:: HEAC :: Higher Education Admission Centre – مركز القبول الموحد

Important Remarks

The Higher Education Statistical System In the Sultanate of Oman.

General Information about HESS

The Purpose of HESS

The Institutions which will provide data

The nature and type of data

The interaction between HESS and the suppliers of data

The law and codes of practice to govern the collection and
use of data, as well as data protection and privacy

The technical specifications for the preparation of data and its transmission to HESS

- The Purpose of the Statistical System

-           The purpose of the Statistical System is to collect, validate, analyze and
            make available data about the Higher Education sector.

-           The data will include information concerning students in all HEIs in the
            Sultanate and students studying abroad.

-           It will also include data about all staff ( including academic and
            administratative staff ) in all HEIs in the Sultanate, as well as general and
            specific financial information about each HEI.

- The Higher Education Admission Centre (HEAC) will manage the system.Among the management functions for which HEAC will be responsible are to collect, validate, analyze and make available appropriate data.

- The data may be provided by HESS to government, HEIs, Research Councils and other relevant bodies. In addition, certain data may be made available publicly.

- The Institutions which will provide data

The following Institutions will provide data to HESS:

a. All Higher Education Institutions in the Sultanate

b. Directorate of scholarships at Ministry of Higher Education

c.         Ministry of Manpower

d.         The Higher Education Admissions Centre

e.         Other Institutions which may be identified as being in a position to
            provide appropriate information

- The interaction between HESS and the suppliers of data

1. HESS has been given responsibility for management of the statistical system.
Therefore, in co-operation with data suppliers, HESS will draw up specifications, procedures and schedules for the provision of data.

This document sets out the basic specifications and procedures.

2.         Each year, after consultation with data suppliers, HESS will distribute
            to them appropriate schedules, and any necessary revised specifications
            and procedures.

3. It is the responsibility of all relevant data suppliers to co-operate fully with HESS and to provide data in the appropriate format and within the agreed time schedules.

4. The transmission of data from suppliers to HESS will be electronic.

5. Within their own recording systems, Institutions will develop and use
codes, statistical classifications and data fields as required by HESS.
These are identified later in this document and may be amended later if necessary.

6. Each data suppliers will nominate, as HESS Liaison Officer, a person to be responsible for the collection and supply of data to HESS. This person will also be that Institution’s point of contact with HESS and will be the Institution’s representative at any appropriate meetings.

Each data suppliers must notify HESS about the person whom it nominates and must also notify HESS immediately if the nominee changes.

7. HESS will inform all data suppliers about the HESS staff who will be
their points of contact

- The data and its sources

Data	Source
Applications	HEAC
Students	HEIs
Staff
Financial
Students after graduation	Ministry of Manpower

Note: the data source for Omani students who study abroad is The Directorate General of Scholarships at Ministry of Higher Education

Development of new data fields, etc.

It is realized that some institutions may not have within their own systems all of the codes, classifications and data fields which are needed by HESS.
However, institutions are now required to develop and use these to transmit the necessary data to HESS.

Information from previous years.
Since institution will add new fields in its system, the old students and staff data will not available in new system. Therefore we suggest that the Institutions should do the following:

Adding students data at first semester registration
Distribute form to staff and then entering their data

Institutions which don't have electronic system for registration and human resources, it is recommended that they implement one .

- The law and codes of practice to govern the collection and use of data, as well as data protection and privacy

1. HESS will be governed by the Statistical Law, Article (6) in Royal Decree No 29/2001, which states that

(All government units, private entities and individuals shall be obliged to provide all the data requested by the Directorate General or the government units that collect and publish the statistical data concerning the issues falling under their respective jurisdiction. Full cooperation shall be extended to these units to reflect the whole truth, according to the internationally known statistical standards, and according to the schedule prepared by the Directorate General or the government authority. Ministry of Defense and other security authorities – excluding the Customs- are exempted from provision of data except what it may allow according to a special written permission).

2. In addition, HESS will be subject to the Statistical Law, Article (8) in Royal Decree No 29/2001, which states that

(All the individual data, as per the provisions of this law, concerning any statistics or census are considered confidential. It is prohibited to publish such data unless in an aggregate form. It is not allowed to disclose such data to any individual or public organization without the consent of the concerned, and it is also not allowed to use such data for non – statistical purposes).

3.In accordance with these laws, suppliers of data will provide to HESS the appropriate data and information as requested.

4. HESS will develop and operate codes of practice to ensure that data is
collected and used only in adherance with these laws.

The Statistical Law

- HESS support

The following specialists are available to assist with any enquiries about this document or about the statistical system generally.

Name	Position	Tel.	E-mail
Yahya Salam Al Mandhari	Director of Research and Admission Planning	24584477	yahya@heac.gov.om
Ahmed saleh AL-Shaqsi	Deputy of Research and Admission Planning	24584451	ahmed@heac.gov.om
D\ Adnan Ataf Alhaj	Expert	24584448	dradnan@heac.gov.om
Safiya Abdullah ALDaoudi	Planning Specialist	24584421	safiya@heac.gov.om
Khadija Murtadha AL-Lawati	Statistics Specialist	24584499	khadija@heac.gov.om
Nada AL-Hajri	Data Speialist	24584452	nada@heac.go.om