Arab Open University Oman Branch, Institutional Standards Assessment, Dec 2018
 
Prof. Ingrid Piller
 

Ingrid Piller is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, where she previously served as Executive Director of the Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre (AMEP RC). Over the course of her international career, she has also held appointments at universities in Germany, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and USA. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and recipient of a 2018 Anneliese Maier Research Award. Ingrid Piller is an applied sociolinguist with research expertise in intercultural communication, language learning, multilingualism, and bilingual education. She has published, lectured and consulted widely in these areas. Ingrid Piller is the author of Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2016), which won the 2017 Prose Award in the Language and Linguistics category and the 2017 BAAL Book Prize. She is also the author of the bestselling Intercultural Communication (Edinburgh University Press, 2nd ed., 2017) and over 400 other publications. Ingrid Piller is a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts, serves as editor-in-chief of the international sociolinguistics journal Multilingua (De Gruyter Mouton) and edits the sociolinguistics portal Language on the Move, through which many of her publications and those of her team, including their research blog, can be accessed. She tweets about linguistic diversity @lg_on_the_move.

 
Mr. Kieran Ross
 
Mr Kieran Ross is an Australian educated management professional (Master of Business Administration, Master of Quality Management, PG Certificate in Higher Education and a Bachelor of Economics (Accountancy)) with over ten year’s experience in the Australian Government Sector and almost twenty years international experience within the higher education sector in the United Arab Emirates. Extensive experience, has been acquired, in respect of meeting institutional and/or program accreditation requirements across the Australian, British, United Arab Emirates and Oman national accreditation systems. Mr Kieran Ross has successfully undertaken Managerial roles in both Administrative (Manager of Institutional Research and Quality, Manager of Academic Planning and Policy and as a Quality Manager) and Academic (Lecturing and as Campus Programme Co-ordinator Undergraduate (General Business) fields; with international (Australian and English) and local higher education institutions within the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Kieran Ross is currently the Registrar at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai. Research has focused on marketing in education and identifying factors that provide a deeper understanding of the issues that higher education institutions face in providing a challenging and satisfying student learning experience. 
 
Dr Mohanad Al Obaidi
 
Mr. Al-Obaidi received a B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Technology, Iraq, in 1989 and his MSc. in Computer and Control Engineering from University of Baghdad, Iraq, in 1995. He started his PhD study in 2006 in the field of Intelligent Systems Engineering and Wireless Sensor Networks Optimization, De Montfort University, UK.   From 1999 to 2005, he was a lecturer in Al-Balqa Applied University, department of Information Technology in Jordan. In 2006, he joined the Gulf College in Oman which is affiliated with Staffordshire University, UK, where he is currently a principal lecturer and the Deputy Dean for Computing Awards.   His current research interests are in Computational Intelligence, Optimization of Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks, and Swarmed mobile Robotics. Mohanad is a member of the Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour Society (AISB), UK; member of the Iraqi Society of Engineers and the Iraqi Society of Computer Scientists. Since 2004, he has also been a member of the Program Committee of Risk Management and Cyber-Informatics Symposium RMCI, Florida, USA. He has been member of the Organizing Committee of Jordan International Conference on Computer Science and Engineering, Jordan 2004. Currently he is also a member of the Swarm Intelligence Google-group.

 
Dr Philip Westbury Cardew
 
Phil Cardew’s academic career began as a lecturer in medieval English and Icelandic literature, working at the universities of Leeds, Hull and Southampton before becoming Programme Director for the undergraduate programme at the University of Winchester. During this time, he also became extensively involved in quality assurance, both at faculty and institutional level and in work as an institutional auditor for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).Phil left Winchester to become Assistant Director in the Reviews Group of the QAA, returning to an institutional role in 2005. In 2006 he was appointed Pro Vice Chancellor at London South Bank University and moved from there to become Deputy Vice Chancellor at Leeds Beckett University in 2015, where his role encompasses leadership of quality and standards, as well as all student-facing services. He continues to undertake audit work for the QAA, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Australia) and the Hong Kong Council for the Validation and Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, as well as acting in an advisory capacity for other universities and external agencies, both within the UK and internationally. 
 
Prof Yusra Mouzughi
 
Professor Yusra Mouzughi assumed the role of President of Royal University for Women in May 2021 with clear plans to take the institution to its next level of growth and development.  Professor Mouzughi is a highly motivated and innovative academic leader with over 20 years’ experience in the Higher Education sector and over 5 years industry experience in large blue- chip organisations.  She has a proven track record of delivering to strategic objectives and a passion for providing a quality educational offering that is relevant to the workplace. She is a committed individual with a unique understanding of both Western and Arab cultures and an ability to motivate staff and students incorporating a deep understanding of the links between industry and academia, coupled with a natural personal presence and an articulate approach to negotiation. Educated in the UK, Professor Mouzughi has a Bachelors in Business Administration from Richmond College London, an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and a PhD in Knowledge Management from Liverpool John Moores University, where she continues to act as a Visiting Professor.  She built her academic career in the UK where she worked for more than 14 years developing expertise in education management with a particular focus on Doctoral programmes.  She has established a cross disciplinary research profile spanning knowledge sharing and the sustainability agenda.  Professor Mouzughi has supervised many Doctoral and Masters theses in the broad management area, has numerous publications in the field and is an invited keynote speaker at many international conferences. A Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Professor Mouzughi is a member of multiple international Boards and committees dedicated to advancing learning, teaching and research in higher education.  These include the UK Quality Assurance Agency, (QAA), the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) and the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA).  Further, she is on the editorial board and a reviewer for several academic journals. Before taking up the role as President of the Royal University for Women, Professor Mouzughi was the Vice Chancellor and acting Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs at Muscat University for over 5 years.  Notably, she was also the first female head of a University in Oman. Under her leadership, Muscat University grew in staff and student numbers, delivering the first cohorts of graduates, attracting research funding, strong industry collaborations and distinguished international academic partnerships. Prior to joining academia, Professor Mouzughi worked as a project manager in the financial services sector in the UK.