DIGITALIZATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN TAKING THE OMAN ACADEMIC ACCREDITATION ROUTE – A CRITICAL ANALYSIS FOR OMAN BASED EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Higher Education Institutions across the world will have to take a digital route in imparting knowledge and skills to the students' community. The world got stunned when it was hit by COVID- 19. Business Sectors were exploring alternative methodologies for continuing their business activities. Business Units had started investing huge amount of money on digitalizing and digital transformation of their processes, so that could keep moving ahead in the market achieving their goals and objectives. Likewise, educational institutions were also thinking extensively about the learning support to be extended for the students' community to learn and to progress. Educational institutions also had to take up the same route of using internet technologies extensively to reach out students' community. So, digitalization and digital transformation have become the essence now. Educational institutions have taken Internet Technologies as one of the key routes for imparting education and providing allied services to students. This trend would continue to be dominating and replacing the conventional teaching practices soon. Education Institutions need to re-orient their operations like teaching and learning, staff and student services, marketing, governance, industry-community engagement, digitally. For educational institutions, data concerning students, pass outs, graduating, placements etc are of vital importance for evaluating their strategic plans and preparing action plans accordingly. The government of Sultanate of Oman has allocated approximately 1.58 billion Omani Riyals in 2018 for providing quality education that is on par with international standards. (Press Reader, 2019), which shows its commitment towards enhancing the quality of higher education. The Higher Educational Institutions in Sultanate of Oman have been implementing internet-based technologies in teaching and learning during COVID – 19 period. They have been in favour of digitalizing teaching and learning and academic support services. Educational Institutions in Oman must be accredited by Oman Accreditation Authority, an apex accreditation authority. The apex authority is prescribing certain standards to be complied with by the educational institutions to have been certified as an accredited and excellent academic service providers in the country. So, there exists a good scope for the use of digital technologies in educational institutions in rendering various educational services like serving alumni, gathering data about students' issues, identifying industry requirements in making plans about new offerings etc. Use of digital technologies would help higher educational institutions achieving its objectives and goals without many hardships.