Accreditation by the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority and Quality Assurance of Education is a mandatory requirement for Higher Education Institutions in Oman. Following MTC’s submission of its Self-Assessment Report to the Authority in 2017, and the receipt of the resulting feedback report in 2018, the college started work to prepare for the Institutional Standards Assessment (ISA) in 2023. This represents an important milestone for our institution as it will confirm the quality of its processes and operations in accordance with the national requirement.
In this regard, the college has started the major project of making MTC policy-ready. This initial step will ensure that all areas and processes associated with them are described in/by policies and such-like documents to enable effective operation.
A Steering Committee was formed in 2019 to oversee progress of the project. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the work planned then. With the easing of the crisis situation, the work resumed early in 2021, with the appointment of teams and working groups to address the 68 areas of interest (criteria) as required by the OAAAQAE. Criterion team leaders and members appointed, total 117 across all departments in the College, ensuring fair representation.
Several events have been held in the latter part of 2021, including presentations by Dr Khalaf Al Abri (ex-head of Sultan Qaboos University’s Quality Assurance Office) on their experience of accreditation, and the MTC Directorate of Quality Assurance to explain the nature of the work required and describe the reporting structure in place. In addition to these, help surgery sessions have been delivered to assist criterion teams in their work. All presentations have been recorded and are available to teams via a shared folder specifically created for the project.
The current phase of the project, making MTC policy-ready, is set to be completed by the end of April 2022. Following this, the College will operate for at least one calendar cycle to generate the results it needs to evidence its effective operation and gain accredited status.
The project is of major importance to the college and concerns all staff as quality is everyone’s business. Accordingly, the Directorate of Quality Assurance will be organising in the beginning of 2022 an information event for all staff to explain the work under way and its significance, as the success in securing accreditation will require the involvement of all.
