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No new term for University of Jordan president

By Raed Omari - Mar 15,2016 - Last updated at Mar 15,2016

AMMAN — The Higher Education Council decided on Tuesday not to renew Ekhleif Tarawneh's presidency of the University of Jordan (UJ) for a second term. 

Tarawneh confirmed the news to The Jordan Times late Tuesday without giving further comment.

Local media outlets reported that UJ's board of trustees had recommended that the Higher Education Council approve a second term for the UJ president.

UJ students have been protesting a decision by their university's administration to raise tuition fees for the parallel and post-graduate programmes.

Students started protesting on February 28, demanding the reversal of the decision, taken in 2014, raising the fees for the parallel and post-graduate programmes by 100 to 180 per cent.

Tarawneh emphasised at a recent press conference that the reversal of the decision is not the responsibility of the president, and that the board of trustees, which consists of 12 members, is the authority that can change or reverse the decision.

Following up on the protest, Tarawneh wrote on his Facebook page that he will start working on phasing out the parallel programme, describing UJ as "the umbrella for many Jordanians and to others who saw it as a path to accomplish their dreams".

The parallel programme is allocated for students whose General Secondary Education Certificate Examination scores do not qualify them to study specific subjects at public universities through the regular programme.

 

Tuition fees for this programme are higher than regular programmes. 

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