Students welcome ministry plans to introduce new degrees

AMMAN — The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced that a number of new degrees and higher diplomas will be introduced in public and private universities as well as local colleges. 

New academic programmes will also be introduced to meet local, regional and international market demands, according to the ministry. These include 33 new degrees at the bachelor’s level, three at the higher diploma level, 23 at the master’s level and two at the PhD level.

“A total of one hundred and twenty-five programmes will be introduced for the new academic year 2022-2023,” Muhanad Khateeb, spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research told The Jordan Times.

He added that the programmes will be introduced after the approval of the Higher Education Board. 

According to a ministry statement, which was made available to The Jordan Times, the new bachelor’s degrees include cyber security, data science and artificial intelligence (AI) and renewable energy engineering, among others. 

The ministry’s recent announcement to introduce new degrees drew positive reactions from students.

Adam Hattab, a Tawjihi (General Secondary Education Certificate Examination) student, said that he is interested in the technological field and is excited to pursue a career with a degree he believes he will thrive in. 

“I have always been interested in understanding how technological progress occurs,” said Hattab. 

Hilda Hariri, a Tawjihi student interested in specialising in AI, expressed her excitement over the introduction of new degrees. 

“I admire the diversity of the introduced programmes,” Hariri said.

She noted that she was originally planning to travel abroad to get her degree as she never thought that an AI programme would be introduced in a local university. 

Hariri added that she is now motivated to study harder and achieve the best results possible during her Tawjihi exams to pursue her dream.