Caledonian College of Engineering, Institutional Quality Audit, Mar 2010
 
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. Barbara Stauble
 
Dr. Barbara Stäuble is a consultant in international higher education with over 25 years of hands-on experience in Europe, Asia and the Americas. As Professor and Deputy-Rector for Academic Affairs at the German University of Technology in Oman, she played a key role in establishing this private university in affiliation with  RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Prior to taking up this position, she worked as Inaugural Director of Research & Development and as acting Dean at Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak Campus (Malaysia). An experienced academic, Dr Stäuble has also held positions as Associate Professor in Physics at the National University in Colombia and post-doctoral researcher at the Free University in Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Barbara Stäuble holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Zurich and a Master in International Education from Monash University. She has published numerous scholarly articles, including four with Nobel Laureate K.A. Müller. She has reviewed proposals for the Colombian Research Foundation COLCIENCIAS and chaired or co-chaired the organising committees for various international conferences. During her career Dr Stäuble has been conferred a number of awards, including an award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching (2004). In addition to being an External Reviewer for the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation, Barbara Stäuble worked as a reviewer for Saudi Arabia’s National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment and was a member of the Inaugural Steering Committee of the MENA-Association for Institutional Research. 
 
Prof. Hassan B. Diab
 
Hassan B. Diab received his BSc in Communications Engineering in 1981, his MSc in Systems Engineering in 1982, and his PhD in Computer Engineering in 1985. He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon and has over 23 years of experience. He has 117 publications in internationally refereed journals and conferences. His research interests include cryptography on high performance computer systems, modeling and simulation of parallel processing systems, embedded systems, reconfigurable computing, simulation of parallel applications, and the application of simulation for engineering education.   He has served as member on 40 organizing committees of international conferences and refereed over 300 papers for over 50 different international journals and conferences as well as acting as an external referee for many promotion applications and research proposals. He served as the Associate Editor of the SIMULATION Journal, Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International, USA. From 2005 – 2006, he was a member of the Scientific Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman. Professor Diab received 13 international and regional awards including the Fulbright Research Award (1988), and the 1992 Young Arab Scientists Shuman prize in Engineering.   He was seconded by AUB to serve as Dean of the College of Engineering and Acting President of Dhofar University, Oman (2004 –2005), and later as Founding President and Acting Dean of the College of Engineering (2005 – 2006). Effective October 2006, he was appointed as Vice President for Regional External Programs at AUB. He is a Founding Member of the first Arab Computer Society established in 2001 as well as the Founding Member of the IEEE Student Branch at AUB in 1997. Professor Diab is a Fellow in the IEE and the IEAust, as well as a Senior Member of the IEEE. 

 
Prof. Jan Thomas
 
Professor Jan Thomas has been Vice-Chancellor of Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2017. Prior to this Professor Thomas served as Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. She has held various senior executive positions at Murdoch University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. She has a PhD in Veterinary Science from Murdoch University and has taught, researched and published in Veterinary Pathology. 

Globally, Professor Thomas holds various senior positions, including: External Reviewer and Quality Auditor for the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance for Education; Chair of the Quality Assurance Council Hong Kong; Member of the University Grants Committee Hong Kong; and Convenor of the Bachelor Veterinary Medicine Task Force for University Grants Committee Hong Kong.

She recently completed a term as Chair of Universities New Zealand, and in late 2022 became the Association for Tertiary Education Management Aotearoa New Zealand Patron. 

Professor Thomas believes strongly in building a university that is Te Tiriti-led. As part of her personal commitment to achieving that ambition, she has been learning te reo Māori since arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand, completing te reo Māori to level 5 at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. She’s currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in Māori Knowledge.