Al-Zahra College for Women, General Foundation Program Quality Audit, Aug 2019
 
Dr. Brian Poole
 
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.

 
Prof. Martin Oosthuizen
 
Martin Oosthuizen holds a doctoral degree in Theology from the University of South Africa. He is currently Chief Executive Officer at Cape Higher Education Consortium Western Cape, South Africa.  Until June 2011 he was the Senior Director of the Centre for Planning and Institutional Development at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), where his responsibilities focused on quality management and strategic and academic planning. He has been actively involved in the work of the South African Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), and in particular in the development of the institutional audit system. He is also a trained institutional auditor under the HEQC’s institutional audit system, and serves as an international reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency in Scotland, the Higher Education Review Unit in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority. He has presented various papers on quality assurance at both national and international conferences, and is a regular contributor to the Quality Assurance Forum of Higher Education South Africa (HESA). One of the key projects in which he is currently involved is a collaborative project between the NMMU and the University of Johannesburg to develop a consolidated qualifications structure for the two comprehensive universities. An important aspect of the project concerns the challenge of diversity and differentiation in the South African higher education sector. 
 
Mr Meher Ben Lakhdhar
 
Meher Ben Lakhdhar has worked in language education as teacher, teacher trainer and manager for over 20 years in both the public and private sectors in Oman and Tunisia. Meher has been a senior language instructor in Sultan Qaboos University since September 2018. Prior to that, he was Deputy Head and Head of the General Foundation Programme at Sohar University from 2012 to 2018. Meher has earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chichester, UK in Professional Development for Language Education. In the course of his career, however, he has gained some useful experience and know-how in Linguistics, in English for Academic and Specific Purposes, in Materials and Curriculum Development, in Trainer and Teacher Training and Development, In Assessment, in Management, and in Quality Assurance and Enhancement. This allowed him to maintain proactive approach to teaching and management, and effectively lead challenging situations and provide strategic solutions to his students, colleagues and institutions. One of the achievements he is proud of is the creation of social learning spaces and a writing studio that is serving students at Sohar University