Spotlight
From pioneering private education to building research capacity
Dr Muneer Al Maskari, Executive Chairman of the Modern College of Business and Science, reflects on three decades of growth, the push to strengthen research and governance and the need for institutions to carve out a clear identity.
15 October 2026
In 2026, Oman's first full-fledged private college marks its thirtieth anniversary. It is also the year a national review placed the college on probation. Dr Muneer Al Maskari, Executive Chairman of the Modern College of Business and Science (MCBS), explains why he sees both as part of the same story.
“We were founded to go first. Now we have to go deeper,” he opines.
When MCBS opened in Muscat in 1996, private higher education in Oman barely existed. Today the Sultanate has more than two dozen private institutions, and Oman Vision 2040, the government's long-term national development plan, expects them to build domestic research capacity and prepare graduates for a diversifying economy. MCBS, which now teaches from foundation level to the PhD and enrols students from over 35 countries, has often been the first to move. Here, Dr Al Maskari reflects on what three decades have taught the college, and what remains to be done.
You opened with 56 students in rented space. What was the founding idea, and has it survived thirty years?
In 1996, private higher education barely existed in Oman. We opened in rented premises in Al Khuwair with 56 students in two-year associate degrees and with academic support from the University of Missouri–St Louis to bring an American model of business education to Muscat. The idea was simple: Omani students should be able to receive a practical, internationally benchmarked education without leaving the country.
That idea has survived intact. What has changed is scale and ambition. We moved to our own campus in Bausher in 2007, added bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs, and today welcome students from over 35 countries. But we still ask every new program, the founding question: does it give a graduate something they can use?
MCBS is the first private institution in Oman to offer a PhD in Business Administration, and it teaches the degree in both Arabic and English. Why take on doctoral education at all?
Because Oman cannot build its own research capacity if everyone who wants a doctorate has to go abroad. Many of our candidates are mid-career professionals in the government and industry. They want to study the problems they meet at work, and they want to stay in those jobs while they do it.
Arabic matters because so much of Oman's public administration and policy work happens in Arabic. Research on Omani organisations should be readable by the people who run them. Offering both languages lets candidates choose the one that suits their research and their audience, not the one that suits us.
But I would add a caution. A doctoral program is not a prestige label. It works only if you have enough qualified supervisors, a real research culture and the discipline to say no to weak proposals. That is where most of our effort has gone.
Doctorates need experienced supervisors and a research culture. How does a college built around teaching acquire them?
Slowly, and by being honest about where we can be useful. We do not try to compete with large research universities across every field. We concentrate on five areas where our faculty already have industry relationships and Omani organisations have questions they need answered: sustainable banking and finance; smart data and systems; data privacy, cybersecurity and advanced networking; digital marketing and consumer engagement in the age of AI; and sustainable development and innovation, through our research group SDIRG.
Our Industry Liaison Office began as a route to internships and has become a route to research partnerships as well. We were encouraged that this year's national accreditation panel identified our research strategy as a good practice. That does not mean the work is done. It means the direction is right.
Every institution says it listens to employers. What does that mean in practice at MCBS?
It means we listen before we design anything. Our programs in Auditing and Forensic Accounting and in Game Development and Animation both came out of conversations with industry about skills in short supply. Dual-study arrangements with partners such as SAP let students graduate with professional certifications alongside their degrees, and our MBA has run with Franklin University in the United States since 2012.
The best evidence is what our graduates do next. When alumni build companies, come back for doctoral study, and help shape our programs, it tells us more than any survey could.
How much do ratings and rankings really matter to you?
We take them seriously, as diagnostics rather than trophies. An external rating forces you to collect evidence on teaching, employability and internationalisation that you might otherwise assume you are doing well. When the evidence is uncomfortable, that is the useful part.
Our international profile matters for a different reason. Students and faculty from many countries change the conversation in a classroom. An Omani student who has worked on a team project with classmates from South Asia, Africa and Europe is better prepared for the Gulf labour market, as it actually is.
This year's national reaccreditation review placed MCBS on probation. How do you read that outcome, and what are you doing about it?
The national authority found that we met four of the six institutional standards. The two that need further work are governance and management, and academic provision. The panel was specific about what it wants to see, particularly in planning, risk management, quality management and policy. It also recognised good practice in student scholarships, research strategy and community engagement.
We accept the outcome, and we are using it. A reaccreditation review is one of the few times an institution is examined from top to bottom by people with no stake in its reputation. We have an improvement plan with named owners and deadlines ahead of reassessment in 2027, and every staff member knows what it contains. Several of Oman's most respected private institutions have been through probation and emerged stronger. We intend to do the same.
Is sustainability a genuine priority for a business school, or is it a reporting exercise?
For a business school, sustainability is not a side project. Our graduates will run the finance, procurement and strategy functions that decide whether Omani organisations meet their environmental and social commitments. They need to understand that before they get there.
Our Estidama Center for Sustainability (estidama is Arabic for sustainability) works across five pillars: education, faculty and staff engagement, student engagement, campus operations, and community and global engagement. It was one of the areas that the accreditation panel singled out. We are measuring our carbon footprint as the first step toward a net-zero roadmap, and we are a signatory of the SDG Accord and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Management Education.
What will private higher education in Oman have to do differently over the next decade?
Become more distinctive. Oman now has many private colleges and universities, and students and employers can compare them more easily than ever. Institutions that try to do everything will struggle. Those that are clear about what they do well and can prove it will do well.
For MCBS, that means strengthening our governance and quality systems, growing applied research and doctoral supervision and staying close to the employers who hire our graduates. Thirty years ago, our job was to show that private higher education could work in Oman. Now, our job is to show how good it can be.
Graduates who came back
Two MCBS alumni illustrate the loop Dr. Al Maskari describes, from graduate to industry leader and back to the college.
Harith Al Maqbali completed the MBA that MCBS runs with Franklin University and went on to found Otaxi, one of Oman's first homegrown ride-hailing apps. ITHCA Group, the technology investment arm of the Oman Investment Authority, and Yango Group later acquired the company. He is now an MCBS PhD candidate. The MBA, he says, "taught me to look at every problem the way a business does: who needs this, what will they pay, and how do you deliver it reliably”.
“Otaxi was built on those questions," He adds.
Abbas Al Lawati heads the audit function at OQ8, the 50:50 joint venture that operates the refinery in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm and has received the global Audit Beacon Award. He now sits on the college's Alumni Advisory Board.
"Audit is about evidence and judgment," he says, "and I learned those habits here."