The most frequently mentioned rationale or reason for borrowing Western methods and systems was related to the local historical development of HE, and education in general, in Oman. The respondents mentioned several factors that incited, influenced or even demanded the adoption of Western systems and these mainly included: the nascent state of HE, affiliation in the private sector and the policy of adopting English as a medium of instruction in HE.
Nascent State of HE – Faster to Import
Basically, the respondents reported how prior to the 1980s, a HE system did not exist in Oman and that the faster route was to import from already existing systems. P17 summarised the whole story stating, “seeing that the country [Oman] did not have its own system, instead of wasting years in creating a system from scratch, it was a good idea to actually borrow from other countries”. However, other respondents also added a few details to the origins of this importing story. For example, P16 noted that this was an “old practice” dating back to the early stages of the school education system in Oman, which was brought from other Arab states, a borrowing policy which continued when HE began in the country. He gave the example of the foundation of the Colleges of Applied Sciences (CAS), whose project was surrendered to a New Zealand (NZ) experts’ company by the Omani officials in order to save time. Moreover, P13 pointed out that at the beginning the government depended on a scholarship programme for tertiary education and the students who were sent to some Arab states and Western countries such as the US, the UK, and other European countries, ultimately had a role to play in the initial decision to import from outside.
In short, importing from the West was about taking a shortcut to accelerate the establishment of a HE system. However, P10, a parliamentary official with high decision-making powers, explained that because it was easy to get things that were ready, this gradually developed into a “pattern we got used to in the region”, not only in Oman.
Affiliation: A Faster Path to a (Quality) Private HE System
Another angle in the historical development of HE rationale that many respondents gave as a strong reason for the practice of importing Western models was the policy of affiliation of local private HEIs with foreign ones, which was imposed by the government to ensure a quality private HE sprung in Oman in the 1990s. This, subsequently, brought other support and quality management programmes.
For example, P06, a senior decision maker in HE, mentioned that Oman “did not have an accreditation authority or … a system in place” for HE. So, “if you are affiliated with a certain university abroad, it would want to protect its name and therefore it would provide the assistance to ensure that quality is maintained and become self-regulatory”, P06 rationalised. Supporting this opinion was P12, dean of a Private HEI, who stated that
“the rationale behind it is that it was compulsory from the ministry of HE regulation that you have to have a Western well-known partner to establish your HEI”. He explained, “When we established private HEIs in Oman, we had a Western partner to bring in the academic programmes. With that, we also brought different academic support systems and different academic quality system management and the processes and procedures. All that in the first instant was all brought from outside and we built in here local capacity, using those modules”. Similarly, P14 argued, “I think the vision of the MoHE is that you don’t start from scratch and they have to approve”. He explained, “let’s say the partnership that you are going to let’s say make an academic affiliation with university X or Y, it has to go through them first and they study it, is it worth it? Or are you just selecting somebody? So, their vision is that you start with a quality-based [HEI], you don’t start from scratch”. Moreover, P13 said that when private HE was established, affiliation with foreign institutions came as a government directive, which was important to benefit from these institutions and “guarantee the least standards of quality” in Omani private HEIs.
However, other respondents saw affiliation to be only a faster means to an end, regardless of the quality level. In this sense, this justification is directly related to the first rationale of creating a shortcut to founding a general HE system by relying on the affiliate HEI to manage and be responsible for its local partner. For instance, P10 stated that the policy of affiliation “had its circumstances” largely because there was no “vessel” ready in Oman to contain HEIs, mainly colleges. Likewise, P01 believed that the main explanation for imposing affiliation was because HE in Oman was new and colleges were just beginning to exist.
Adopting English as a Medium of Instruction in HE
Also related to the first rationale of historical development of the Omani HE, is the powerful auxiliary factor of the adoption of English as a medium of instruction (and sometimes also communication and correspondence) in HE. According to some respondents this has strongly influenced the decision to import (or to continue to import) methods and systems from Western, especially English-speaking countries. P03 pointed out that three to four decades ago HE was previously delivered in Arabic, but this later changed, particularly in the year 2000, due to Western-educated officials who replaced old officials educated in the Arab world. However, P06, telling a different story,
elucidated that from the beginning “a strategic decision was made to teach in English because of the lack of good learning or teaching materials” available in Arabic. So, instead of waiting for materials to be translated, “obviously we went to the West”, P06 justified. All the same, P07 rejected the notion that the use of English in HE was ‘strategically imposed’ by the government and insisted, “it’s by default more than being an official decision”, referring to other factors such as historical political ones and lack of expertise in Oman and Arab World. Moreover, P13 argued that there were “specific circumstances” for the adoption of English to deliver HE since in the past the original management of vital sectors such as finance, banking, Omani market, job market and big factories, etc. was foreign and they were, and still are, run in English. This necessitated that graduates be familiar with English, he justified. By ‘specific circumstances’, P13 most probably meant the aftermath of the 1970 coup and the foundation of the modern state and its major apparatuses with the help of the British.
In short, the course of establishing and developing an Omani HE had great influence, both directly and indirectly, and mainly consciously, on the initial disposition of officials to import Western systems and models of all sorts.