Dhofar University

Dhofar University (DU) is one of the leading Universities in the Sultanate of Oman. It is a not-for-profit private institution of higher education established by the Ministerial Decree No. 5/2004, issued in January 2004. The University formally commenced its operations in September 2004.

DU is a young university, where campus life is brimming with social and cultural events that reflect the rich heritage of Oman and especially that of Dhofar. It is the only University in the region offering Diploma, Bachelor and Postgraduate Programs.

The University is mission-driven and pursues excellence in teaching & learning, research and community outreach in an open learning environment conducive to creativity and innovation. Ever since its establishment, DU has pursued its aspirations of occupying a recognized position among the institutions of quality higher education sincerely and enthusiastically. This ongoing journey is driven by our determination and commitment to meet the expectations of stakeholders for quality higher education.

There is a separate Foundation Program (FP) headed by a Director, which is comprised of the English Language Unit, the Mathematics Unit, and the Information Technology Unit. The Director reports to the DVC. Conveners are appointed for each unit and they report to the Director of the FP.The FP is designed for students who are not sufficiently prepared to join academic programs at the University. These students are required to spend one or more terms in the FP, depending on their level of English. The placement of the students in various levels of Foundation is based on the results of a Placement Test.

DU also has a Community Service and Continuing Education Center, which offers a variety of courses and training programs for executives and employees of government agencies and commercial firms and local community needs.Academic programs follow the American model of higher education and use English as the medium of instruction except for the Master in Management and the Master in Educational Administration programs are in Arabic. The academic year is divided into two semesters of sixteen weeks of instruction each and a summer session of six weeks of instruction.

A student will be awarded either a diploma or a bachelor degree, but not both, in accordance with the choice he/she had made when he/she joined DU. If a bachelor bound student decided, for a legitimate reason, to forgo his/her desire to finish the bachelor program in the middle of a semester and decided to receive a diploma instead then he/she will be required to drop all courses in progress. A diploma will then be awarded contingent to completing the requirements of the diploma program, subject to the approval of the College Administrative Committee and the DVC for Academic Affairs.

Registration is the operation in which a student selects his/her courses, have them approved by his/her academic advisor, pays the required fees and then registers with by Online using the Student Portal (DU SIS) in the University website or by the help of the academic advisors at the colleges. The department announces the dates of and procedures for registration in the University Calendar and posts them on bulletin boards inside the University and on the University’s website.