A gateway for students to pick diverse courses
The Global Higher Education Expo offers students educational opportunities in over 120 universities across the world
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman’s Ministry of Education aims to broaden education opportunities to provide students with the specialised courses and range of choices that they need to succeed.
Explaining the Ministry of Higher Education’s direction, Hamad Khalfan Al Harthy, Deputy Director General of Scholarships at the Ministry exclusively told Times of Oman, “We always encourage students to study something that they are passionate about, because the love of a specialisation can increase the chances of successful studies. At the same time, studying something you do not love can hold you back. We try to make students realise the freedom of choice while, at the same time, guide him or her with useful information.”
Asked about whether the current generation of high school students need a diverse educational field, Dr. Abdullah Al Sarmi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, said, “Yes. The Global Higher Education Expo (Ghedex) offers more than 120 universities this year, which represent different countries whether they speak English, such as the USA, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada, or other languages. Students who visit this expo will be able to access a large number of universities and diverse specialisations that have places for them.”
“The variety of universities and ways of teaching has to be useful to the student,” he added.
“Diversity is good, rather than focusing on one country’s way of doing things, it is good to have students travel to other places. They gain different ideas and, especially for Omanis, they can come back from where they studied and help their country’s growth with their different experiences and ideas. For example, Business Studies in the USA is different from other countries, and so students who study abroad bring innovative ideas back with them. This is what we see with SMEs in Oman, and it is why we encourage students to apply to various countries and universities with different methods.”
“Thankfully, we see that students do choose different majors from one another. It’s not about them all flocking to one major that they think is best.”
This came during the opening of the and the Technology Education and Vocational Training Expo (Trainex) on 14 April at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, inaugurated by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education.
All the universities that Times of Oman spoke to agreed that it is much more important for students to study their passion than to try and predict the labour market and study something that might improve their chances to gain a job.
Each university system has come up with a way to address the demand from students for different styles of teaching.