GUtech Scholarship Session

[AlMaawali]

The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) has held an information session about the available GUtech scholarships last Tuesday, 29 July. I attended the event out of curiosity since I never heard of any other Universities having information sessions about their scholarships.

The session talked about GUtech's academic programmes, entry requirements, information about the scholarships and finally, a question and answers session on the entrance examinations for the scholarships. The talks were mostly made by Christoph Hilgers, Vice rector and Fatima El Madkouri, student's affair executive of GUtech . And along the session, some others have joint in to clarify more detailed aspects of certain areas and some of whom were Khalid Al Rawahi who talked more about the PDO scholarships (will be explained later), Gunter Flugge who talked more about the course coordination and the foundation year, Carolyn Morokutti who talked more about some of the courses that GUtech offers and Garalidine Walsh who talked more about the English programs and the IELTS and TOEFL examinations.

GUtech offers three different kind of scholarships: PDO scholarships, GUtech scholarships and DAAD scholarships.
Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is offering students who are applying for GUtech five full scholarships but only for Omanis who are applying for the Applied Geo sciences program. Two of the five are for the best students in the foundation year and the other three are for the best students who graduated from high school and have successfully completed the scholarship examination. High school graduates will have to apply through the Higher Education Admission Center in order to get to this program.

GUtech is offering eight partial scholarships to both students who are already in the University and new applicants. Since GUtech offers 4 programs: Regional Management & tourism, Urban Planning & Architectural Design, Applied Geo sciences and Applied Information Technology, the eight scholarships will be divided to two for each program. To the new applicants, this scholarship will only be an option if they go directly to the Bachelors program without the need for the foundation year.
And finally, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which is the German national agency for the support of international academic cooperation, will offer 6 full and partial scholarships. Two full scholarships will be offered to current and prospective students who are taking the Regional Management & Tourism program and the Applied Information Technology program. Another two partial scholarships will only be offered to International students who are none residents in Oman. One scholarship will be given to the best foundation year student and another partial scholarship to an international Student of the Applied Geo sciences program who is a none resident in Oman.

The entrance and scholarship examination for GUtech is different for each programme. The entrance examination comprises different modules which may include: written examination, oral examination, portfolio work and an interview. The prospective student passes the entrance examination only if he/she passes every single module. And the student with the best cumulative score will automatically be entitled to a partial scholarship offered by the University.

Now that pretty much everything is covered, I have to say that it was a great idea to have a session that explains all of this. Since there are many scholarships for GUtech, it could get a little complicated.

Here is a short audio clip from that day. The first part of the clip is questions asked to some of GUtech's officials and the second part of it is questions asked to some students who attended that day.

Click here to watch the video

Close Move

To Comment, please click HERE

[Sahara]

Great CityTalks there, AlMaawali..

Seems like scholarship programs have been quite popular here in Muscat..
Anyways, once a student completes O' level and A'Levels course, are they applicable/ allowed to join GUtech scholarships?أ‚آ؟
Is there any limitations before enrolling there?أ‚آ؟

Thanx..

[AlMaawali]

Hi Sahara,

Thanks. From what I understood the other day is that a student who completes their A level will be eligible to go straight to the bachelors program and wouldn't have to spend a year in foundation. I am not sure what O level is but if it is similar to A level then it might be the same.

[Sahara]

Thanks for the info, AlMaawali..
So after completing A'Levels, a student is directly eligible for bachelors program..thatz great!أ‚آ،

[ljuwaidah]

Hi,

Is there a link in which we can read more about this?

[AlMaawali]

Yep.. because from what I know, A level is extremely difficult. Or at least difficult if compared to Thanawiya Amma. I think it's because what is taught in foundation is already taught in A level but not in Thanawiya Amma. So, lucky you

You can go to GUtech's website which is: www.gutech.edu.om.

I would suggest that you pay the university a visit if you are very serious about this rather than reading from their website.

[Sahara]

@ AlMaawali:
Yeah
it certainly is a great opportunity for A'level students..

[KUBU]

As always, I liked this week's CityTalks, especially because I am a uni student.

I don't think it is mandatory for any student to join the foundation program after A-level. For instance, when I joined my uni, I was placed to the first academic year. The foundation program's for 'weaker' students, as in grades? or am I missing something?

[AlMaawali]

Thanks a lot Kubu.

Well... in order to start you Bachelors, you need to know certain things that are related to the program. For example, if you chose applied IT, then you will have to a foundation year in advanced mathematics and the reason is so that you will be capable of doing well and understand everything that is taught in your bachelors year.
Now, students who come from A level already studied all that will be taught in the foundation so they don't need it. But students who come from Thanawita Amma will have the choice of taking a test to determine whether or not they need the foundation year.
That's what I understood from the session.

[KUBU]

Oh! Don't they have some sort of a placement test? They can filter the foundation students based on the score obtained. My uni does it that way, and a vast majority of the students are from 'Thanawita Amma' syllabi, the bright-ones get to the academic year. Others are shifted to the foundation studies.

My uni also specified a certain criteria of subjects for each programme, say, it is mandatory for the student to have studied English, Mathematics & Physics for enrolling him/her for Computer-Engineering. In-case the student opted these subjects in high-school, he/she will have to study these subjects for a year in foundation. The student will have to continue with the foundation studies until he/she clears the foundation examination.

*Sounds like I am comparing GUTech and my uni :P