Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:57:12 +0000

Muscat Confidential are pleased to offer an exclusive interview with Dr. Alimohommed Bhayani, Chief Operating Officer of Michigan State University Dubai, on the topic of Higher Education in Oman.

He had some frank comments on the state of Oman's Higher Education system, the extent of cheating and plagiarism, what's wrong with the Ministry of Higher Education, and most importantly - how we could do something about it. Having worked for 12 years in Oman he has, as he says, "a fair understanding of the Higher Education system there".

His original article on Higher Education in the region, published in the Khaleej Times, is quoted below. He also presented an in-depth paper on the same subject at the International Centre for Higher Education Management (ICHEM).

Photo: Recent graduates at SQU. Are they getting a decent education? Not at the College of Commerce, according to Dr. Bhayani

Dr. Bhayani generously agreed to let Muscat Confidential ask him some questions that were more specifically directed to Oman's Higher Education Institutes [HEI], given his significant professional expertise in Universities combined with years of local experience. He did not disappoint, as you'll see in this pretty hard hitting interview:


MC: Thank you for speaking with us Dr. Bhayani.
What do you think are the current standards in Oman HEI? (relative to GCC, Region, and the World)

Dr. B: Very poor standards. You will get comparison figures by going through the website webometrics*. Compared to some HEI, Sultan Qaboos University has fared well but not all its colleges. The reputation of the College of Commerce is very bad.

MC: Do you have any comment on the commonly reported incidence in Omani HEI (both State and Private) of rampant plagarism, cheating, and complicity by staff in allowing cheating to circumvent controls and allow higher 'pass' rates that are (in the short term) apparently in the interests of both Student and teacher?

Dr. B: The whole system is plagued with plagiarism. I have discussed some issues in my more in-depth ICHEM article.

I had an opportunity to be part of the recruitment committee at the College of Banking and Financial Studies (a government college). We used to undertake a demonstration class for lecturers whom we used to recruit, and to our surprise we found that lecturers who came for interview from other private / government colleges had a lack of basic knowledge of their subject. How are these lecturers going to teach and assess??? They will not be able to do so, and therefore 'Pass' everyone.

I recruited a Senior Lecturer from a private college who had previously had to resign when he refused to pass a student who had submitted a blank paper in an exam. The Ministry of Higher Education is lenient because they have to pass people in order to clear the system as new secondary school graduates have to come in the system.


MC: What specifically should the Government do to maintain (and improve) quality in Private Universities, especially where there is no track record [of that institution] in the market?

Dr. B: (1)A strong accreditation regime. The Oman Accreditation Board which was established some years ago has not done enough to bring about quality Higher Education. The main reason is lack of expertise and political will to close down an HEI which openly flouts quality standards.
(2)Publishing league tables which will allow students and parents to make informed decisions.
(3)Publishing Employability Data and salary figures will allow comparison and force HE Institutions to improve quality.


MC: How can the best parts of the market (competition, rapid response to changing demand, exploitation of efficiency) be retained and used by Governments, while avoiding Soviet-style approaches?

Dr. B: Open entry. Allow HEI's to be established freely. In Oman, for example, the Ministry of Higher Education will not allow new HEIs, just on the premise that there are already existing HEIs delivering the same courses. This lends protection to existing HEIs delivering lower quality.
However, using certain measures like employability data, governments can control funding to universities. The Market knows best and should be allowed to operate freely. However, the role of government is to provide information to students and parents so that they can distinguish quality providers from 'teaching storefronts'.

Another measure is the accreditation regime I referred to earlier.


MC: In the current market especially, how do private universities avoid the financial temptation to lower admissions and examination standards to stay afloat?

Dr. B: Government should give them core funding every year to cover fixed costs. The reputation of the university in the end will bring about additional funding in form of fund raising activities. World-over, universities receive substantial funding from their alumni who, after receiving quality education, were placed in high positions. Reputational funding will help HEIs in long term.

In the short term, league tables and publishing of accreditation reports would force universities to maintain their standards. Government funding should be tied to employability figures, and this will help universities to sustain themselves in short term till they build a strong alumni base. The culture of giving to universities is virtually non-existent here.


MC: How can we (students/parents/employers/Government) establish/demonstrate when HEI in Oman are really world class and effective (accepting that we will never really have a Harvard/Oxford/Beijing/Sorbonne class University)?

Dr. B: Internationalisation of Higher Education by inviting foreign students to come and study in Oman. Abu Dhabi has adopted this model. They have invited Sorbonne and New York University to establish in the emirate. NYU is recruiting scholars from all over the world. This will help other local HEI to learn from them, collaborate in research, make local institutions more effective and competitive, make local students also more competitive, etc.
MC: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to Muscat Confidential, Dr. Bhayani.

Note:The inverview between Muscat Confidential and Dr. Bhayani was held via email between Jan 2nd and 3rd, 2010. Dr. Bhayani is expressing his personal opinion.

*Sultan Qaboos University is ranked 15th in the Arab World, and 2,621st in the world. No other Omani University or HEI makes it into the world's top 6000.

Clearly all this talk of a Knowledge Based economy, in the GCC and in Oman, is just a hallucination. The educational standards are low to start with, and it seems that cheating, plagiarism, absenteeism, and wasta are all rampant to ensure no-one can 'fail'. We are short-changing our youth and our economy by allowing this disgrace.

A degree is NOT a magic piece of paper that somehow entitles you to a highly paid/management job. It is all about the skills and knowledge attained in the process that count (obviously, you may think). Most of our HEIs seem to effectively sell useless degrees for little work that are (correctly) seen by employers as having little value. Meanwhile the 'graduates' are being short-changed at no small cost to them as individuals or to the Omani State.

This is why we have people who supposedly studied English for years and can hardly hold a conversation; people with degrees in Business who can't even count; the list goes on.

We employers meanwhile just try to hire the brightest and hardest working, and then educate them (again) ourselves... Meanwhile those Omani students who can afford it (or who have a well connected parent who can get a Government Scholarship) and who actually want a real education go to the USA and Australia.

UPDATE: I realise this is a topic close to the day to day lives of many of my Omani readers. So I've turned on anonymous comments for this post, as I also know many of you don't want to create an avatar just to comment on this. Be sensible.

Here is Dr Bhayani's original piece for Khaleej Times published on the 1st of January. [His mention of Oman has been highlighted by UD]

Khaleej Times, UAE
Marketisation of Higher Education in the Gulf Dr. Alimohommed Bhayani (At Home)

1 January 2010

The recent economic crisis has brought back memories of 1998 when oil fell to below $10 a barrel leading to a crisis in the Gulf and triggering the rise of private higher education in the GCC. This was not unique to the GCC—governments worldwide have reduced HE budgets and adopted the ‘market’ to help the transition from elite to mass HE systems; what is termed ‘Marketisation’.

David Dill, Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina (USA) rightly states the purpose of Marketisation: “freeing, facilitating, and stimulating markets in higher education will provide academic institutions with incentives to improve quality of teaching and research, to enhance academic productivity, and to stimulate innovations in academic programs, research, and services of benefit to the larger society.”

The marketisation of higher education is accepted on the grounds that free markets ensure the optimum allocation of resources (through competition) and benefit society. Its proponents criticise government regulation on the premise that it obstructs the efficient allocation of resources.

Because higher education is a ‘public good’ with a mission beyond teaching - serving society, advancing knowledge, and developing students – some believe that simply leaving higher education to the free market will not deliver outcomes which are socially optimal.

The detractors of Marketisation argue that positive government intervention helps provide ‘Equity’ and ‘Access’ in society whilst market forces will result in poorer people with lower qualifications and incomes. But even they have to agree that government over-regulation can harm quality, efficiency, differentiation and innovation.

Dear Bok of Harvard Kennedy School summarises…. “bit by bit, commercialisation threatens to change the character of a university in ways that limit its freedom, saps its effectiveness, and lowers its standing in society.”

Knowledge societies, such as those emerging across the GCC, need universities as centers of knowledge creation and dissemination but a fully state-funded education system does not incentivise innovation. Likewise, the creation of private universities solely dependent on student fees leads to a focus on maximizing this revenue and an adverse effect on quality.

In the UAE, for example, where higher education is more about teaching rather than research, there are a host of teaching challenges connected with ‘Marketisation’, such as a shortage of teaching staff, less qualified staff (minimising costs), extra teaching load on existing staff (reducing quality), teaching only examination areas, inadequate resources for scientific training. (The same criticisms have been applied to Marketisation for UK higher Education).

For society to realise the advantages of a free market economy there has to be a level playing field for higher education; students and parents must have sufficient information to make comparative assessments and choices, creating a challenge for ‘Marketisation’ and those (governments) regulating the market. This branding (communications) of higher education institutions can distort the level playing field with prestigious higher education institutions attracting better students and more income.

Some academics feel that externalities still play a vital role in Marketisation and that private providers cannot recover their full costs through pricing and need some form of government subsidy.

I know from my own recent work in Oman that employers cite quality issues with private higher education institutions. An ideal model would be core state funding for universities and then other diversified external funding from funded research, regional outreach, and internationalisation activities.

Another aspect of marketisation is the relaxation of existing regulation in the public sector governing higher education finances, personnel, and curriculum, essentially devolving control over these decisions to institutions themselves. The result is an increasing convergence of public and private higher education sector interests for the benefit of society – catering to the needs both of the national and expatriate communities. ‘Marketisation’ is a commendable – or inevitable—process and in the long run all countries will adopt it. Governments alone cannot manage mass higher education systems and the private sector has to play its role in providing both access and quality.

In the Gulf region, ‘Marketisation’ has been only partially successful – it has helped to create access to higher education but it still has a long way to go in terms of the quality it delivers.

Dr. Alimohommed Bhayani is Chief Operating Officer of Michigan State University Dubai. Views expressed are his own. Khaleej Times.