KUWAIT: Kuwait has launched the first stage of a central college admission portal in a bid to revamp online services and overhaul information and educational infrastructure, the education minister announced. The move is part of an integrated program of applications that would contribute to applying a digital registration system involving a central admission portal for higher education institutions, Dr Hamad Al-Adwani said in a press statement. Kuwait University, internal and external scholarships and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) will be included in the portal, allowing pre-university students to make online applications for higher education facilities, he said.

The central admission portal comes in the context of the government’s endeavor to draw upon advanced technology and achieve digital transformation, thus reflecting the state’s development vision, he added. “The automated system regulates procedures for submitting applications for seats while ensuring there is no overlap and conflict between applications,” Adwani said. It also verifies that the conditions of admission approved by each entity are met and enables those accepted to complete all their registration procedures at the educational institution in which they were accepted.

“Seats are distributed accurately and quickly through electronic linkage and coordination between higher education institutions and the concerned authorities, namely the ministries of education and interior and the Public Authority for Civil Information, in addition to the Civil Service Commission, Public Authority for Manpower and the Public Institution for Social Security,” he added. Adwani said the central admission portal will be launched in its first stage this year, and in subsequent stages will gradually complete the entire infrastructure, pointing out this has become an imperative necessity.

Secretary-General of the Council of Public Universities Dr Adel Al-Mane said: “Based on the directives of Minister Al-Adwani, work has begun to implement the first phase of the central admission portal between Kuwait University and Abdullah Al Salem University, where graduates of high school and its equivalents can submit applications for admission to these two universities from July 15 until 26 through the unified electronic portal of the two universities.”

Mane explained that the method of selecting majors by applicants to the two universities will appear to each student according to their average score and according to the results of preadmission tests, if any, and the extent to which the applicant meets the conditions. The applicant is allowed to select all the specializations available to them, whether at Kuwait University or Abdullah Al Salem University, in the order chosen by the student. - KUNA