This edited volume explores the educational reforms and challenges in higher education in the Gulf countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring a truly global spread of contributors and perspectives from countries such as Bahrain, India, Georgia, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, the book navigates experience-based and practice-linked research spectrum of the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education. It targets key challenges such as the move to online and distance learning, the impact of job-related stress, and the preparedness of institutional risk management. Using qualitative research, autoethnographic accounts, and case study findings, the book makes recommendations for reform implementation within higher education as well as discusses the wider socio-cultural and political landscape left by the pandemic in the Gulf region. Highlighting current trends and challenges based on empirical works of the authors, the book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and academics in the field of higher education, international and comparative education, and leadership strategy more specifically. Those involved with educational technology, education policy, and middle eastern studies will also find the book of value.

Mixed Methods Perspectives on Communication and Social Media Research addresses the need for a discipline-cum-methodology-tailored book that navigates the current research spectrum of communication and social media ("CommSocMed"). It examines contemporary and relevant issues that intertwine the expansive spheres of CommSocMed. Authored by professionals with extensive academic and in-depth research and industry experience, the book highlights research-based themes that mirror qualitative and quantitative methodologies vis-a-vis socio-cultural, political, educational, and organisational issues and challenges. The first two sections present the mutually interwoven disciplines of CommSocMed where research works cover a comprehensive range of designs such as narrative analysis, case study, recombinant memetics, discourse analysis, visual semiotics, ethnography, content analysis, feminist theory, descriptive-survey, descriptive-correlational, model-building/testing, experimental, and mixed methods. The third section is a concluding segment which synthesises all the scholarly contributions in this volume. This book will serve as an authoritative reference for mixed methods research in CommSocMed and will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers, postgraduate students and undergraduates in communication (for example, instructional communication, marketing communication, organisational communication, political communication, strategic communication), social media, and social sciences.

This authoritative edited volume examines the drivers of higher education in the Gulf region. It offers insightful analyses and examines contemporary pedagogical, management, strategic, and relevant issues on quality education that confront higher education institutions. Written by higher education specialists, curriculum developers, and policy makers from diverse international backgrounds, the book analyses issues affecting the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, with a particular focus on Oman and Saudi Arabia. It is divided into regional and non-regional drivers and considers drivers as potent enablers of a management system and educational structure at the intersection of quality education and quality management in higher education. Chapters include discussion of organisational, management, and policy issues including strategic innovation, internationalisation, quality assurance, and global rankings of higher education institutes. The book includes discussion of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning policies, practices, and programmes. This book will serve as an essential reference for quality management in higher education institutions in the Gulf, and will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers, and students of higher education, education management, and quality education in the Gulf region.

Mixed Methods Perspectives on Communication and Social Media Research addresses the need for a discipline-cum-methodology-tailored book that navigates the current research spectrum of communication and social media ("CommSocMed"). It examines contemporary and relevant issues that intertwine the expansive spheres of CommSocMed. Authored by professionals with extensive academic and in-depth research and industry experience, the book highlights research-based themes that mirror qualitative and quantitative methodologies vis-a-vis socio-cultural, political, educational, and organisational issues and challenges. The first two sections present the mutually interwoven disciplines of CommSocMed where research works cover a comprehensive range of designs such as narrative analysis, case study, recombinant memetics, discourse analysis, visual semiotics, ethnography, content analysis, feminist theory, descriptive-survey, descriptive-correlational, model-building/testing, experimental, and mixed methods. The third section is a concluding segment which synthesises all the scholarly contributions in this volume. This book will serve as an authoritative reference for mixed methods research in CommSocMed and will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers, postgraduate students and undergraduates in communication (for example, instructional communication, marketing communication, organisational communication, political communication, strategic communication), social media, and social sciences.

This authoritative edited volume examines the drivers of higher education in the Gulf region. It offers insightful analyses and examines contemporary pedagogical, management, strategic, and relevant issues on quality education that confront higher education institutions. Written by higher education specialists, curriculum developers, and policy makers from diverse international backgrounds, the book analyses issues affecting the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, with a particular focus on Oman and Saudi Arabia. It is divided into regional and non-regional drivers and considers drivers as potent enablers of a management system and educational structure at the intersection of quality education and quality management in higher education. Chapters include discussion of organisational, management, and policy issues including strategic innovation, internationalisation, quality assurance, and global rankings of higher education institutes. The book includes discussion of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning policies, practices, and programmes. This book will serve as an essential reference for quality management in higher education institutions in the Gulf, and will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers, and students of higher education, education management, and quality education in the Gulf region.