Leadership of private universities and colleges in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The rapid economic and social development in the Sultanate of Oman has led to an increasing demand for higher education since 1970. The Government is now involved, and is encouraging the private sector to provide higher education services through colleges and universities in order to prepare Omanis with the qualifications and skills required to support the country`s future political economic development.Higher education in the Sultanate of Oman has a range of different challenges, such as educational policies and regulations, the management of universities and colleges, funding, and maintaining quality standards in higher education institutions.One of the major challenges facing the decision makers in higher education in Oman is the effectiveness of the leadership of colleges and universities. Strong academic leadership is paramount to the effective running of educational institutions, and a professional measurement is needed to analyse the current management of these institutions. There is the need for a proper policy to ensure the recruitment of suitable leaders to run these establishments in order to respond to the dynamic changes within the society.The public and the government want to maintain a balanced situation where the private higher education institutions are enjoying a good income while providing quality education.The research aims to analyse the type of leadership required in higher education in Oman by examining government policies and strategies related to higher education. More specifically, it will evaluate the performance of leadership at the level of presidents and deans and their roles in selected private higher education institutions. By doing so, different leadership theories, perceptions of leadership and possible measures for assessing the effectiveness of leadership will be interpreted and analysed.This research is inductive based on a qualitative and exploratory approach. The findings have contributed to the development of an academic leadership model applicable to the Oman higher education institutions, and have generated some recommendations to develop the performance of presidents and deans of higher education institutions to attain the level which is acceptable to the Government and Omani society