4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
2003 – Based on numerous feedback from students and parents, the Ministry of Higher Education conducted a study of improve the system and automate the processes. A team of five specialists from public and private Institutions was formed to discuss and submit a proposal of an electronic application for admission system.
2003 – The team visited some countries which had relevant admission systems, including Iran, Jordan, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group was able to develop an outline of the electronic application admission system as proposal. It was discussed and approved by the concern staff at the Ministry of Higher Education.
2005 – Based on the report of the team, a proposal was submitted to the Higher Education Council. The member voted for the new admission system and assigned the task to develop the new admission system to the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). Subsequently, a Royal Decree No. 104/2005, was issued to establish the Higher Education Admission Center (HEAC). This was followed by a ministerial mandate (No. 76/2006) issued by the MOHE which formed the Foundation Committee for the HEAC represented all HEIs.
2005 – Mobilisation of project team and resources. The human factor plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of any project. So MOHE tried to select the best staff to work in this project.
2005-2006 Development of the Electronic System
• Prepare HEAC documents- preparation of user specifications and development of business process for the admission to higher education institutions
• Choosing a company to design the admission system - An open tender was published for designing the electronic admission system. A company anyway chosen based on the company’s experience, outsource, support and the clarity of the implementation plan of the system.
• Testing the system (during 2005-2006) - an ongoing process of testing the system was adopted. HEAC Staff and some experts from the HEIs involved in test all aspects of the system to give immediate feedback. Monthly meeting of staff of HEAC experts with the Foundation Committee to assess progress.
• Launch of awareness conference for the students and community
• Establishing an independent appeal board to enhance the confidence of students and the community
2006 – Official launch of the HEAC
2007 - Additional features in the system
• HEAC Network and HEAC website was implemented on Oct.2005
• HEAC distributed student’s handbook to all schools with full details of available courses (programmes) and how to apply to the HEAC and at the same time it started a huge awareness campaign.
• Information security management system was implemented at the HEAC to secure the system.
• SMS messaging was used to provide status update to applicants
• A service data exchange portal was established between HEAC and the HEIs, Ministry of Social Development, and all secondary schools which have General Certificate students (so that schools can follow students’ registration and allocation).
• A disaster recovery system (DRS) site was implemented so that student can register through this site and data can be recovered in case the main system encounters any trouble.
2012 - Mobile Application
As HEAC is keen to apply the up-to-date electronic means in order to facilitate the process of providing the best services for all applicants of the HEAC electronic system, HEAC has applied a new electronic service as an addition to other services provided for students. Through which, students can complete the required registration and admission procedures through smart phone applications. This application also includes the service of finding the geographical locations of the higher education institutions inside the Sultanate through GPS system.
|
|
5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
The idea of an electronic centralized admission was proposed by The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) in a report sent to The Higher Education Council , a highly authoritive body, which plays a pivotal role in the decision-making on education. The report suggested simplifying the procedures of applying for admission to higher education institutions (HEIs) by having a centralized e-system which avails the application services at times and in ways that are more convenient to the applicants with a minimal amount of paperwork. Students register through the HEAC system and submit their applications electronically, from anywhere in Oman or abroad through different mechanisms, including SMS text messages, for convenient communication.
The main stakeholders involved are employees of the Ministry of Higher Education, Higher Educational Institutions as well as students and parents in Oman. The following groups of students greatly benefitted from the HEAC system;
• Students residing in Oman and who are sitting for the current year Omani General Certificate Diploma Examination, i.e. taken in that academic year.
• Students residing in Oman who are sitting for the International Baccalaureate Diploma, or equivalent, that academic year.
• Omani students from outside Oman who are sitting for an examination which is equivalent to the Omani General Certificate Diploma Examination, that academic year.
• Students who have taken in previous years (before that academic year) either the Omani General Certificate Diploma Examination or an equivalent, and which has been taken inside or outside Oman. In such a case students are admitted to private higher education and they pay the studying expenses. The public institutions consider ONLY Omani students who are taking examinations in the current year, i.e. in that academic year.
|
6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
Manpower
To support the HEAC system, an initial team of 10 people were selected and trained. The team is also supported by private vendors with 2 personnel. Today, the HEAC system has a total of 28 personnel.
Technical resources
• Hardware and Software - To ensure providing high quality and smooth services, HEAC has implemented a powerful hardware device which can handle and process the large number of requests during the peak time of registration. On the other hand, the development of the system was done in house with Java which is considered the top programing language in terms of security and stability.
• Security - To fulfill the critical requirement of having a highly secure infrastructure to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the HEAC online information, the MoHE implemented a design that provides total protection at multiple levels. The multi-layered security architecture is very important to protect the online applications/websites from different layers of Internet threats. Each layer of these threats needs a specialized layer of protection to maximize security which includes Firewall and IPS, Web Application Firewall, Server Level Endpoint Security, Email Security, Web Security and Disaster recovery. This ensures that all data are back-up regularly, Hot backup was used since it would be a virtual image of our current data center and can be brought up immediately to full production in case of the main system stopped for any reason. A Disaster Recovery Site is also been considered currently.
Financial Costs
Total financial investment to the project is about OMR200,000 or US$520,000 which is fully funded by the Ministry of Higher Education.
|
|
7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
a. Strong mandate from the government - The HEAC was established by a Royal Decree and it has its own legislation documents which elaborates in a clear and transparent manner duties and obligation of all parties involved in the admission process. This promotes accountability and ensures institutional and regulatory sustainability.
b. Streamlining and process re-engineering - The HEAC was designed to help thousands of Omani students inside and outside Oman to apply for scholarships and grants in government universities and colleges. The system has unified all admission procedures in all colleges and universities into one application so the students can fill only one online application. Through the HEAC online application, students can view all needed information and requirements for each HEI and their programs without the need to travel to HEIs one after the other to submit their application. The HEAC online application saved the time since there is no waiting for application results from each individual HEI.
c. Change process - Another change is that applicants apply before they sit for their final General Certificate Examinations. The idea is that they will be better able to make suitable choices at a time when there is less pressure and when more people will be available to advise and assist them. Although students will be allowed to change after getting their final results, the advice to applicants is that they should not postpone these critical decisions until such a stressful time. Bear in mind that, even when student know their results, they will not be aware whether they would be entitled to a place in different programs. It is better to consider such important matters in a calm way in advance and according to their preference.
d. Weighted subject average criteria - Also, in certain programmes there was considerable dropouts (like medicine). One of the main reasons for this was that students general average for all the subjects he/she studied at the secondary high school level was the only key factor involved in allocating seats for students. This criterion was flawed. The center introduced the weighted-subject average; instead, in which certain subjects are essential to a programme will be given more weightage than other subjects.
e. HEIs receive the best students, without repetition of procedures – Through automation, applicants need only to fill one application form, process it, run an allocation process in a very transparent and just way, and provide the required information to the HEIs electronically. No paperwork involved!
|
|
8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
a. Electronic application for HEI seats (no paperwork) - The development of electronic system enabling all students, wherever they were ,whether in Oman or abroad, to submit their applications for higher education institutes (HEIs), through a computer linked to the internet or through text messages from their mobile telephones without the need to physically go to each individual HEI to submit their paper application ,as well as, to inform students of their offers of seats electronically and students has to go to the institute in which he/she was offered a seat for enrollment. Through the electronic system, transparency in the process is ensured and key stakeholders are able to retrieved reports and accurate information on regular basis to access its integrity and sustainability.
b. Only one electronic application request for all HEIs - Formerly, students had to apply to only one higher education institute at a time. As a result students had to submit several applications at different times and it was obvious that this approach was a waste of effort, money, and valuable time for all the stakeholders. Even it was worse for students living outside Oman or even outside the capital (Muscat) area since in such cases some students and their parents had to rent apartments in Muscat during the periods of applying for admission to HEIs. The strategy of HEAC was to develop an electronic system programmed in such a way that students can apply for up to 40 different programs of study offered by HEIs using the internet or SMS text messages using their mobile telephones which almost every student or parent had one and hence no need to travel to submit more than one application!
c. Annually HEAC holds workshops for all concerned institutions; prepare questioners, gets feedbacks from students, parents, Higher Education Institutes and Appeal board. HEAC studies and analyze all these feedbacks and acts accordingly. Additionally, MOHE published, Higher Education Admission Statistics for the Academic year: includes all statistical data regarding the Higher Education Admissions for that academic year. These statistics helps:
• Researchers in the educational, labor market fields.
• Higher education admission strategy.
• Higher education institutions for future planning in program requirements.
• To inform Higher Education Council by performance indicators in their decisions regarding education in Oman.
|
|
9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
a. Fear of the technology and skeptical attitudes about new processes.
This fear was eradicated through awareness programme to students and their parents as well as demonstrating the HEAC user friendly system for students to submit their applications with ease; and made sure that applicants are treated equally and fairly in a highly transparent process. Training and awareness programmes were also conducted for employees of MOHE and HEIs to ease their fear of new IT-based system.
b. Different marking criteria.
A major obstacle encountered was how to deal with different students secondary school examinations results and certificates. For example, some Omani students sat for The International Baccalaureate (IB) with points as its scoring system, while others sat for The Advanced Placement Exam with different points scoring system, other students sat for GCE exams (A & AS levels) with its grading systems in addition to students enrolled in Oman secondary schools and Omani students studying in different Gulf Countries each with its own independent grading system. So, the new system had to cope with all of these different exams and different marking and grading systems. This was pains taking but with the wise judgment of academics and experts of the HEAC, an internal mapping table (transformation) was designed and then implemented and thus the admission based on this mapping was carried out successfully! In a fair and transparent process.
c. Not every student has a home computer.
Since not every student has a home computer, computer labs at HEIs, and schools in different regions and locations are made available for students during the application periods with the support of the MOE and HEIs. In addition, HEAC also implemented SMS text messages in which student could send a text message to 90190, and accesses 22 different services.
|