play its part in contributing hand-in-hand with the public sector in building of the country. “We are establishing an important pillar as a qualitative leap in our private educational institutions to continue implementing our future educational plans to keep abreast of scientific developments in engineering, medicine, pharmacy and health sciences, and develop other academic entities, under the umbrella of National University of Science and Technology.” Shaikh al Araimi and Dr P Mohammed Ali, Chairman, University Executive Board, presented a memento to HH Sayyid Asaad. The concluding address was delivered by Vice-Chancellor Prof Simon Jones. Later on the day, the first lecture session series was inaugurated by Dr Rawya bint Saud al Busaidiyah, Minister of Higher Education. NU is spread over four campuses in Oman; engineering course at Al Hail; medicine at Suhar; foundation studies at Airport Heights; and pharmacy and administration at Bausher. Zainab al Nassri