Thursday 16 / January / 2025
Muscat: Dr. Rahma Ibrahim Al Mahrouqi, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, today received Dr. Salim Araji, Regional Director of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the existing areas of cooperation between the Ministry and ESCWA, focusing on future partnership opportunities between the two sides, as represented by the project for the Conference on the Announcement of Oman in Higher Education, scheduled to be held in October 2025 at Sohar University, in collaboration with several international organizations such as the UNESCO, the American University of Beirut, and a number of Arab and international universities.
The conference aims to enhance practical strategies for aligning higher education with the dynamic demands of the labour market in light of the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions.
It will showcase the latest technological tools that contribute to enabling educational institutions to cope with the rapid changes in the labour market, as well as outlining a roadmap for reviewing higher education policies in the Arab region, in addition to launching a skills observatory at several Omani universities.
The minister underscored the importance of focusing on diverse educational patterns that offer multiple options to meet labour market requirements. This conference is considered one of the projects that formalizes the partnership between Omani universities and colleges with higher education institutions in both Arab and foreign countries, as well as international organizations.
The minister mentioned that the year 2025 will see the launch of Oman’s announcement in the field of scientific research next January, along with Oman's higher education announcement in October.
Dr. Salim Araji, Regional Director of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) presented an initial vision for the conference, which included proposed topics to be discussed in the field of higher education and the role of artificial intelligence in supporting it, the reality of higher education in the Arab world while highlighting the skills of the private sector and linking them to educational institutions, and re-evaluating higher education policies in the region. He also addressed the roles assigned to the parties organizing the conference.
He expressed the organization's readiness to build a fruitful partnership with the Ministry and educational institutions in the Sultanate of Oman, in cooperation with relevant international organizations, to benefit from the organization's technical expertise in linking higher education outcomes to the dynamic demands of the labour market and to collaborate directly with educational institutions to analyze the current state of graduates' skills and propose recommendations and future visions so that decision-makers can make informed decisions based on realistic figures.
