An analytical model to assess the efficacy of the British HND programme in the Arabian Gulf region

By developing a logit model, this study attempts to identify the determinants which influence the efficacy of the HND programme. The total sample comprised of 104 final-year students surveyed in two university sector colleges in Oman and the UAE. The most statistically significant determinants were found to be the gender of students, their desire for vocational course content, their desire for varied and on-going assessment methods and whether or not they had taken the HND as a last resort. The model was found to be a reasonably effective model of qualitative choice for rating an educational programme good or otherwise as it correctly classified 77.5% of the students' ratings for the in-sample (80 students) and 71% for the hold-out sample (24 students). The study suggests that such a model could be effectively used by educational policy-makers to assess the efficacy of any academic programme.