Caledonian College of Engineering (CCE) in Muscat has signed an MoU with University of South Carolina (USC) to collaborate provide Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) programme in chemical engineering and other areas of strategic partnership.

The new partnership will upgrade Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering programme — previously offered in affiliation with Vellore Institute of Technology — to Bachelor of Engineering in affiliation with USC. 

USC is one of only 32 public universities in the USA to earn the Carnegie Foundation’s top-tier designations in research activity and community engagement, and as such the institution brings to the collaboration a strong research ethos enhancing of the nascent research base growing at CCE. Ranked first for undergraduate international business major, international MBA and best international experience, USC is well attuned to understanding a wide range of contexts for the application of its programmes and ranks third globally for combined delivery of sports science, public health and education.

“We will be concentrating on providing our students with abilities in Engineering management and diversified fields apart from core Chemical Engineering process. We have reviewed the Chemical Engineering programme and will make it suit the USC standards by changing a few aspects,” Paul Miller, Vice Provost and Director for USC said.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between USC and CCE covers research and development, academic exchange, exchange of research information, educational and training courses, publication opportunities, the training of key staff in teaching and learning, and student exchange.

During the MoU signing, Ahmed Al Balushi, Dean of CCE commented on the fact that during recent years there has been a gradual trend towards deeper collaboration between USA and Oman in education, tourism and trade which has greatly strengthened the relationship between the two countries. He added that the educational and scientific co-operation between USC and CCE will undoubtedly benefit the people of Oman through academic exchange, research and the development of technology.

“One of the major reason to collaborate with an American University was bringing it closer to our sister college, Oman Medical College, which we would like to combine with us at some point in the future,” he said.

Through this collaboration, CCE, which has just won an award for institutional leadership in education at the recent international BETT Awards held in the UAE, will run a brand new chemical engineering programme in September 2017. This programme received Ministry of Higher Education approval earlier in the year and the chemical engineering faculty at CCE have completed the work required for phasing in the new programme for the coming academic year. The programme focuses on practical internship and its introduction demonstrates that CCE shares USC’s emphasis on producing work-ready graduates.

Source: Timesofoman