UJ student protests against tuition increase continue

AMMAN — Around 50 University of Jordan (UJ) students picketed the UJ administration on Sunday to protest against the hikes in tuition fees for the parallel and postgraduate programmes.

Alaa Hajjih, event organiser, said the protest was held to build on what students started last June.

“This is one of a series of protests we are doing to ask the university administration to reverse its decision regarding tuition fees,” he said.

Tuition fees have been raised by 200 per cent for postgraduate programmes and 100 per cent for parallel programmes, according to Hajjih.

“We are students from all faculties and backgrounds, including political, religious and national groups, asking for our basic right of education,” he told The Jordan Times.

“Our main aim is to prove that all students stand together against this decision. Especially since elections in university tend to break students apart and create conflicts between those from different backgrounds,” Hajjih added.

Some students, he said, met with UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh last December and discussed the decision to raise fees.

“The president told us it is not the university’s fault that the government does not financially support higher education institutions, so the administration had no other choice but to raise the fees,” Hajjih added.

During the past few years, there was no government financial assistance for UJ but the fees were not raised, he pointed out.

“This is not just university-related, we will stage protests near the Parliament and the Ministry of Higher Education to ask them to reverse the decision, because education is the only thing that should not be controlled and changed,” Hajjih added.

“It is the duty of the government and local entities to financially support educational institutions, since providing citizens with education will build better generations.”

UJ Dean of Student Affairs Ahmad Owaidi told The Jordan Times that the university had to raise tuition fees to provide an environment for proper education.

“There is no update regarding the decision. This is what enables the university to offer the best possible education opportunities,” Owaidi said.

“This decision is a result of the suspension of financial aid offered by the government,” he added.

UJ officials have said the 27 per cent deficit in the university’s JD140-million budget prompted the board of trustees to decide to increase tuition fees.

The students will continue to organise protests until the decision is reversed or until their requests are taken into account, according to Muhammad Shaara, a fourth-year student.

“There was no flexibility in discussing the decision with the administration. This decision affects society as a whole; education is the most important factor in human development and we should all stand against it,” Shaara said.

Under the new rates, one credit hour in an MA programme now costs between JD150 and JD230, while one PhD hour costs between JD180 and JD250 depending on the specialty.