The Higher Education Statistical Database Project

Project Idea

Today all nations consider higher education to be of utmost importance for its scientific value as well as from an investment perspective. The higher education sector is seen as responsible for the overall process of human resource development and the building of human capital. Detailed data about this sector is necessary for planning, for implementing development projects and for the conduct of research. With this in mind, the Ministry of Higher Education has decided to establish a Higher Education Statistical Database. The objective of this project is to gather and publish information (data) from all public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The data will be available for all stakeholders.

Higher Education Statistical Database

The Statistical Database will be the reservoir of detailed data about higher education. The data will cover the following:

Students: Records of students in private and government higher education institutions in different status categories: applied, registered, transferred and graduated, as well as students holding external scholarships of various kinds;

HEIs: Information about all private and government higher education institutions in the Sultanate;

External scholarships: Scholarships provided by the Ministry of Higher Education, the number in different programs of study, universities attended, qualifications sought and other details;

Staff: details of staff working at higher education institutions;

Graduates: Job status of graduates working in the public and private sectors.

Implementation and Supervision

The Higher Education Admission Center (HEAC) represents the Ministry of Higher Education in establishing and managing the database. In addition, HEAC will analyze, document, publish and provide information as required. The source of the data and the first beneficiaries of the database will be the government and private higher education institutions and other relevant organizations.
Data exchange procedures 

The figure below shows data exchange procedures using a special electronic system for the statistical database:

Data quality assurance

In order to achieve complete and valid data and in order to avoid any data entry errors, the database will implement quality assurance mechanisms to minimize errors as much as possible. The attached figure illustrates the steps in the proposed system