Muscat: The Education and Research Committee of Majlis Al Shura met on Monday under Dr. Said bin Hamad Al Rubaie, Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) and a number of UTAS specialists.
The meeting aimed to acquaint with the vision of UTAS and the challenges it faces in supervising over the various colleges, the Omanisation plan, employment procedures, the training programmes and accreditation of the programmes of the university.
The discussion was held at the 4th regular meeting of the third annual convening (2021-2022) of the ninth term (2019-2023) of Majlis Al Shura, chaired by Jamal bin Ahmed Al Abri, Chairman of the Committee in the presence of the members.
The meeting also discussed replacement mechanisms, employment plans and the training programmes for Omanis for working as academics and technicians at UTAS.
The meeting discussed replacement plans of academic cadres at the colleges of applied sciences of UTAS through the programmes of scholarships for masters degrees besides appointments through internal advertisements of vacancies in coordination with the Ministry of Labour.
The meeting also tackled replacement plans at the colleges of applied sciences through seconding of students for furthering post graduate studies in the various specialisations and appointing them at the colleges.
The meeting also dealt with the solutions adopted by UTAS for settlement of the issues related to recruitment companies, and to hire Omanis as academics at UTAS.
The meeting pointed out that UTAS is working with a number of teams from the various entities including the private sectors on development of academic programmes for meeting the needs of the employment market.
The committee enquired about the capacity of UTAS colleges and the possibility of introducing new programmes and specialisations. The meeting also pointed to that UTAS is reviewing its academic programmes and working on development of a number of new specialisations for diploma, bachelor and masters degrees along with a project for opening a new branch for UTAS in Musandam Governorate.
The committee also discussed a proposal for addressing the challenges associated with employment of graduates of the college of education in some specialisations such as the Islamic Education and pre-school education among others.
