The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, approved two new Bachelor Degree programmes for outstanding students. The first is the Applied Sciences (STEM) programme and the second is the Humanities (ESAM) programme.
The move aims to diversify internal scholarship programmes for various levels to meet the aspirations of students.
STEM is an acronym which refers to Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, while ESAM is an acronym that refers to Education, Sciences, Social, Art and Management.
Lara bint Ghassan Obeidat (pictured), Director General of Scholarships, said: “The ministry’s proposal for these programmes aims to attract good students, and allow them to choose the specialisation and educational institution according to their desires. The conditions of the (STEM) programmes included that a student obtain a general average of no less than 75 per cent in a General Education Diploma or its equivalent, and obtain a minimum average of 70 per cent in pure mathematics, English and one subject from biology, chemistry, or physics.
As for the ESAM programme, the student is required to obtain a general average of not less than 75 per cent in the General Education Diploma or its equivalent. A minimum average of 70 per cent in English language and one pure or applied mathematics subject.
She added: Students can view the details of these programmes on pages (67 and 68) of the student guide issued by the Unified Admission Centre for the academic year 2022/2023, where the (STEM) programme, which bears the symbol (BS380), includes specialisations: sciences except for human medicine specialisations. General, oral and dental medicine and surgery, nursing, pharmacy, optics sciences, physical therapy, information technology, engineering and mathematics sciences.
As for the ESAM programme, it bears the code (BS390) and includes specialisations: social sciences, arts and management. Education majors were excluded from the programme; because it is linked to specific numbers based on the annual needs data of the Ministry of Education.
As for the mechanism for completing the registration in the flexible programmes, Lara Obeidat explained that he/she must choose the major (one of the majors listed under the symbol) and the institution he wishes to study in, provided that the institution offers the specific majors for these programmes. After that, the student must communicate with the institution to complete his/her registration during the period set by the Unified Admission Center.
Obeidat, Director-General of Missions, indicated the ministry's keenness to strengthen partnership with the private sector, through continuous communication with many companies to contribute to providing additional scholarships for internal scholarships. The ministry received a good response from private sector companies in the past year. In addition to the contribution of private higher education institutions in providing dozens of scholarships from which many students have benefited, whether they were full scholarships exempted from tuition fees or partial scholarships exempted from fees at 50 per cent.
This year, private higher education institutions contributed to providing 463 scholarships for a bachelor's degree in various disciplines from 13 institutions. Petroleum Development Oman Company 150 scholarships for a bachelor’s degree with a monthly allowance for children from concession areas in a number of academic disciplines. The Oman Indian Fertiliser Company provided 5 scholarships with a monthly allowance for students from social security families and limited income from the governorates of South and North Al Sharqiya in engineering disciplines, and there are grants from other companies that the ministry is working on reviewing the conditions of these grants in preparation for the announcement about it through the Unified Admission Centre.
All these grants are subject to the Law of Scholarships, Grants and Study Aid and are supervised by the General Directorate of Missions. She said “We also stress to our students the importance of knowing the conditions and requirements of these grants as those provided by private higher education institutions do not allow the students to change the institutions after being accepted into it”.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
