Muscat – More than 33,000 students have secured higher education places in Oman in the first admission round for the 2026/27 academic year, with medical and health programmes recording some of the toughest competition.

The Unified Admission Centre announced on Wednesday that 33,031 students received study offers, representing 70.4% of the total of 46,934 applicants.

The number of places available this year rose 17% to 34,113, while offers made in the first round increased by 5,494, or about 20%, from 27,537 last year.

Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Azri, Director General of the Unified Admission Centre, said the figures reflected an expansion in opportunities alongside an increase in the number of students successfully completing the General Education Diploma.

“More than seven out of every ten successful applicants received a study offer in the first round,” he said, adding that students without offers could still compete for vacant places during subsequent admission stages.

Government higher education institutions accounted for 17,430 offers, or 52.8% of the total. Another 14,950, or 45.3%, were through internal scholarships and grants at private institutions, while 651 offers, about 2%, were for overseas scholarships and grants.

Despite the demand, 1,082 places, or 3.2% of those available, remained vacant because too few applicants met admission requirements for some programmes.

Al Azri said the centre would work with higher education institutions to utilise these places in later rounds.

Medicine, health sciences, education and some overseas scholarship programmes recorded the highest competitive scores.

At Sultan Qaboos University, the lowest competitive score admitted to general medicine was 98.15% for males and 99.2% for females. The corresponding threshold was 98.3% at the National University of Science and Technology and 97.9% at Dhofar University.

For oral and dental medicine and surgery, the cut-off was 95.1% for males and 97.55% for females.

Students receiving offers must complete registration with their institutions between August 20 and August 24. Failure to do so will result in the offer being forfeited.

Students will be able to modify their programme preferences from August 27 to 30 and compete for remaining places. Dates for the second admission round will be announced later.

Separate admission rounds will be held for students completing the second examination session and those holding non-Omani qualifications whose final results were unavailable during the first round.

The centre will also reopen applications for self-funded study at Sultan Qaboos University and education programmes at private higher education institutions from September 8 to 10.