About the Program
The General Foundation Program is designed to bridge the gap between secondary and post-secondary education. Students are given a foundational knowledge in the core areas of English, Mathematics and Information Technology. The program also establishes a solid foundation in other important skills, such as study skills, self-directed study and general life skills.
The English courses provides opportunities to develop communicative competence among learners in the four macro-language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students are exposed to various learning experiences thread through comprehension, critical thinking and communicative activities along with embedded study skills. Thus, the course employs the latest approaches and strategies to help guide the students towards active independent learning. Moreover, the course introduces basic knowledge in areas related to health sciences.
The Mathematics course provides avenues to students for learning basic mathematical concepts and their uses by exposing them to arithmetic properties, basic knowledge of algebraic and geometric problems. It also introduces basic concepts of descriptive statistics, quadratic equations, and logarithmic and analytical trigonometry functions.
The Information Technology component offers the student basic theoretical foundation to understand the make-up of computer system. It also provides them with hands-on experience in common software applications. Thus, various learning activities help inculcate in learners practical knowledge of information technology.
Institute Profile
The Foundation Programme (FP) was started as MOH introduced the program in preparation for starting degree programs at the Ministry of Health Institutions as part of the requirement of MOHE; HE the Minister of Higher Education issued Ministerial Decision No. 72/2008 which demanded the adoption of the General Foundation Programme by all public and private higher education institutions in the Sultanate of Oman. In order to launch this idea of establishing the Foundation Programme Centre, a Foundation Committee was formed to assess and evaluate the suitability of the English courses taught by MOH Institutes to meet the requirement of the MOHE standards for Foundation. The Committee reviewed the existing Foundation Programmes provided by all institutes and due to time constraint and the urgent need to start the programme within few months it was decided to adopt the Foundation Programme used at the Institute of Health Science with minor changes. The Foundation Programme meets the objectives set in Oman Academic Standards for General Foundation Programme, which complies with standards approved by Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA) Foundation Programme Centre started its working in Muscat in the Oman Nursing Institute (ONI) building on 27 October, 2010.
The Centre offers a three-level trimester foundation course that provides opportunities to learners in English, IT and Mathematics .The programme consists of:
1-English Courses (FND 101, FND102 & FND 103)
2- Mathematics (FND 201& FND 202)
3- Information Technology (FND 301 & 302)
The Centre has 11 classrooms, 2 multi-media labs, a main library space-used as self-access room, and two divisible nursing labs. Self- Access material is being utilized by the students as part of the Computer Assisted Language Learning( CALL ) to improve their English. The classrooms are equipped with computers with projectors OHPs and a TV.
In addition, it has 6 office rooms for the teaching staff, 6 administrative and a common staff room. FP has a team of well qualified teachers. The FP has 25 English Language teachers, 4 IT teachers and 3 Mathematics teachers. Four Foundation teachers provide support in teaching the English Course at ONI, IHS, Pharmacy and OHIMI. Two teachers from OSNI support the teaching at the Foundation Centre.
The course employs the latest approaches and strategies to guide the students towards active independent learning and enable them to be life-long active learners and cope with the academic demands of nursing and other allied health disciplines.
