Universities urged to adopt tangible criteria to assess, improve performance

AMMAN — Universities should apply stricter accountability and governance measures in order to improve the quality of Jordan’s higher education system, according to sector insiders.

Speaking at a panel discussion on performance measures and accountability of the higher education sector on Sunday, Fayez Khasawneh, chairman of the board of trustees at Yarmouk University, said universities should develop quantifiable performance standards and well-defined protocols to deal with deviations.

Khasawneh added that universities should exercise transparency in all their activities, including financial transactions, highlighting the need to comply with academic standards to guarantee the quality of the teaching and learning processes.

“The average number of students in university lecture halls in Jordan reaches 50, which is a clear violation of all academic standards,” he said at the event, organised by the Jordanian Club of Humboldt Fellows and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty.

Khasawneh noted that the average number of research papers by faculty members at local universities is less than one per year, and that the GPA of the majority of university graduates for over two decades has been “acceptable”, a reality that must be improved.

University boards of trustees have the authority, in principle, to address any shortcomings committed by university administrations, but regulations do not specify action measures in detail, he pointed out.

Also speaking at the discussion, Mohammad Abu Qudeis, president of the Arab Open University branch in Jordan, said accountability measures should consider the learning outcomes, in addition to the skills of graduates and the value their education adds to society.

Abu Qudeis noted that universities should carry out periodic assessments of their programmes and services.

The government, he stressed, should place higher education as a priority in order to improve the current drop in the level of university graduates.

Abu Qudeis also urged universities to provide wider access to education through distance learning, and by considering admission criteria other than the results of the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi).

Ziad Saad, former vice president of Yarmouk University and the German-Jordanian University,  said Jordanian universities should engage in benchmarking each others’ performances against set criteria and find ways to improve educational services.

He added that assessing the performance of local universities is often based on personal impressions, calling for adopting systematic and scientific methods of evaluation.