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As part of the
process of improving the educational standards
of Dhofar University Prof. Muhammad Faour invited
representatives from the Oman Accreditation Council
(OAC) to give a workshop over a period of
two days at DU for the faculty and staff to learn
more about the process of accreditation and its
importance. Mr. Martin Carroll, the Consulting
Director of the OAC and Dr. Salem Razbi, Planning
and Development Expert gave the workshop for the
benefit of DU and other Higher Education Providers
(HEPs) in Salalah, including the College
of Applied Sciences, the Salalah Technical
College and the Nursing Institute. The OAC members
provided a lot of useful information
on the ‘Quality Plan’ and ‘Quality
Audit’ as well as on the process of preparing
a ‘Self Study Portfolio’. They explained
the latest internationally accepted ‘ADRI’ (‘Approach,
Deployment, Results, Improvement’) method
of self-assessment. This method promotes working
in cycles of self analysis, by declaring clear
goals and objectives within an institution, putting
them into practice, analyzing the results and then
following up on the improvements, before beginning
the cycle again by analyzing those improvements.
Dhofar University will be seeking accreditation
along with the other HEP’s in the Sultanate,
during the next few years, and is already well
on the way, since it is now reviewing a draft of
a comprehensive Self Study Report that was done
last year using the ROSQA method.
Dr. Salem
said that two colleges had already submitted
their self study reports for accreditation. However,
the reports would actually be considered as applications
for ‘Quality Audit’ rather than accreditation.
He added: "Many colleges
and universities have already started working on
their self assessment reports, because we held
the same Quality Audit workshops in Muscat weeks
ago. The HEP’s are aware of the new requirements
and the new Quality Plan and most of them are working
on the same issues that Dhofar University is working
on now.” He said that the next step for Dhofar
University would be to work on the self assessment
and then prepare to submit the Self Study Portfolio.
He added that soon the Accreditation Council would
be asking the University to choose a date for the
Quality Audit. If the Quality Audit is successful,
then the University can take the next step of applying
for accreditation.
Dr. Razbi reported that he was delighted that
many people had attended the sessions, which were
really quite long, and said that he and his colleague
appreciated the fact that those in attendance were
really interested in the whole process of accreditation
and were taking it very seriously. DU faculty and
staff members also felt that the workshops had
provided much needed information, and a lot of
useful practice, particularly in the method of
preparing the Self Study Portfolio.
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