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Activists protest hikes in university tuition fees
By JT - Jul 15,2015 - Last updated at Jul 15,2015
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.
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Around 300 University of Jordan (UJ) students gathered in front of the university’s main gate on Tuesday for an “overnight stay” to continue their protest against the hikes in tuition fees for the parallel and postgraduate programmes.
The National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights, “Thabahtoona”, on Wednesday charged that security forces ended a protest organised near the University of Jordan’s (UJ) main gate “with force” after scuffles broke out between protesters and “thugs”.
Some 250 University of Jordan (UJ) students staged a sit-in on Sunday near the administration building to protest against the hikes in tuition fees for the parallel and postgraduate programmes, according to the National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights, “Thabahtoona”.