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UJ students rate economy, refugee crisis as key challenges

By Suzanna Goussous - Feb 03,2016 - Last updated at Feb 03,2016

President of the University of Jordan Ekhleif Tarawneh speaks at a meeting to announce a poll’s findings on students’ opinion trends in Amman on Wednesday (Photo by Suzanna Goussous)

AMMAN – Half of the students at the country’s largest university are interested in politics, but 66 per cent of them said they were not affiliated with an intellectual or political movement, a survey has showed. 

The study, conducted at the University of Jordan (UJ) in December, explored the trends of students’ opinions on issues such as politics, gender, the educational system and social habits. The results were shared with the media on Wednesday by UJ’s Centre of Strategic Studies (CSS), which carried out the survey.

Around 25,662 students out of UJ’s current population (who registered this semester) of around 37,000 responded to the survey, said CSS director Musa Shteiwi.

The political affiliation figures show that 12 per cent of the total respondents were pan-Arabists, 11 per cent Islamists and 7 per cent nationalists.

The survey included questions about the terrorist groups in the region and whether students support their ideologies.  The findings showed that 94 per cent said they did not support any terror group.

The remaining 6 per cent expressed support for a variety of groups such as Al Qaeda, Daesh and their affiliates, and even the Iraq-based Shiite militia, Asaib
Ahl Al Haq. 

“This [the 6 per cent] is not something we will disregard, yet, the vast majority does not support any of the terror groups, and this is something we should highlight,” Shteiwi told The Jordan Times. 

However, not terror, but the economy’s status, corruption and the Syrian refugee crisis were the top issues the students believed to be posing the major challenges to the country.

Regarding students’ stands on gender-related issues, some findings were unexpected, especially since females constitute some 66.7 per cent of UJ’s students. For example, a majority of respondents, almost 55 per cent, believe that women’s jobs impact the household negatively.

However, about 78 per cent of them said they support a woman’s choice to have a job.

“This result shows that we still have this conventional image of women, and even though this generation has developed in many areas, we still hold on to the old mindset. We will be working on that as well,” Shteiwi told The Jordan Times.

In the survey, students were asked to rate democracy and its suitability in Jordan.

On a scale of 0 to 10, the average rate of democracy in the country stands at 5.3, while the suitability of having democracy in the Kingdom gave an average of 5.7.  

Around 40 per cent of the survey takers believe there are restrictions on expressing opinions on social issues. 

As for educational issues, around 53 per cent of the survey takers said the educational system in local universities does not promote creativity, while 54 per cent said education in Jordan focuses on the academic aspect and disregards others.

According to the university’s president, the results are sufficiently reliable to build policies on. 

“The university is a small city, representing the entire Jordanian society. These findings can be generalised to provide us with insight into the trends of our youth in other universities,” Ekhleif Tarawneh said.

He told The Jordan Times he believes Jordanian universities would work hand in hand on problems such as the ones highlighted in the survey’s findings. 

Shteiwi and Tarawneh added that such studies help re-evaluate the situation on campus, adding that solving campus problems would, naturally, reflect positively on society.

The council of deans will map plans for future activities and events to encourage students to work in the field and do more community service, the president said.

 

“We will tailor activities that would benefit students in the long run,” Tarawneh said. 

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