Committee reactions overwhelmingly positive

KUWAIT CITY, July 8: The Kuwait College of Science and Technology has obtained the highest rating with an “A” grade in institutional accreditation for a period of five years, reports Al-Anba daily. On this occasion, the President of the Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST) Prof. Khaled Al-Begain revealed that the Academic Accreditation Committee, which consists of specialized professors with great expertise from Kuwait University, headed by Dr. Haitham Al-Labaidi had visited the university on December 22. He explained that the college’s evaluation and institutional accreditation is based on seven main factors - mission, goals, vision and strategic planning, teaching and learning, governance, leadership and management, students, faculty and support staff, institutional resources, and scientific research and innovation. The reactions of the Academic Accreditation Committee were overwhelmingly positive, and the committee expressed great admiration for the academic level of the study programs and the distinguished level of scientific research of the college.

Highlights
Regarding the highlights of the report sent by the Academic Accreditation Committee, Professor Al-Begain said, “From the data and information collected and analyzed by the team, the positive aspects that distinguished Kuwait College of Science and Technology were monitored. The report confirmed that the college has a distinguished academic and scientific environment which is constantly improving and is a candidate for being a leading institution in its field. The report enumerates the following aspects - the future expansion plan for an integrated university, which is an ambitious plan and is based on the success achieved by the college through its current programs. It is advisable to gradually introduce new programs and to rely on a specialized study of the labor market.

Also, its excellence in scientific research and the college administration’s interest in raising the volume of scientific production for faculty members. In addition, the college’s keenness to attract and appoint faculty members with an outstanding research record in vital fields. This distinction is supposed to be maintained by increasing the budget for scientific research and research cooperation, attracting external support, and granting scientific sabbaticals to researchers and other opportunities to encourage researchers. The associate university - Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi - is considered as one of the world’s bestknown international universities in the field of technology education. Also in terms of the positive atmosphere and the satisfaction of faculty members and students in general, it was demonstrated through the field visit, opinion polls and interviews conducted with faculty and students.

Role
The college focuses on important topics such as electronic finance and cyber security, which qualifies the college to play an important role in serving the public and private sectors. It is recommended that the college highlights these topics more clearly in the academic programs. The stability of the college’s financial position and its good policy in terms of the distribution of profits helps to strengthen the financial position and provide the necessary funds for the expansions to be implemented in the future. The buildings and spaces currently available are considered valuable assets. They can be exploited for the gradual expansion through the introduction of new programs and the establishment of colleges planned for the college’s transformation into a university. The college has a good system for preserving and storing information, maintaining its confidentiality and retrieval”.

Prof. Al-Begain affirmed that the college will work in the future to change into a university and add many new engineering disciplines with ramifications that keep pace with market needs such as cybersecurity, digital security, artificial intelligence, the environment and others, as well as the addition of a business administration college with distinct specializations based on technology. In conclusion, Prof. Al-Begain expressed his pride for the messages of appreciation from the Council of Private Universities and the Technical Committee, which affirm the university’s keenness to maintain the highest levels of quality in teaching, scientific research and administration “so that we can produce distinguished generations of graduates who are able to develop and progress Kuwait and achieve the aspirations of the leadership and people of Kuwait with a bright future”. Meanwhile, the Dean of the College of Engineering Prof. Ali Shamkha said the college obtaining the highest rating of “A” grade for the first time in institutional accreditation for the maximum period of five years is only evidence of the college’s excellence in terms of the quality of its scientific programs, the efficiency of the members of the educational and supportive staff, and the abundance of their distinguished research production. He stressed that this accreditation is a cornerstone for the college’s expansion in terms of the number of programs and faculties, which will constitute an essential source of Kuwaiti graduates with highly qualified and distinguished skills for the Kuwaiti labor market in various disciplines. In the end, Prof. Shamkha said, “We can only thank our sons and daughters, the students of the Kuwait College of Science and Technology, for their confidence in the college and for their tireless work towards creativity, excellence and success.”

Unprecedented
In addition, Director of Public Relations and Marketing at the Kuwait College of Science and Technology Ibrahim Al-Mutawa said, “It is unprecedented at the level of private universities for the college to achieve the highest possible institutional evaluation for the highest possible period in the very first evaluation. This refl ects the seriousness of the college in the academic context since its inception. The college took upon itself the responsibility of providing a different and distinguished education from the first day of its establishment, offering specializations and curricula that are considered the first of their kind in Kuwait. It kept abreast with all technological changes and established scientific and practical curricula commensurating with these rapid changes and ways to deal with them. Information security is the first line of defense for countries, and KCST is working on presenting these curricula in an innovative way.”

He also expressed pride in the college being the only one with programs on software methods and development of smartphone applications. It is the first to establish a laboratory, with the cooperation of Huawei, on 5G technology and future technologies in this line. It is worth mentioning that nearly 300 students graduated from the college in the last period, and approximately 75 percent of them have been employed in important governmental and private sectors. The door for applications is open until Thursday, July 8. The last day to submit for the aptitude test is on July 7. The university opens its doors to receive students every day from 8:00 am. To apply, either visit the college, or its website www.kcst.edu.kw. For general inquiries, call the hotline No. 1 810010 or contact via its social media account “KCSTKwt” on Twitter and Instagram.