Collegiate Times

Few students at Virginia Tech have ever heard of the small Arab country of Oman, let alone are aware that Tech is acting as one of the advisers on the construction of a new national university in its capital city of Muscat.

"This is a very strategic area of the world, and these countries are going to be very critical players in the future of international relations. So what we envision here is a university that is going to be on such a status that it will attract students from the entire region," said vice president for outreach and international affairs John Dooley, "As we look at the future of Virginia Tech, as I think that it is very important that we have a global profile. And obviously opportunities like this help enhance our global profile and enhance our position and understanding as being a world-class university."

Tech's role will involve sending over senior level professors in the fields that the new university will specialize in to aid with creating a curriculum and assist in starting the education at the university. However, these faculty positions will be "a fairly short-term experience," Dooley said.

"It's not like we are building a university in the Middle East," said Patrick Guilbaud, program director of IT in international relations. "We are only acting as educational advisers, and we are not putting any money into the project. The university will not have Virginia Tech in the name; we are simply acting as a partner to help with all of our capacity in technical areas."

The university, which will educate in English, began when Tech's international relations department was approached by the Oman Trading Establishment Group of Companies, a consortium of companies selling commercial vehicles, special equipment, electronics and home appliances, to see whether they would be interested in helping a new university get on its feet.

"Virginia Tech has a strong interest in international endeavors, and we have four or five major centers throughout the world," Guilbaud said. "And through some efforts that we have in India, a group got into contact with (vice president for international affairs) John Dooley about a concept that they had on paper to start a new university in partnership with a group in Oman, and that was a couple years ago."

The idea came from a businessman Saad Bahwan, the chairman of the OTE Group, who had decided to pick up where his father left off with a dream of building a university in Muscat.

"The man who is the head of the company is actually the son of a Sheik. And the father for years back had wanted to build a university as a legacy because they are a very well known, very influential family in Oman," Guilbaud said. "The son ... had a lot of senior members of his company in India, and it was them that made the linkage back to Virginia Tech through our work with them."

Seeing as the country is a sultanate, or an absolute monarchy under a sultan, he first had to gain permission from the Sultan, Qaboos Bin Al Said from whom he had gained the opportunity to fulfill his father's dream through his "Omanization" programs.

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