296 campus violence incidents reported over four years — study

AMMAN — The number of violent acts reported at the Kingdom’s public and private universities over the past four years was 296, resulting in seven deaths, according to a study recently released.

A study published by the Jordanian Political Science Association showed that fights on campus registered from 2010 to 2013 involved 3,999 students — 1,331 in 2011 alone.

Most of the students involved in the fights (89 per cent) were enrolled in faculties of humanities, according to the study, which was conducted by researcher Mahmoud Jundi.

Figures he presented showed that of those involved in the fights in the period in question, only 1 per cent were female students.

Campus violence incidents in the past four years resulted in 31 severe, 57 moderate and 155 slight injuries, in addition to property damage, according to the study.

The fights also involved non-Jordanian students and led to 23 injuries among them, while 17 female students were injured over the past four years.

Weapons were used in 58 fights, while public security forces intervened 43 times upon the request of the universities’ administrations, according to the report.

Classes were suspended 41 times — sometimes for a week — at the Kingdom’s universities as a result of violence, the study said.

Forty-seven students were referred to the judiciary, 19 were expelled and 906 were suspended for one semester, while 542 received warnings over their involvement in incidents of campus violence, it added.

Mutah University in Karak topped the country’s universities in the number of fights with 55, according to the study, while four of the seven deaths took place at Al Hussein Bin Talal University in the southern Governorate of Maan.

According to the study, four of the Kingdom’s universities — two public and two private — did not witness any fights over the four-year period.

The universities are the public German-Jordanian University and the Jordan University of Science and Technology, and the private Princess Sumaya University for Technology and NYIT.

The study used data from the Public Security Department, various media outlets, university websites, interviews and reports issued by the National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights.