The Essay
From Classrooms to Careers
The Promise and Pressure of Oman’s Qualifications Framework
Now just over two years old, the Oman Qualifications Framework promises to simplify understanding qualifications. Discover how it works and how the system must adapt.
By Dr Asma Al Yahyaei, Assistant Professor, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
For years, university degrees were perceived as more prestigious than vocational or technical qualifications, creating an imbalance.
The OQF, then, is not a silver bullet but a catalyst.
The Oman Qualifications Framework (OQF) arrives at a moment when higher education in Oman is facing both opportunity and strain.
The sector has expanded rapidly, but questions about quality relevance, and alignment with national priorities remain at the centre of debate. The OQF offers a powerful instrument to bring coherence to the system, yet its success depends on how well it navigates the realities of implementation.
At its core, the OQF provides a single reference point for describing and comparing qualifications across all sectors of education, academic, vocational, professional and technological. This has the potential to ease long-standing tensions between different pathways.
For years, university degrees were perceived as more prestigious than vocational or technical qualifications, creating an imbalance in how society valued different forms of learning. By setting all qualifications on the same scale, from literacy programs to doctoral studies, the OQF signals that skills gained in a workshop can stand beside knowledge gained in a lecture hall. That shift alone can reshape how Oman prepares its workforce for a diversified economy.
The framework also addresses one of the most pressing issues in higher education today: the demand for flexibility. Students increasingly need non-linear routes through education, where prior experience, short courses and professional training can count toward formal qualifications.
Through mechanisms such as Credit Accumulation and Transfer and the Recognition of Prior Learning, the OQF reduces unnecessary duplication and acknowledges that learning happens in multiple settings. This is particularly valuable in Oman, where mid-career professionals seek to re-skill in response to changing labor markets, and where Vision 2040 emphasises lifelong learning as a driver of competitiveness.
The international dimension is equally important. Omani graduates need their qualifications to be portable if they are to study or work abroad, while foreign qualifications must be evaluated fairly within Oman.
By aligning with international frameworks, the OQF raises the credibility of Omani qualifications globally, and protects students from uncertainty about whether their credentials will be recognized. For a country aiming to position itself within global knowledge networks, this is more than a technical advantage, it is a strategic necessity.
Yet the OQF also exposes underlying challenges in higher education. Implementation requires institutions to have the capacity to review, redesign and continuously update their programs in line with OQF descriptors.
Larger universities may adapt more quickly, but smaller colleges and training centres may find the administrative and technical requirements daunting. Without careful support, the very institutions that serve more vulnerable groups of learners’ risk being left behind.
There is also the issue of awareness. For students, families and employers, the framework must be translated into something tangible, clearer pathways, better employability and stronger confidence in qualifications. If the OQF remains understood only by policymakers and accreditation officers, its transformative potential will be lost in bureaucratic detail.
Another tension lies in balancing international alignment with local context. While global comparability is essential, Oman must ensure its qualifications reflect the cultural, socia, and economic realities of the country. A framework that simply mirrors international models risks overlooking the distinct needs of Oman’s workforce and society.
Finally, the OQF introduces a culture of constant review: qualifications must be listed, aligned, re-listed and re-aligned in cycles. This strengthens accountability, but it also adds administrative weight at a time when higher education institutions are already under financial pressure and grappling with digital transformation.
Unless the benefits of this process are clearly visible, better graduate outcomes, stronger employer confidence, it may be seen as another layer of compliance rather than a tool for change.
The OQF, then, is not a silver bullet but a catalyst. It highlights the direction Oman must take: a system that values all forms of learning, that creates visible bridges between pathways, that supports lifelong progression and that ensures qualifications carry weight both at home and abroad.
The challenge lies in making this vision real within the everyday struggles of higher education, funding constraints, uneven institutional capacity, and the urgent need to prepare graduates for a fast-changing world. If those tensions are addressed with the same clarity and ambition that shaped the OQF itself, Oman’s qualifications system could become not only a national framework, but a cornerstone of educational reform.