News and picture by Norhana Shaibatul Khadri

UUM ONLINE: Universiti Utara Malaysia's internationalization agenda has shown positive remarks following discussions with Sohar University (SU), Oman recently.

Director of Center for International Affairs and Cooperation (CIAC), UUM, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arpah Abu Bakar has realized many opportunities for strategic collaboration between UUM-SU.

"The initial proposal is to sign an MoA as to tight in the connection." she said.

Meanwhile, the Dean of Faculty of Business, SU, Prof. Dr. Nur Naha Abu Mansor stated that research will be the main agenda in this collaboration to align with National Priorities of Oman Vision 2040.

She said that it is also good to get connected with UUM, a well-known university with AACSB accreditation in Malaysia.

“SU as a growing university needs to start somewhere and this collaboration seems to be a good start.

”We also intends to offer matching grant opportunities and would like to become partners with UUM to secure international research grants such as Erasmus,” she added.

In addition, Nur Naha has invited researchers from UUM to come at SU given that spaces and facilities to do research are provided without charge.

Other potential collaborations proposed are online global classroom, academic supervision, student and staff exchange, executive training (i.e. CMI) and AACSB-related training services.

SU was established in 2001 as the first private university in Oman. It is a second prestigious institution in Oman for undergraduate and graduate students covering programs such as Accounting, Business and Commercial Law, Management, Management Information Systems and MBA.

Among representatives from UUM were Alumni Center, Islamic Business School (IBS), Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business (OYAGSB), UUMKL, and School of Business Management (SBM).