Activists protest hikes in university tuition fees

AMMAN — The National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights, “Thabahtoona”, has launched the “second stage” of its strategy to protest against hikes in tuition fees at public universities around the Kingdom.

According to a Thabahtoona statement, students from different universities in the capital and other governorates came together last week to protest against the rise in tuition fees and the “privatising” of public universities.

The second stage of the campaign, according to activists, includes meeting figures from the Ministry of Higher Education, the Lower House’s education committee, some political parties and associations, and women’s rights advocates and centres.

The campaign members are approaching people in shopping centres and streets in various regions of the Kingdom and distributing brochures explaining its aims for reforming higher education, according to Thabahtoona.

The brochures raise public awareness on risks facing the future of education in the Kingdom.

The Thabahtoona statement said the brochures inform people that the raise in fees for the next four years will amount to over 100 per cent.

The rise in tuition fees at the Balqa Applied University amounts to 200 per cent, the statement quoted Fakher Daas, Thabahtoona coordinator, as saying.

Thabahtoona said the average salary of a Jordanian employee is JD409 per month.