Published on
January 14, 2010

Dhofar University's Vice Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Al Faour hosted a day-long retreat at the Crowne Plaza, Salalah on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, for senior academic and non-academic staff. The purpose of the retreat was to share ideas on University-wide important issues involving learning, student recruitment and on building awareness of DU within the community. The academic staff members participating were deans, department chairs, directors of programs and centers, the URB assistant chair, senior academicians and additional members nominated as resource persons. The non-academic staff members attending were the Ass't VC for Academic Support Services, directors of departments, and senior staff and managers of units whose input was relevant to the retreat.

During the morning session, all participants worked in groups and elected representatives to give short presentations on the issues under discussion. Then there was open discussion, led by the Vice Chancellor, until a consensus was reached and a list composed of feasible suggestions made by those present for improvements at the University. The main topic for the morning session centered on 'How to Attract and Retain Students', which included coming up with ideas for a new promotion campaign.  

The afternoon session, which was attended only by academic staff, concentrated on 'Quality of Teaching and Learning', and among the subjects discussed and resolved were new definitions of 'graduate attributes' and 'learning outcomes' (from course level up through program level, to university level). The Vice Chancellor agreed at the end of the retreat, after thanking everyone for their efforts, that changes will first be made in the catalogue. Subsequently, workshops will be held at DU to familiarize all faculty members with the new and clearer guidelines on learning outcomes.

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