International College of Engineering and Management , Institutional Standards Assessment, Apr 2019
 
Professor Ammar Kaka
 
Professor Kaka graduated in 1986 with an Honours degree in Civil Engineering. He worked briefly in the construction industry before undertaking postgraduate research in Construction Management at the University of Loughborough. On completion of his PhD in 1990, he joined Liverpool University as a faculty member, and was involved in a wide range of research and course development projects. In 2000, he joined Heriot-Watt University as a Professor of Construction Economics and Management and led the Construction Management research group in the school of the Built Environment. During the 8 years he spent at the Edinburgh campus of Heriot-Watt, he assumed a number of roles including Director of Learning & Teaching. In 2008, he was granted the William Watson Chair of Building Engineering and in 2010 he joined the Dubai campus. Currently to date Professor Kaka holds the role of, Provost of Heriot-Watt University Dubai and Vice Principal (Dubai).Professor Kaka has an international reputation for research on the assessment, planning and control of construction projects. Author of more than a hundred research papers, he has held numerous funded research grants with impact demonstrated by the extent of citation and direct industrial application. He is a fellow of the RICS and member of the editorial boards of a number of international academic journals. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students to completion, many of which have developed into senior roles in governments, industry and academia. 
 
Dr. Elizabeth C. Stanley
 

Dr. Stanley (Ph.D.,Analytical Chemistry, University of Illinois, 1972) served in faculty and administrative positions in higher education organizations in the United States for 28 years and in Saudi Arabia for two years before joining the Office of the Provost at Zayed University (United Arab Emirates) in fall 2001.  She retired from her position at Zayed University in August 2010 and currently serves as an independent consultant in higher education, with particular interests in accreditation and international higher education.    Dr. Stanley previously held positions in institutional research, institutional advancement, academic affairs, business and finance, continuing education, assessment of experiential learning, and degree program coordination.  She has consulted with a number of institutions, held leadership roles in professional organizations, and served as a consultant-evaluator with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, as a site visitor for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and as an external reviewer for the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority.


 
Mr. Philip Barber
 
Philip is a British business graduate with a PGCE in Further and Higher education. He has also completed a Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) and a Masters in Applied Linguists with the University of Southern Queensland. Furthermore, Philip has a Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership and Strategic Planning from the University of Leicester and he is a qualified ISO Lead Quality Auditor. He is currently working on a thesis for a Professional Doctorate in Higher Education with the University of Liverpool, on the subject of `International Benchmarking Networks.`    Philip has worked in higher education for more than 20 years, most of which has been in Oman. For the past two years he has served as leader of the OAQHE Secretariat, overseeing the administration of OAQHE activities. Philip also chaired the OAQHE’s strategic planning committee and was a member of the organising committee for the 2017 OAQHE conference.     Philip has held numerous positions during these past 20 years; business tutor, English language teacher, Internal Verifier, Quality Assurance Officer, Head of Accreditation and Staff Development and his current position of Head of Quality Enhancement at MUC. During this time, he has had numerous responsibilities; teaching, curriculum design, assessment production, strategic and operational planning, internal audits, governance, policy and procedure development, risk management, benchmarking, and institutional research. He also played a key role in MUC’s ISAA submission, leading the preparation for Standard 1 - Governance and Management, as well as contributing to Standards, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Before working in higher education Philip served in the British armed forces and was self-employed.
 
Dr Richard C.S. Morling
 

Dik Morling currently works as a consultant supporting educational institutions with the objective of raising the competence of graduates and enhancing the student learning experience.  He has had considerable experience working with institutions in India and the Middle East. He was Head of Department of Electronic, Network and Computer Engineering at the University of Westminster, London, between 1990 and 2013.  Over the years, Dik has worked on many product development projects in collaboration with companies in Sweden, the UK, and the US.  He designed the low-power digital signal processor used in the first single-bit codec used in Ericsson mobile phones and an ultra-low-power processor used in Starkey hearing aids. His research activities have included local-area networks, discrete-time signal processing structures, ultra-low-power signal processing, sigma-delta conversion techniques, image processing for automated diagnosis and teaching methods in engineering. Dik has jointly authored over 100 conference and journal publications to date and supervised 18 PhD and 2 MPhil students to successful completion.

 
Ms. Samira Said Al Esry
 
Ms. Samira Al Esry is a Lecturer at the Higher College of Technology (HCT), Muscat. She is an MSc Operations Management Graduate from the University of Nottingham, UK. She also has a Bachelor’s of Engineering Degree in Electronic and Communications from the same University. She has been involved in Quality Management and Assurance since 2009, starting her journey as a Quality Assurance Officer and working her way up to the Head of the Quality Assurance Unit at HCT. Ms. Samira is currently the Head of the Electronic and Communication Engineering Section in the Department of Engineering, HCT. She has attended many conferences and workshops related to Quality Management and Assurance and is quite involved in this field.