As a result of planning for some time and the holding of LOGSIS workshops, academic Advisors in Dhofar University are now responsible for registering students from their offices. This is a closer step towards the students being able to register themselves from their homes, using the internet. All academic advisors had to attend workshops at the beginning of September specially designed to teach them how to enter the LOGSIS and register the students’ courses. This is yet another step that Dhofar University has taken in order to accustom both the professors and the students to the ‘digital world’.

Academic advisors are now more involved in the whole process of registering the students, and this strengthens the bonds between them. It used to be that the academic advisor would simply help the student choose the right courses and sign the registration sheet. This made it hard for the student, especially if the system didn’t accept the courses and it meant that the student had to go back and forth from the Department of Admissions and Registration to the academic advisor and register the courses all over again.

Mr. Magdi El-Din, who is a lecturer in the Department of Graphic Design, registered around 45 students and he talked about the advantages of this new system. He said that now it is much easier for the academic advisor to help his students during registration, especially since he knows more than anyone else what courses each student is supposed to take. It is easy for the student or the Admissions and Registration Department to make a mistake because they don’t know as much as the advisor knows about the study plan. He also said that it takes much less time under the new system to register than it did before the advisers took on this new responsibility. There is only one problem with the system, he said, and that is that the advisor can’t register more than 16 credit hours for the student. So, his capability to register all courses for the students is limited. The reason for this is that a student with a high average can take up to 18 credit hours, for example in the College of Engineering, but the decision must be approved by the Dean of the College first.

Mr. Eldin said that he felt that the advisers needed to be more constantly informed about the changes in the course schedule by the Department of Admissions and Registration, throughout the days of registration. It would be useful for the advisers to be informed in some way, for example, when a new section of a class opened, or one closed. He also said, as an aside comment, that he felt that Ramadhan classes should be held beginning a little later in the morning. However, all in all, he felt that the whole process of registration and advising had made great steps forward, and both the faculty as well as the students were benefiting.