JD72m to be allocated to public universities in 2018 — Tweisi

AMMAN — The Higher Education Council on Thursday approved the allocation of JD72 million for the support of public universities during the year 2018, Higher Education Minister Adel Tweisi told The Jordan Times on Sunday. 

Both the University of Jordan and Al Balqa Applied University were assigned grants of JD10 million, while Tafila Technical University and Al Hussein Bint Talal University were granted JD9 million in support funds. 

Al al Bayt University was allocated a total of JD8.6 million, followed by Mutah University (JD8.143 million), Yarmouk University (JD7 million), Hashemite University (JD3 million), the Jordanian University for Science and Technology (JD1.6 million) and the German-Jordanian University (JD1 million).  

“In addition, the universities will enjoy indirect support aimed at the repayment of the loans that the Ministry of Finance provided to the universities in 2014, the financial aid given by the Scientific Research Support Fund and the universities’ outstanding debt,” Tweisi said. 

The distribution of the support funds will start this month and will continue throughout the year with 12 monthly instalments, according to the minister.

“The amount of the support funds was determined considering the 10 per cent of the deficit in the budget of each university, the 25 per cent of the deficit in their tuition fees, the amount of registered students exempted of the fees according to the Military Retirement Law, the university’s position in international rankings, the percentage of students to faculty and the age of the university,” Tweisi explained. 

“The reasons behind the small amount allocated for the German-Jordanian University are their flexibility to accept students outside the unified admissions programme and their high tuition fees, which usually surpass those of private universities,” he clarified.

In addition, the council will collaborate on the implementation of the National Human Resource Development Strategy by allocating a 5 per cent of the funds for the universities, which contribute to the achievement of national economic and social goals.

“These funds will be distributed in October based on a series of performance indicators that we [the Higher Education Council] sent to the universities so they can adjust their activity accordingly,” Tweisi said.