Higher Education Admission Center received an International award the World Summit Award (WSA) as the best electronic product. On 5th November 2007 in Venice (Italy) the (WSA) organized awarding ceremony to honor excellence in multimedia and e-content products. Oman delegation was represented by His Excellency Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Sarmi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, the director general of HEAC Dr Said Abdullah Al-Adawi and his Deputy D.G. for system affairs Khalid Al-Zidjali. His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Al-Sarmi received the award HEAC earned in the presences of highest level international dignitaries as one of the best five excellent e-inclusion products all over the world. Before the ceremony WSA winners presented their projects in a two days workshop to a panel of specialist. A brief explanation was given by Khalid Al-Zidjali about the mechanism of HEAC system, the motivation behind supporting this project by the Sultanate and mentioning the steps taken to build the electronic system for students to submit their applications to higher education institution. The HEAC electronic system was chosen after thirty two referees from different countries agreed on the quality of services that HEAC provides to students and their parents. These referees considered that the idea of the electronic system added value to information committee on international level. WSA award is an award given by World Summit Award (WSA) in Austria that started its operations from 2003 with UNESCO corporation. This award is given once every two years to the best electronic products all over the world. WSA received 650 electronic products in 2007 from 160 different countries to be evaluated as creative and distinctive electronic products by thirty two experts. WSA goal is to encourage and choose the best electronic systems all around the world that serves society. Winning this award is an evidence of hard work that HEAC’s staff and the successful upgrading HEAC system as His Excellency Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Sarmi mentioned. The achievements of HEAC are evidences that Omani society can handle work with digital technology and electronic systems. His Excellency also mentioned that HEAC achieved the goals it was established for by simplifying procedures, eliminating paper work, reducing financial and resources expenses of Higher Education Institutes. The ability of HEAC system to handle all of these probably would be the reason of its superiority and success.
The Higher Education Admission Center (HEAC) had obtained the Best Portal for Development Sector Award during its’ participation in the 2nd GCC e-Government Conference held in Kuwait from the 13th until the 15th of November 2011. About 83 projects had been presented by GCC governments for the award. The award aims at encouraging the government authorities in the GCC to implement information technology to fast carry out transactions, adopt transparency, and decrease costs. The award categories includes: Best eService, Best eContent, Best Government –to Government Project, Best National Portal, and Best Portal for Development Sector. The Data Exchange Portal of HEAC is a connecting link between the Ministry of Higher Education MoHE represented by HEAC, and the different authorities related to the student enrollment to higher education such as HEIs, the Ministry of Social Development, schools, and banks. There is a variety of services provided by this portal for different groups of users based on their concerns, besides the information and reports required by the institutions they follow.
The Higher Education Admission Center of the Ministry of Higher Education has won the Best Government-to-Government Award, one of the GCC eGovernment Awards 2013 distributed during the Third GCC eGovernment Conference from 9 to 11 December in Dubai. The conference was attended by a number of Excellencies, heads of eGovernment bodies and authorities in the GCC and some experts and specialists of eGovenment and Information and Communication Technology In a great ceremony held especially for this purpose, the award has been received by Mr. Yahiya Bin Sallam Al Manthary, acting Director General of HEAC. The ceremony was held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoom. The GCC eGovernment award includes different sub-awards such as: the Best Government eService, Best Government Interoperable Service, the Best Government-to-Government Shared eService, the Best Government Portal, Best Application for Smart Devices, the Best Government e-Participation Initiative, the Best Leading Initiatives, and the Excellent Project. The winner projects are selected according to internationally adopted conditions and standards. The jury consists of a number of specialists and experts in eGovernment sector who have long experience in judging such awards and competitions. Further, the GCC eGovernment Award aims at achieving many objectives concerning eGovernments, appreciating the excellent performance in providing government services, support efforts through raising awareness of constructive competition culture among the GCC countries. All these will help enhance the eGovernment projects and providing the best opportunities for the participating countries to measure the quality elements and evaluate the competence of eGovernment services provided for the public. The award also aims at highlighting the successful experiences, activating exchange between competitors, and befitting from the technical experiences of the different GCC countries in eServices and eTransactions. In addition, this can help raise the status of the GCC countries among developed countries in this domain, make them proceed on the international level, and develop a unified basis of standards, policies, and regulations for the GCC countries. It is worth mentioning that the HEAC is the winner of the GCC eGovernment Award for the second time. In 2011, the center won the Best Government Portal concerning development as a part of the Sultanate participation in the Second GCC Conference for eGovernment held on Kuwait. The HEAC Information Exchange Portal is considered the link between MHE’s HEAC and the different higher education institutes regarding the process of students’ admission such as: higher education institutes, Ministry of Social Development, schools, and banks. The services provided via this portal differ from user to user according to their specializations, and the information and reports required form the user’s institute.
The Higher Education Admission Center (HEAC), of the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had won the Golden Prize of the Pan Arab Excellence Awards during the 7th edition of Web Excellence Awards Academy held in Kuwait 2016, under the patronage of His Highness Shiekh Mohamed Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Subbah. The award aims at promoting the electronic Arab governments’ websites, mobile applications and accounts on social media as appreciating their efforts and encouraging them to develop a virtual environment that relies on transparency and creativity and serves the sustainable development of the Arab world. Moreover, it honors the creative leaderships, initiatives, practices and excellent performance that may inspire individuals and institutions as well – as stated in the official website of the award. The participating mobile applications had been evaluated as per the following criteria: • App features • Easy use • Honesty of content • Flexibility of adjusting with international program platforms • The extent of adjustment with social media It is worth mentioning that HEAC mobile application (MB) was launched in 2013 to be the third registration method in the Admission Electronic System (AES) with the website and SMS service. The MB enables students of the General Education Diploma or equivalent to complete all registration procedures in the AES. The application has been recently upgraded in order to keep pace with the latest developments in the MB technologies and matches the international platforms.
The Higher Education Admission Center had won the Golden Award for educational websites as the best educational service website in Oman. The winners of Oman Competition for websites 2007 had been announced, sponsored by the Information Technology Authority. The ceremony was held under the patronage of his Excellency Sheikh Al Fadhal Bin Mohammed Al Harthi, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of National Economy for Development Affairs, the vice chairman of ITA Admission Council, and had taken place in InterContinental Muscat. The competition which is considered the most important on a national level in this field, aims at enhancing creativity and digital innovation in Oman, and provides opportunities for website designers and IT specialists to present their projects and market them locally and internationally. The celebration included announcing winners and distributing awards.The competition witnessed in its third year a large number of participations from different companies, website designers and media production organizations. The number of participants had reached in 170 participants in 2007 comparing to 94 participants in 2006 distributed to 23 different categoriesA judging committee evaluated all participants of Oman Awards Website Competition 2007, included specialists of different fields such as: banking, public, education, information technology, communications, and media institutions and website designers. Silver Award for the Best Website (Public Institutions) - Oman HEAC had also won the silver award for the best website in the category of public intuitions. Winners were announced in the Oman Awards competition for Websites 2007. The award distribution eceremony was sponsored by the Information Technology Authority and the celebration was held under the patronage of his Excellency Sheikh Al Fadhal Bin Mohammed Al Harthi, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of National Economy for Development Affairs, the vice chairman of ITA Admission Council, and had taken place in InterContinental Muscat. The competition which is considered the most important on a national level in this field, aims at enhancing creativity and digital innovation in Oman, and provides opportunities for website designers and IT specialists to present their projects and market them locally and internationally. The celebration included announcing winners and distributing awards.The competition witnessed in its third year a large number of participations from different companies, website designers and media production organizations. The number of participants had reached in 170 participants in 2007 comparing to 94 participants in 2006 distributed to 23 different categories. A judging committee evaluated all participants of Oman Awards Website Competition 2007, included specialists of different fields such as: banking, public, education, information technology, communications, and media institutions and website designers. Sablat Oman Awards for Community Service - Oman The Higher Education Admission Center had won Sablat Oman Awards for Community Service. “Sablat Oman” had organized the award distribution ceremony foe=r the year 2012 in Shangri La under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalid Bin Omar Al Marhoon, Minister of Civil Service, and attended by a number of Their Highnesses and Excellences.During the awards ceremony, Moosa Bin Abdullah Al Farai, the Director General of Sablat Oman had delivered a speech, confirming that Sablat Oman is working hard in order to integrate with the community and institutions through adopting different kinds of social work including both voluntary work and social services. “This Award is considered one of the important ventures carried out by Sablat Oman to integrate with the Omani community, and before we had launched Oman Cultural Convoys that traveled a number of capital cities in the world to present Oman culture and civilization.