Higher Education Ministry refutes claim Jordanian students expelled in Ukraine

AMMAN — Higher Education Minister Muhyiddine Touq on Thursday discredited news that circulated throughout the week that Jordan received an official letter from authorities in Ukraine stating that hundreds of Jordanian students had been expelled from Ukrainian universities. 

In a statement shared with The Jordan Times, Touq said that the ministry has given “great attention” to the case since May, when the Foreign Ministry informed the Jordanian embassy in Moscow about the Ukrainian authorities' intent to expel Jordanians who obtained their secondary school degrees from Yemeni and Libyan schools, which are not acknowledged there.

Touq said that the ministry’s assistant secretary general immediately went to Ukraine to meet with the minister of education as well as several heads of Ukrainian universities, proposing various solutions to resolve the problem. 

He added that the Jordanian cultural attaché in Ukraine has also kept in touch with the authorities to resolve the problem. 

When the ministry did not receive any response from Ukrainian authorities, Touq said that the ministry contacted the minister of education in Ukraine once more later this year and referred the case to the prime minister.

Touq also met with the Ukrainian chargé d'Affaires in Amman and discussed the problem, receiving a promise of resolving the issue after categorising the Jordanian students in Ukraine.

Minister of Justice Bassam Talhouni, during a visit to Ukraine, also held a meeting with the Ukrainian minister of education, delivering a message from Touq asking her to expedite the process to resolve the problem. She promised to look into all the students' files with the concerned entities in Ukraine, according to the statement. 

The latest update was an official letter from Ukraine’s ministry of education and science sent to the Higher Education Ministry on Wednesday, in which they expressed their concern for the students who graduated from or are currently studying at Ukrainian universities but hold unrecognised secondary education degrees. 

The letter also said that it is important to resolve the matter with respect to Ukrainian law, as the ministry agrees to help the students by providing them proper accredited documents that show the period they spent studying at Ukrainian universities, in addition to a list of the subjects they took and their grades.

The Ukrainian ministry said that cooperation is necessary to unify efforts and reach solutions, noting that it will hold accountable employees at Ukrainian universities who caused the problem through "sloppiness and taking improper decisions”.

The official letter noted that Ukraine’s education ministry is in discussion with its justice ministry to find additional solutions capable of reducing damage to Jordanian students. 

Touq urged parents and students to exercise caution when obtaining information on this matter, calling on them to avoid rumours and follow up with the proper news channels and the ministry's official statements.

The minister also called on media outlets and social media websites to not publish any information without checking with proper credible sources first.