Sultan Qaboos University opened a dedicated School of Artificial Intelligence in September 2025, offering undergraduate and graduate programmes in machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. The school is part of Oman’s broader effort to build domestic AI expertise aligned with the National AI Strategy 2025-2030 and the AI and Digital Technologies Programme 2024-2026.
The university opening is accompanied by a series of public-private lab partnerships opening in Knowledge Oasis Muscat: a Google AI Lab Oman (Q1 2026), a Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab (November 2025), and a NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (January 2026), providing applied training opportunities beyond formal degree programmes.
Who it affects: Undergraduate and postgraduate students at Sultan Qaboos University; professionals seeking AI upskilling through the partner lab programmes.
What is notably missing: The school and partner labs serve a segment of the population with higher education access; no binding universal AI literacy obligation exists at secondary school or workforce level. The K-12 curriculum integration noted in the national programme remains at workshop and pilot stage rather than embedded mandatory curriculum.