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This study explores leadership in higher education institutions in Oman where education for sustainability issues are a high priority. The Vice-chancellor of the premier university Sultan Qaboos University, Qaboos Sultanate of Oman, and his four senior management team members answer the following question: What are the concrete steps which have been undertaken in order to allow the university to integrate sustainability in its: (a) curricula; (b) research; (c) practical projects; and (d) regional and national development endeavours? The views of these senior leaders carry larger national and international implications for the promotion of sustainability in Oman. They define their leadership as articulating a desire to bring about educational change and to prepare in practice for an explicit paradigm shift towards sustainability throughout the university and the country as well. Internationalization of the university is considered to be an important part of its sustainability strategy.

There has been considerable interest in the use of solar electrical converters for supplying electric drive motors in pumping schemes for rural areas. The optimum control of solar electric drive motors is desirable because it leads firstly, to higher apparent efficiency of solar energy conversion, and, secondly, to reduced cost per useful watt. Although the ‘fuel’ for solar drives is free, the cost of solar cells is high. Optimization means that smaller areas of solar panels are required, thus reducing the overall cost of the solar drive system. The present investigation has been directed towards the development of a reliable electronic controller, which would ensure stable and optimal performance characteristics of solar electric‐powered pumping scheme over a broad range of operating conditions. The design goals are low cost, reasonable accuracy, control capability and efficient utilization of the electrically converted solar power. The developed electronic optimizer provides constant voltage operation of the solar generator so that maximum power can be delivered to the drive motor for any light intensity. The main part of the optimizer is a servo chopper. The chopper operation is automatically adjusted so that the overall system efficiency is always maintained at a maximum value. Details of the electronic optimizer circuits are given and the overall system performance is investigated. Valuable information for the design and operation of the solar electric drive system with the electronic optimizer is gained from this analysis.