NIZWA: The Arab Open University, in partnership with the University of Nizwa, organised its 7th forum titled 'Oman’s Vision 2040 and its Implications in the Education Sector' recently. It dealt with the development of the education sector’s systems, policies and outputs, and the impact of the priority of citizenship, identity, heritage and national culture on the development of education.
The conference, held under the auspices of Nasser bin Khamis al Jashmi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance, was attended by a number of members of the State Council, academics, researchers and students from both universities.
The forum witnessed signing of a joint cooperation agreement between the University of Nizwa and the Arab Open University in the fields of academic and research cooperation, community service, student affairs and learning resources. It comes within the framework of the two universities' keenness to develop relations and ensure their continuity and development in many fields.
It was signed by Prof Dr Ahmed bin Khalfan al Rawahi, President of the University of Nizwa, and Mohammad al Hazizi, who is assigned to chair the Arab Open University.
The activities of the forum began with a speech by Mohammad al Hazizi, who is in charge of the presidency of the Arab Open University, in which he stressed that the university, in partnership with the University of Nizwa, has devoted the seventh forum to study the development of education and its systems in the Sultanate of Oman to achieve the strategic directions of Oman Vision 2040.
He added: "The Arab Open University always seek to keep pace with social, economic and educational changes and developments in a way that contributes to achieving its mission on the one hand, and enhances its scientific position among the academic community in the Sultanate of Oman on the other. Therefore, the partnership with the University of Nizwa in organising this forum comes within the practical and societal goals that the university seeks to achieve in order to serve its vision of constructive scientific cooperation, and partnership with the leading practical institutions in the Sultanate of Oman."
Dr Khalifa al Qasabi, representative of the scientific committee of the forum, stressed the importance of the forum and the valuable research papers it presented to achieve the goals of the forum. The Operational Committee had previously held several meetings in which it defined criteria for accepting research papers. The best of them were selected in two phases. The first was to receive the proposed research summaries, whereby those summaries were evaluated.
He added: "33 working papers were received and were judged by the members of the committee based on the criteria prepared in a special evaluation form that took into account the practical foundations of the practical research in terms of its originality, the novelty of its idea, the completeness of its elements and the quality of its procedures, as well as the research affiliation to one of the forum's themes.”
Dr Ayisha bint Hamad al Darmaki, assistant professor and scientific supervisor of the forum, also reviewed the main aspects of organizing the forum. She also reviewed the process of selecting themes and working papers.
The second session of the activities of the first day was entitled "Legislation and Governance and its Impact on Quality Control of Education".
The forum witnessed a great interaction by the attendees and participants, who stressed the importance of the i working papers contained in the forum, which need to be considered during the next stage, in line with Vision 2040.
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