Sustainability of engineering education in the Gulf Cooperation Council region

At the turn of the 21^st century, many universities have been established in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, many of which are branches of universities from the USA, Europe, Australia, and other regions. In 2004, Dhofar University (DU), in collaboration and partnership with the American University of Beirut (AUB), opened its doors in Oman to follow the American model of higher education in many programs including engineering. Making use of AUB's well known engineering programs in the Middle East, founders of DU have planned to satisfy the demand for a sustainable institution that can serve students as well as society as a whole. This paper presents DU's experience in developing sustainable education institution in a region that lacked for long time private universities. The paper presents the model of collaboration between DU and AUB, and DU's efforts in preparing for accreditation. The paper also presents DU practices in balancing core academics and non-technical skills of engineering students. The cases studied are mainly from the academic programs of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the College of Engineering.