Admissions committee starts receiving applications to public universities on Wednesday

AMMAN — The Unified Admissions Committee will begin receiving applications to public universities on Wednesday, August 5 through Thursday, August 13, according to the committee’s director, Ghaleb Hourani. 

Around 28,573 students, who have achieved an average score of 65 per cent and above in the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), are entitled to apply to public universities while the overall number of students eligible to join public and private universities is around 30,788, the Jordan News Agency Petra, quoted him as saying. 

The Higher Education Council on Sunday froze a decision it adopted last month to raise minimum admission rates for the Kingdom’s universities by five points. 

Instead, required averages in some majors were lowered. The minimum score for the faculties of Sharia, law and agriculture was reduced to 65 from 70. 

The council also endorsed a decision entitling state-run universities to directly accept students who want to specialise in architectural engineering.

Moreover, the council lowered the admission score for students who want to specialise in paramedic and rehabilitation science to 70 from 75 as the labour market can easily absorb its graduates.

It also lowered the admission score for students who want to join the media and journalism bachelor’s degree programmes at public universities to 65 from 70.   
Some 90,618 regular students in both academic and vocational streams registered for the Tawjihi summer session, 57,077 of whom sat for the exam, according to the Education Ministry.

A total of 49,972 students sat for the academic stream of the examination, of whom 20,521 passed, marking a pass rate of 41.1 per cent, Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said late last month.

Students’ Tawjihi scores decide their future in higher education. It is the main criterion to determine the specialty in which they can major, the public university at which they can enrol and whether they are qualified to go to university.

Students who have Tawjihi grades that do not qualify them to study specific subjects at public universities have the choice to apply through the parallel programme.

Tuition fees for this programme are higher than regular programmes and vary from one university to another.

In addition, students have to apply directly to the university at which they want to study and have the option of applying to more than one.