Bahrain's Education Minister Dr Majid Al Nuaimi has announced plans to restructure academic programmes of some private universities as part of a higher education strategy being mapped out in co-operation with international expertise houses.

Community service faculties will be expanded to include a diploma course and they will be granted licences if all required conditions are met, Dr Al Nuaimi told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

Academic programmes that don't comply with international standards, including qualifications of teaching staff and required laboratories, will no longer be allowed to confer a Master's degree, but only a Bachelor's degree instead. Such programmes may also be stopped once and for all, the minister said.

The Higher Education Council has plans to focus on vocational and technical programmes and re-evaluate performance of all universities and high institutes in the kingdom out of a keenness to improve higher education results, he added.-TradeArabia News Service