There has been considerable growth in Oman’s higher education sector over the past three decades in order to meet the nation’s human capital needs. Private higher education was encouraged in the mid-nineties to meet this need. All private colleges and university colleges are expected to have an affiliate in order to be licensed to operate. The Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA) is now carrying out the first cycle of quality audits – the first stage of the two-stage institutional accreditation process – which has provided an opportunity to review the effectiveness of the affiliation agreements in place. There is a diverse range of affiliation agreements in Oman, some of which are outside the usual typologies of transnational education (TNE). The findings of the OAAA quality audit reports suggest that while there may be a variety of affiliation relationships in the higher education sector in Oman, specific features of effective TNE models emerge which may have a valuable role to play in ensuring that all partnerships fulfill the original intention as a mechanism for assuring quality.

There has been considerable growth in Oman’s higher education sector over the past three decades in order to meet the nation’s human capital needs. Private higher education was encouraged in the mid-nineties to meet this need. All private colleges and university colleges are expected to have an a...