Dr Brian Poole has taught and managed at universities in various countries around the world, but principally in the UK, Oman and Singapore. In Oman he has worked in senior quality assurance roles at Sohar University and the former Caledonian College of Engineering, and as a QA advisor in the Ministry of Manpower. However, his main affiliation in the Sultanate has been at Majan University College, where he has completed a total of nine years of service in a variety of roles (Head of English, College Director of Quality Assurance, and now Associate Dean for Teaching and Research). Dr Brian’s doctoral thesis was on the subject of ‘professional doctorates’ (such as EdD and DBA) and the extent to which they are seen as equivalent to PhD by academics in the UK. He has also published widely on other aspects of higher education, including quality assurance, and on issues in the fields of discourse analysis, English lexicology and English language teaching. He has been an external examiner at two UK universities and has presented at international conferences in, for example, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, Serbia and Oman.