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THE New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), one of the leading suppliers of higher education courses in the kingdom, is to close its Adliya campus.
NYIT Bahrain opened in 2003 and has informed the Ministry of Education of its decision to phase out its undergraduate and graduate degree programmes over a period of three years.
An NYIT statement said: “Rules and regulations required by Bahrain are not consistent with NYIT’s requirements and standards in the US. The university will continue to offer the courses necessary for currently matriculated degree-seeking students to complete their degrees in Bahrain within a predetermined amount of time.
“The appropriate student services and student activities also will be maintained until current students graduate. NYIT estimates that the phase-out will take three years to complete.”
NYIT is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, one of the regional accrediting agencies of the US Department of Education and was offering an internationally-recognised, American degree from Bahrain.
The statement added: “The degree’s value will not be diminished by the fact that NYIT will phase out the campus in Bahrain. NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world.”
Currently NYIT offers a variety of educational programmes at its two campuses in New York as well as at global campuses located in Canada, China, Jordan and UAE.
In Bahrain, specifically, it offered both bachelor’s and master’s programmes in the schools of engineering and computing sciences; management; arts and sciences; and architecture and design. NYIT also allowed its students in Bahrain a 50 per cent discount in New York tuition fees.
Approximately 1,800 students have graduated in Bahrain since it opened. The university declined to expand on its statement and explain in what way the kingdom’s rules and regulations now differed from its requirements and standards in the US.
It is not known what will happen to the campus faculty, although many lecturers and professors travel between international campuses and will carry on their roles within NYIT. Local employees will not be so lucky on the jobs front.
