Thabahtoona demands universities suspend ‘pay for registration’ mechanism for summer semester

AMMAN — The National Campaign for Defending Students' Rights (Thabahtoona) said that public and private universities are making students pay summer semester tuition fees in advance, “payment before registration”, while others prevented students from registering for summer before paying their dues for the current semester.

Under such decisions, the campaign said “it was strange” for the Higher Education Council to announce that summer semester will be conducted on time and through remote education, demanding the suspension of the “pay for registration” mechanism, especially under the current economic circumstances the country is going through because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thabahtoona called for balancing a part of the current second semester’s fees for services and transportation, as students have not used neither, in addition to reducing registration fees for the summer semester by at least 50 per cent and cancelling any transportation fees for all students in all universities.

As long as remote education continues, the campaign called for reducing credit hours for the semester by at least 20 per cent, and to decrease the number of practical subjects to the minimum, “as they have limited benefit when given online”.

To help students as well, Thabahtoona called for reducing the dormitory fees for students.

On social media, Yousef Alwasey wrote: “We have not used the universities’ facilities; no electricity, water or even printing and labs, and I am on the parallel plan, I paid JD1,300, and did not receive their worth.”

Users also called for fees’ reduction as they will be using their own Internet connection and devices to study online.

Higher Education Minister Muhyiddine Touq said on Tuesday that the option of reducing the summer semester’s fees is on the table, noting that the reduction decision is part of the universities’ authority.