MUSCAT : Omani students would like to pursue Business Management and Engineering programmes as their foremost higher education options. PhD is very next on their wish list whereas the traditional longing to be a journalist is waning.
The trend was witnessed at the education fair titled ‘IDP Multi-Destination Open Day 2012’ held yesterday at Crown Plaza Muscat. Renowned UK and US universities participating in the Open Day admitted that most of the admission enquiries from Omani students were for Business and Engineering courses.
“Demand for both the courses seems very high due to large-scale development works and business activities in the Sultanate. The students may be hopeful of getting better placements after doing the courses,” said Tom Whittaker of University of Bolton.
Equal number of students showed interest in doing civil and mechanical engineering courses and there were many enquiries for Designing course, said Whittaker. An urge for having prefix ‘Doctor’ before their names is also quite high among Omanis, as a large number of them want to do PhD to be eligible for top ranking jobs in ministries and educational institutions.Other courses in demand were Information Technology, Nursing, Education, Post-Graduation in various disciplines and Applied Sciences. Jihan Shmait, Assistant International Manager of Middle East Regional office of University of Bradford, termed the visitors response to be very good and said, “There were 140 enquiries for under graduate (UG) courses and 80 for PG courses.
Under graduate students were interested mainly in engineering courses whereas Education and Health courses were in demand for doing PG or Masters. There were six enquiries for PhD at our stall.”
Daniel J Hollis, Admissions Specialist at George Mason University, was quite happy over the response. Most of the enquiries at her stall were for PG and PhD courses.
“As usual lots of enquiries were for Engineering, MBA, Healthcare Administration and Education. There were enquiries for Media and Mass Communication but the students seemed more inclined towards becoming PROs and Media Specialists in private companies or government departments.”
Kala Rao, Oman Country Manager, IDP Education, said a large number of students go to European countries for studies. “We provide consultancy and organise such ‘Open Days’ regularly to let the students select the best possible institute. Since 1996, IDP Middle East has become a trusted name for students looking for an education in Australia, USA, Canada and UK.”
“Our counsellors are specialists in their field and they provide personalised service to students, advising them on the best ways to achieve their education and career goals. Students receive expert information on the range of new education options available to them. IDP Middle East is an accredited IELTS test provider,” she said.
we also do australia.
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