Under the patronage of His Excellency the President of Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rubaish, the 19th Meeting of the Deans of Admission and Registration at the universities and higher education institutions in the GCC Countries was launched. It was held on October 5, 2023, and lasted for a day in Dammam, and was attended by the University Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Ghazi Al Otaibi, on behalf of the University President, and was also attended by the Director of the Education Department of the GCC Secretariat, Dr. Mohammed Al-Mahri, the Dean of Admissions and Registration at IAU, Dr. Abdullah Al-Murayh, and the Deputy Secretary-General for Gifted Services in King Abdulaziz & his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), Dr. Basil Al-Sadhan.
On behalf of the University President, Dr. Ghazi Al Otaibi said: “I am pleased to welcome you to the 19th Meeting of the Deans of Admission and Registration Committee, which the university is honored to host, and I wish you a successful meeting, a fruitful discussion and a pleasant stay in the Eastern Province.” He added: “the Gulf countries are living their most prosperous eras, thanks to God and then thanks to the wisdom of their Leaders, Their Majesties and Highnesses. Our universities have worked, under the guidance of our wise leadership, to carry out every work that contributes to strengthening ties between the countries of the GCC, recognizing the special relations and the common characteristics that bind our countries together as well as the similarities in our systems that is based on the Islamic belief, and believing in the common destiny and the unity of purpose and word that unify its peoples.”
He also said: “the cooperation and integration in the educational and cultural systems was and still is a major goal of the GCC Countries. This encourages you in the Deans of Admissions and Registration Committee, to work to achieve what our universities in the GCC Countries aspire in terms of sophistication, development, cooperation, and exchange of experiences, especially at a time when the pace of modernization of systems, procedures, specializations, and work mechanisms is accelerating. It increases the responsibility on us and on you to work and to make our universities among the ranks of the world’s advanced universities.” “In addition, I extend my thanks to His Excellency the Minister of Education, Mr. Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan for agreeing to hold this meeting as well as to the colleagues in the educational department in the Human and Environment Affairs of the General Secretariat of the GCC Countries for their efforts that resulted in holding this meeting. I also thank His Excellency the Dean of Admissions and Registration at Taif University and the Secretary of the Deans’ Committee, for his commendable efforts. I finally thank my colleagues at the university, represented by the Deanship of Admissions and Registration, and the members of the committees for their efforts in organizing this meeting”
The Dean of Admission and Registration at IAU, Dr. Abdullah Al-Murayh, stated: “We at the university are honored to host the 19th meeting of your esteemed committee, and to exchange successful experiences and expertise in light of the great movement witnessed by the universities in the Gulf countries and around the world, towards developing and improving the mechanisms of admission and registration, motivated by advancement and progress, a thing that comes as a result to the changes taking place in the education field nowadays.”
“Moreover, all the contributions and academic papers presented at this meeting are considered specialized academic consultations that universities are keen to benefit from. These papers focused on common interests and concerns in aspects related to university admission for talented, disabled, and international students and it is highly contributing to achieve the goals of the institutional and programmatic accreditations.”
Dr. Al-Murayh also pointed out that the meeting addresses many topics, the first topic discusses attracting talented and distinguished students and its main focus is the policies followed in attracting two categories of students: The first category is the talented students, and it discusses the mechanism that determine the type of the talent, the classifications of the approved awards, and their admission to specializations according to their type of talent. The second category is the academically distinguished students and the impact of accepting these two categories can be measured based on the outcomes. This is added to the category of the creative students. Moreover, the best experiences, practices, success stories, and supporting indicators can be set as an example with regards to attracting, accelerating, and exempting them from studying some of the courses in addition to all the other opportunities available for them.
The second topic addresses the admission of students with disabilities and the specializations available to them. It discusses the classification of disabilities that is aligned with the considered classifications of the GCC Countries. It addresses the procedures, mechanisms, and standards adopted in accepting students with types of disabilities that can be joined to university majors, and the impact of that on the outcomes. It also discusses the global experiences of the adaptations provided to disabled students, and the difficulties that universities face after accepting them, in addition to allocating special programs, curricula, and teaching methods for them or integrating them into available programs. The best experiences, practices, success stories, and supporting indicators can be mentioned as an example.
The third topic addresses the exchange of Gulf and international students and their educational visa. This topic presents the mechanisms used in attracting and accepting students whether from the Gulf or other countries, it also discusses the programs and the features that attract them, and it reviews the best practices, benchmark comparisons, and legislation necessary to achieve the best results in addition to maintaining sustainability and positive impact and supporting the social and economic dimensions of the Gulf countries.
Finally, during the meeting, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University received from Taif University, the work of the secretariat of the Deans of Admissions and Registration Committee in the GCC Countries and Dr. Abdullah Al-Murayh, the Dean of Admission and Registration at IAU, took over as secretary of the committee, and Turki Al-Turki was appointed as the secretary of the committee’s secretariat.
