OES - GUtech Selects GEARS ERP

Oman Educational Services Collaborates with PBS to Implement GEARS ERP and Develop a New SIS for GUtech

Oman Educational Services (OES) and Prime Business Solutions (PBS) have signed a collaborative agreement to cooperate for the implementation of GEARS ERP, a cutting-edge comprehensive enterprise resource planning solution and for the development of a Student Information System (SIS).

GEARS ERP, fully developed by PBS, is designed to help increase productivity, lower costs and improve operations’ monitoring and collaborations. By rolling out GEARS ERP to one of OES entities, the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech), OES will not only be able to embrace current best practices, but it will also enable the University to integrate emerging technology to support changing organizational demands.

OES and PBS collaboration goes beyond implementing GEARS ERP, but to work together on developing a new student information system (SIS). The SIS will extend the ERP features to respond to the needs of the higher education sector and align the organisation and business insights of private universities and colleges. The ERP and SIS solutions will provide GUtech’s students as well as administrative and faculty members with the latest technology tools enabling real time access to information and processes.

Upon signing the agreement, Dr. Hussain Al Salmi, CEO of OES and GUtech Acting Rector said: “the collaboration with PBS, a strong and forward-looking Omani company, allows us to consolidate different solutions for a streamlined management of academic and administrative operations.”

The signing ceremony took place at GUtech campus in the presence of senior administrative representatives from PBS and OES, alongside heads of academic faculties from GUtech.

Al Salmi also commented: “OES has made a strategic decision to collaborate with PBS. Sharing our operational and academic knowledge with PBS team will result in an exceptional SIS to make the University’s functions simple and intuitive.”

OES is a 100% Omani-owned limited liability company with a core interest in education. OES operates a range of educational institutions in Oman, including GUtech, the first German University in GCC affiliated with RWTH Aachen University, Finland Oman School (FOS), the History of Science Centre (HSC), and other entities offering educational support and services.

 

 

(c) Text: GUtech/ Fatima El Madkouri

GUtech students and parents to obtain funding from Meethaq Islamic Bank in compliance with Islamic Sharia principles.

Oman Educational Services and Meethaq Sign Agreement to Extend Education Finance for GUtech and FOS Students and Parents

GUtech students and parents to pay tuition fees through IJARAH by Meethaq Islamic Bank.

Oman Educational Services, the owner company of the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) and Finland Oman School (FOS), has signed an agreement with Meethaq Islamic Banking from Bank Muscat to provide financing options to students paying tuition fees at GUtech and for parents paying FOS fees.

The agreement was signed by Dr Hussain Al Salmi – CEO of Oman Educational Services cum GUtech’s Acting Rector, and Shamzani Mohammed Hussain, General Manager – Meethaq Islamic Banking, in the presence of a number of officials.

The agreement will allow working students and parents to utilise the bank’s education financing service to pay to tuition fees. Thus, helping to mitigate the financial pressures on students and parents.

Besides the parents of FOS students, the financing facility will allow GUtech students and parents to obtain funding from Meethaq Islamic Bank in compliance with Islamic Sharia principles.

Following the principle of ‘Ijarah’, Meethaq will be subleasing the education services of GUtech and FOS at the request of students and parents against deferred payments to be concluded through a Service Ijarah contract.

Speaking about the agreement, Dr Al Salmi said that the partnership with Meethaq Islamic Bank allow us to expand the range of payment options available to students and parents.

Oman Educational Services operates among others Oman’s first green campus, a full-fledged campus encompassing GUtech, FOS, History of Science Centre, a Solar Facility Training, Siemens Mechatronics Lab, and a variety to workshops and labs dedicated to enriching the educational experience of students.

GUtech boasts four faculties offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. All GUtech programmes are being developed in collaboration with European partners. GUtech’s undergraduate programmes are internationally accredited.

FOS is the first private school in Oman, established in 2018, offering Finnish pedagogical model in Oman to K-12 students. FOS is open to all students from all nationalities.

The Global Executive MBA at the WU Executive Academy of the University of Vienna University of Business and Economics, now stands at the 32nd place globally.

WU MBA, offered in Oman at GUtech, Jumps in Financial Times Ranking

Jumping 16 spots in the Financial Times 2020 Executive MBA rankings, the Global Executive MBA at the WU Executive Academy of the University of Vienna University of Business and Economics, now stands at the 32nd place globally.

The Executive MBA by the WU Executive Academy is offered in Oman in collaboration with the German University of Technology in Oman. Currently, 19 students are enrolled in the programme at GUtech campus and another intake is due to start in February 2021.

The #32 ranking offers greater value to WU alumni, students, and prospective candidates. “We are very proud of our partnership with the Executive Academy of Vienna University for Economic and Business; we have excellent feedback from our current students who could see the added value that such a global programme offers them. Our unique offering of a double degree is very well received by our students, we are now recruiting for our new batch starting in February 2021.” Commented Prof Dr Heba Aziz, the Director of WU-GUtech MBA.

Joining the ranks of the world’s Top 50 Business Schools for its Executive MBA programme, the Financial Times 2020 ranking confirms the Executive MBA excellent standing. This achievement is a testament to the quality of the ongoing global success of the Executive MBA.

Financial Times Ranking for the EMBA programmes is open for business schools that are either AACBS or EQUIS accredited. It requires responses from alumni on five criteria: salary today which carries the most weight, salary increase, career progress, work experience, and aims achieved.

The WU Executive Academy is also the recipient of the coveted “triple crown” accreditation status. It is recognised by the three most prestigious international accrediting bodies: AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA.

IP policy workshop

GUtech’s Technology Transfer Office holds its first workshop on intellectual property policy

GUtech’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO) held a workshop on ‎intellectual property (IP) recently. The workshop was ‎facilitated by Dr Chris Moody, Director of GUtech Technology Transfer Office, for GUtech faculty members.

The goal of the workshop was to refine GUtech policy and its procedures, to encourage the maximum level of knowledge transfer, IP protection and commercialisation of technologies with a clear timeline enabling students and faculty researchers to publish their works.

The workshop focused on reviewing the current GUtech IP policy and its general framework, defining the aspects for its implementation, and creating a common understanding of GUtech’s priorities regarding research.

Dr Moody initiated the workshop with a discussion about the most important intellectual property rights and the general legal rights conferred by patents, design rights, copyrights, trademarks, database rights, and trade secrets.

Participants had the opportunity to express their views on the patentability and commecialisation of research outcomes, and to discuss the structure for sharing the benefits from commercialised IP.

The workshop was part of the TTO ‎activities, which aims at developing GUtech’s IP policy, expanding the outreach of faculty members for funding opportunities, ‎developing research capabilities, and helping students and faculty members engage in commercialised IP activities.

GUtech’s TTO is the outcome of a recent collaboration between GUtech and the International Emerging Technology Company (ETCO). GUtech’s TTO is led by key international advisors tasked to set out the framework for connecting GUtech researchers with industry partners for novel technologies, and to clearly define key policies in areas of ownership of intellectual property, transfer of rights, and other arrangements of key importance for the formation of spin-offs and the commecialisation of innovative ideas.

GUtech and PhazeRo bring in real-world artificial intelligence skills into the classroom and beyond

The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) signed on Tuesday 8 September a cooperation agreement with PhazeRo at GUtech campus to offer artificial intelligence, AI, courses to equip GUtech students with much needed AI skills and to bridge the gap between AI theory and real-world AI applications through project-based learning with real industry challenges.

Dr Hussain Al Salmi, GUtech’s Acting Rector, and Mr Masood Al Rawahi, PhazeRo Executive Director, signed the agreement, in the presence of Dr Nabil Al Sahli, Dean of the Engineering and Computer Science faculty at GUtech.

PhazeRo is a specialist consultancy and future-oriented technology education group, building the region’s largest engineering team out of local software talent. PhazeRo handles digital consulting, software development, talent onboarding, and continuous improvement for corporate clients so they can get back to focusing on their core business.

Al Salmi announced that the signing of the agreement establishes a solid partnership ground with PhazeRo, as it will contribute to bring in real-world AI applications to the classroom. He added that GUtech spares no effort to provide students with the right practical skills they need to be ready for the job market. “collaborating with PhazeRo to infuse our curriculum with hands-on learning opportunities is an example,” he said, before adding that GUtech always seeks to bring in the industry into the learning process of students.

GUtech is finalising all requirements to launch the Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence programmes, he stated. “It is extremely important to bring in the practical aspects of AI into our Computer Science curriculum and beyond.”

Through the expertise of PhazeRo, GUtech students will get to explore the real-life applications of AI in different sectors. Al Rawahi “We believe that high-performing tech talent is at the heart of a thriving innovation ecosystem. Our mission is to accelerate the development of the next generation of software engineers and data scientists to realise the ambitious goals laid out in Vision 2040. To achieve this, deep integration between industry and academia is necessary. We are excited to co-create a programme, with the GUtech, that infuses our industry experience with a rigorous academic curriculum that is very practical in nature.”

In the pilot stage, PhazeRo will deliver introductory AI courses to third year Computer Science students in September 2020. Al Sahli explained that “With the AI boom, it was necessary for GUtech to find an industrial partner who can support our vision in forming local AI experts.”

He continued: “PhazeRo is a young and very promising Omani company which we think can connect GUtech to the AI market and support us in improving our academic programmes by offering the opportunity to our students to practice AI concepts in real-world applications. We will start this partnership as soon as this month with a course that PhazeRo will offer to our third year CS students. This course will focus on machine learning and will give students the opportunity to plan and execute real machine learning projects to solve real-world problems.”

The collaboration with PhazeRo will also benefit students who will be joining the recently approved GUtech’s Bachelor of Artificial Intelligence programme. Upon launching the programme, PhazeRo will be engaged to deliver specialised courses.

The collaboration also aims at extending AI courses and trainings to passionate professionals seeking to upskill their technical knowledge in machine learning and AI applications.

The signing ceremony was held at GUtech campus in the presence of Mr Talal Al Nabulsi, responsible for training at GUtech’s training unit (TSSC), and Ms Reem Al Taei, the Business Development Executive at PhazeRo.

Innovative Business Projects presented

HALBAN An innovative logistics application, an online platform for freelance services, a ‘clinic on the go’, a medical service website ‘I care’ or an online destination management company for tourists visiting Oman, students of the Department of Logistics, Tourism and Service Management have displayed a large number of innovative projects of the ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation Course’ during an exhibition entitled “Fikra – The Secret of Getting Ahead is Getting Started”, held in the university’s auditorium on Sunday. ‘Fikra’ is the Arabic word for ‘idea’. “I am extremely happy to see the various results of the course and I hope the students will continue working on their ideas and realize small businesses. The Omani Academy for Small and Medium Enterprises has also supported the course with lectures on idea creation and idea evaluation. Many student companies are already online. These ideas will be further discussed and we will continue to promote their final realization,” said Prof. Osman Barghouth, Head of the Department who supervised all the projects. Students were asked to create innovative ideas in three categories: websites, manufacturing and food & beverage businesses.

“It is great to see the enthusiasm of our students who developed their own ideas, their own concepts and the realization of the ideas. It is not only learning from the textbook but realizing a business project from beginning to end,” said Prof. Dr. Armin Eberlein, Deputy-Rector for Academic Affairs at GUtech.

Abeer Al Kharousi, Shurooq Al Busaidi and Shamsa Al Balushi created an online application for  renting out warehouse spaces. “We offer three services within one application. Our goal is to help warehouse owners advertise their renting services, to locate the best warehouse for traders, to satisfy their requirements, to work as third party to link buyers and sellers and to reduce the gap between the customers and the service providers,” said Nama Al Balushi while explaining their mobile application ‘Rent Me’.

Another business idea is “E-lancers”, an online platform that offers various small services and support for the local community in Oman like babysitting, tutoring, house cleaning and technical fixing and repairing. Another idea was presented by Ohood Al Hammadi, Mohammed Al Fazari, Fatema Al Riyami, Huda Al Jahwari and Hiba Al Waili. They presented their business idea on supporting and branding small and medium enterprises in Oman through online marketing, designing and consultation tools. The ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation Course’ aimed to introduce students to various aspects of entrepreneurship and starting their own businesses with a focus on the support of the Omani ecosystem for start-up companies. The course included finding new business ideas, linking creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, developing a business model, writing a business plan and presenting the final project to fellow students and professors.

(c) GUtech / Text & Photo: Dr. Manuela Gutberlet

 

Fostering creativity and entrepreneurship among GUtech students

HALBAN GUtech students of the Department of International Business and Service Management will display their results of the ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation course’ during an exhibition entitled “Fikra – The Secret of Getting Ahead is Getting Started” on Sunday, 5th of January. ‘Fikra’ is the Arabic word for ‘idea’. Throughout the course, students were asked to create innovative ideas for websites, manufacturing and for food & beverage businesses. “Our course aims to introduce students to various aspects of starting a business with a focus on the support of the Omani ecosystem for start-up companies. Our course includes finding innovative, new business ideas, linking creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, developing a business model, writing a business plan and presenting the final project to fellow students and professors,” said Prof. Dr. Osman Barghouth, Head of the Department of Logistics, Tourism and Service Management, who supervised the projects. The final presentation of their projects allows them to receive real feedback on their ideas. External guests from the Oman Academy of SMEs as well as from the local industry are invited to evaluate the student projects and to guide them to further develop their ideas. The exhibition will comprise three sections, divided according to a certain theme.

The student exhibition “Fikra – The Secret of Getting Ahead is Getting Started” is open to the general public and will run from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm on 5 January.

GUtech Commemorates 7th Anniversary of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Visit

The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) commemorated on Tuesday 24th December the 7th anniversary of the visit of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said to its campus.

The 24th of December marks the private visit of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said to GUtech campus in Halban. The commemoration of the private visit of His Majesty is annually observed by GUtech community. Students and staff remember the day to reflect on the importance of the visit in GUtech’s history and on the vision of His Majesty the Sultan for Oman’s academic and research development.

In the late afternoon of December 24th, 2012, the founders of GUtech and members of the rectorate welcomed his majesty to GUtech campus and its facilities, few weeks only after its opening.

In visiting GUtech campus and meeting the founders and the rectorate, His Majesty confers upon it an unusual distinction. “We welcome His Majesty’s private visit to GUtech campus as a gracious expression of his trust in our university and a vital catalyser enticing us to work harder and faster for further progress” proudly declares Dr Hussain Al Salmi, Deputy Rector for Administration and Finance.

The significant and ever-lasting contributions His Majesty has made to Oman and to the lives of its people are universally known; not less impressive than the wise introduction of far-reaching reforms which has promoted the development of the education system, and the prosperity of the country in general.

As more as 3000 male and female students enrolled in the university in the last 12 years. More than 400 male and female students graduated from it while there are more than 2200 male and female students are currently pursuing their studies.

(c) GUtech/Text: Fatima El Madkouri

UN World Tourism Day – The Minister of Tourism visited GUtech

HALBAN On the occasion of the UN World Tourism Day entitled ‘Tourism and Jobs: A better Future for All’, the Faculty of Business and Economics at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) has received H.E. Ahmed al Mehrazi, Minister of Tourism in Oman on its campus last Thursday. During the event that was held at the History of Science Centre, the Minister discussed various topics on tourism in Oman with GUtech students. The Minister spoke about the National Tourism Strategy 2040, the role of tourism festivals in marketing the Sultanate as well as cruise tourism and its potential for the Sultanate. Prof. Dr. Osman Barghouth, Head of the Department of Logistics, Tourism and Service Management presented the contribution of the tourism sector in creating employment opportunities especially for Omanis while contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This special event was open for GUtech students, staff and invitees from the academia and tourism destination management companies.

Each year, the World Tourism Day comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere, when tourism is on the minds of millions of people worldwide. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Tourism Day is celebrated to foster awareness on tourism’s social, cultural, political and economic value and the contribution the tourism sector can make in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

(c) GUtech/Text & Photo: Dr. Manuela Gutberlet and Fatma Al Balushi

 

BSc Logistics and BSc International Business and Service Management receive international accreditation

HALBAN GUtech’s Bachelor programmes of International Business and Service Management as well as Logistics have received full accreditation by the Accreditation, Certification and Quality Control Institute (ACQUIN) based in Germany, for the next five years. “We are delighted to announce the first accreditation of our bachelor programmes in International Business and Service Management and in Logistics. During the accreditation process the curricula were evaluated as well as the infrastructure, the academic staff, etc. Having these programmes accredited by a German agency shows their quality and allows our graduates to continue their studies in Germany. We are particularly proud that we received the maximum accreditation period for first accreditations, which is further evidence of the confidence the panel of German and Austrian experts had in our programmes and educational environment. We value their feedback and their suggestions which further strengthen the programmes,” said Prof. Dr. Armin Eberlein, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at GUtech. All BSc and BEng programmes are internationally accredited ACQUIN.

Both Bachelor programmes are aligned with international business trends in the Gulf region while being committed to Oman’s vision for sustainable development, entrepreneurship and innovation. The BSc in International Business and Service Management, focuses on the growing tourism and travel sector worldwide, and the BSc in Logistics focuses on transportation management, supply chain management and the logistics of goods, services, and related information between their point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customer’s requirements.

“Within the wider framework of international business studies, these two Bachelor programmes combine theory and practice bringing students in direct contact with real life business scenarios in both economic sectors which are earmarked to lead the diversification of the Omani economy and create the job opportunities for future generations as per Oman’s vision 2040,” said Prof. Dr. Heba Aziz, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics.