MPs, minister cancel controversial preparatory year for medical students

AMMAN — The Lower House’s Education Committee and Higher Education Minister Walid Maani have agreed to cancel the preparatory year that was applied in 2019 for the first time for medicine and dentistry students at the University of Jordan and the Jordan University for Science and Technology.

The head of the panel, MP Ibrahim Bdour, said that committee members contacted the higher education minister four times to discuss the outcomes and developments of the preparatory year, which showed, according to Bdour, several problems in distributing students to medicine and dentistry, Al Rai daily published on Tuesday.

The MP added that both sides agreed that every student who achieves at least 76 per cent in their Tawjihi (general secondary education certificate examination) can be accepted in the medicine specialisation if it was their first choice, in a bid to achieve justice among students.

Bdour also stressed that he would continue contacting the higher education minister in his capacity as chairman of the Higher Education Council, so as to find solutions for any new issues that might surface as a result of the preparatory year.