Higher Education Ministry launches roadmap for return to on-campus education 2021-2022

AMMAN — The Higher Education Ministry on Saturday launched a roadmap for the return to on-campus education at higher education institutions for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The plan includes all public and private higher education institutions for all levels and specialisations, Ministry Spokesperson Muhannad Khatib said, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

Khatib said that resuming in-class education at Jordanian universities is now possible this academic year, according to the roadmap. He stressed that students’ presence on campus requires important procedures in light of the current epidemiological conditions.

Reducing the risk of contracting the coronavirus is important for students, faculty members, university visitors, and administrative and technical personnel, he noted.

The plan is divided into three phases. The first includes preventativeprocedures before the return of students to campus and encouraging all stakeholders to receive vaccines, raising students’ awareness of procedures while on campus, wearing masks, conducting PCR tests and observing physical distancing, the spokesperson said.

He added that the first phase also includes preparing statistics every two weeks that count the number of people who have received vaccines, registering people on the national vaccination platform, and preparing a study plan that can be used for each specialisation, for fully in-class education, mixed education and remote education. 

The second phase includes procedures concerning the university campus and its facilities, such as its gates, halls, libraries, laboratories, restaurants, student dorms and transportation within campus, Khatib pointed out. 

The spokesperson noted that the third phase includes ways to deal with infected people and their contacts inside campus. 

If the infection rate among students of the same class equals or exceeds 10 per cent, class is suspended for 14 days and the class resorts to online education during that period. 

If the infection rate is 10 per cent and higher inside a faculty, education is suspended inside the faculty for 14 days and it shifts to online education, he noted.  

If the infection rate at a university is 10 per cent and higher, education at the university is suspended in cooperation with stakeholders and shifts online, Khatib said.