This Al al-Bayt University Information Technology College opened its doors to students in 2001/2002 with two undergraduate programs and one graduate program. It is a growth of the computer science department that exists at the university since 1995. The first undergraduate program is the traditional computer science program, and the second is the computer information systems program. The graduate program leads to the MS degree in computer science. Since then, an undergraduate program in management information systems has been added. In addition, an MS program in information and communications technology in education has recently been established jointly with the college of education and the private sector.
Our undergraduate programs have been designed to respond to new trends in the IT field, and to local, regional and international market needs that correspond to these trends. The trends are the expanding role of object-oriented programming, networking, the world wide web, E-business, E-government, E-learning, service-oriented computing, interpersonal communication skills, computer ethics and computer security. Indeed computing and computer communications have become pervasive.
The computer science curriculum includes core requirements in programming languages, data structures, algorithms, computational theory, computer architecture, networking, distributed systems, database management systems, and computer security. The major difference between the computer information systems (CIS) curriculum and the computer science curriculum is that CIS emphasizes information systems fundamentals and applications, including information storage and retrieval, and internet-based information.
The design of the management information systems curriculum was influenced by a needs survey of several major IT companies in the country. The survey showed a clear demand that computer professionals have good business, accounting, and English language skills. This is in addition to the common basic computer skills. It is expected that the English language skills of all of our undergraduates will be improved by the use of this language as a principal language of instruction. Moreover, our university requirements include English language courses.
The management information systems program differs from the remaining undergraduate programs in two main aspects. They are:
- First, the core requirements include courses in business management, human resources management, marketing, and accounting.
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Second, common management information systems are treated extensively. Examples are financial management, production management, electronic marketing, and workflow systems .
The IT College aims to give students a sound theoretical foundation, problem-solving skills, hands-on experience, and an awareness of the relevance of computer technology to the well-being of society. The theoretical foundation and problem-solving skills are a must because technology is bound to change during the professional life of the graduate, which typically spans decades. The goal of hands-on experience is to guarantee relevance to current technology. It is achieved by emphasizing homework, having open labs, requiring a graduation project, and cooperating with the IT industry. To achieve the aims of the college, we have 10 PC labs that contain about 230 PCs, CAI classrooms that contain over 200 PCs, and a parallel computer that was financed by the European Union. This parallel computer has been used for research and graduate instruction to both Al al-Bayt and other Jordanian graduate students.
Al al-Bayt University has a modern local area network that covers virtually all of its buildings. This network uses Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and ATM technologies.
Of relevance to all of its students and the community at large, Al al-Bayt University has many training programs, and it has an ICDL (International Computer Driving License) test center.
A challenge to all Jordanian universities, including ours, is the local scarcity of qualified faculty members in the various computer disciplines. A special effort is constantly made to recruit additional faculty members. Also, we have an ambitious PhD scholarship program, whereby exceptional MS holders are given scholarships for enrolling in PhD programs in reputable world-class universities. The emphasis we place on human resources and state-of-the-art technology has for aim the formation of excellent IT professionals that our country, the region and the world need.
