Ibri College of Applied Sciences, Institutional Quality Audit, May 2009
 
Dr Ahmed Al Ghassani
 

Dr Ahmed has published more than twenty papers in internationally refereed journals and conference proceedings. He is also member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Oman Society of Engineers (OSE).Dr Ahmed Al Ghassani obtained a BEng Degree in Civil Engineering from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in 1993. He worked with Dhofar Municipality as Civil Engineer then Quantity Surveyor for a few years during which he was involved in several prestigious projects. In 1997 he took up the post as an Assistant Lecturer in Salalah College of Technology. This was followed by a postgraduate program leading to an MSc in Structural Engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in UK (1998-1999). He joined Loughborough University (UK) to do his PhD on Improving the Structural Design Process using Knowledge Management in June 2000, after receiving a scholarship funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, UK)). He was awarded a PhD degree in May 2003 and later in 2004, he worked as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs in Al Musana College of Technology. From 2005-2010, he was the Dean of Nizwa College of Technology and until 2013 was the Dean of the Higher College of Technology in Muscat.  Since May 2013, Dr Ahmed has been the Dean of the College of Banking and Financial Studies.


 
Prof. David Palfreyman
 

Prof. David Palfreyman teaches in University College at Zayed University, UAE, contributes to faculty and curriculum development for the university, and edits an online journal, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives http://lthe.zu.ac.ae. He holds a PhD in Language Studies and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Before joining Zayed University, he worked with students and educators in Turkey and in the UK, as well as teaching in Italy and Spain. His current research interests include student learning styles, e-learning and the contributions of sociocultural context to university learning. He has published several articles in the field of language and university education, and co-edited two collections, Learner Autonomy Across Cultures and Learning and Teaching Across Cultures in Higher Education, both published by Palgrave Macmillan.


 
Mr. Ian Hawke
 
Ian Hawke was appointed Assistant Director-General (Strategic Policy and Performance) in July 2007 having served as Assistant Director-General (International, Non-state and Higher education) from March 2006 and Director of the Queensland Office of Higher Education from July 2003. The Department is the sixth largest department of state in Australia and Queensland’s largest single employer.  In these roles, Ian is, or has been, responsible for the leadership, policy development and management of accreditation and quality assurance of programs, legislation and related services covering Queensland’s non-state and grammar schools, universities and private higher education providers and its regulatory and commercial interests in international education as well as the strategic policy, research and data collection and performance functions of the department.  Over a period of 20 years prior to this, he has worked in senior management roles at the University of Queensland, Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology in areas of strategic planning, higher education policy, academic management and quality assurance.  Ian is a non-executive Director, Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) Ltd (since 2004) and the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) Limited (since 2005). In this latter capacity he has been deputy chair of the board since 2007. He is a subject specialist on the register of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation (HKCAA), and an international auditor for the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) South Africa. Ian is an experienced auditor having participated in audits of the University of Wollongong and the higher education accreditation functions of the New South Wales government in Australia and the Tshwana University of Technology, South Africa.   He holds Bachelor of Arts (Qld) and Master of Administration (Griffith) degrees.