UJ students continue sit-in against tuition fees; president says protest 'unjustified'

AMMAN — For the third consecutive day, university students from all around the Kingdom, on Tuesday, participated in a sit-in held at the University of Jordan (UJ) to protest a decision by the administration to raise tuition fees about three years ago.  

Students from universities in several governorates joined the Student Rally for the Cancellation of the Tuition Fee Hike group to protest the raise in fees for the post graduate, parallel and international programmes and urge the UJ administration to reverse the decision.

Mohammad Saaydeh, UJ student union president, said the university administration and officials have not responded to the protesters' demands. 

“We are still demonstrating against the decision until we receive a proper response,” Saaydeh told The Jordan Times. 

Sama Shawabkeh, a student enrolled in the parallel programme, said she has to work after class and sometimes during times of lectures to cover tuition fees.

“I have been working as a tutor for school students; I've been teaching science, maths, Arabic, and English, ever since the decision was taken. I had to double my working hours in order to afford studying at UJ,” she added.

The 22-year-old student said she has considered “dropping out” of university several times due to the raise in tuition fees. 

National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights (Thabahtoona) Coordinator Fakher Daas said students are only asking for their right to continue their studies. 

“Students who can lead  change and excel in their studies now cannot continue their studies. The price of credit hours in some majors amounts to around JD230, which is not affordable to many students.”

Commenting on the sit-in, UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh said the protest was “unjustified” and is taking place at the “wrong time”, noting that such activities affect lectures.

In a statement released by UJ, Tarawneh said the university has a deficit of JD20.5 million, for covering the education costs of around 67 per cent of the students enrolled in the regular programme and other scholarships. 

The president said UJ, which has some 43,000 students, spends JD700 on each post-graduate student.

He added that the university’s administration and council of deans conducted a study on tuition fees and referred it to UJ's board of trustees for review in November 2015.

The board of trustees formed an academic committee to review the study, and the panel voted against reversing the decision to raise fees, according to Tarawneh. 

Board of Trustees Chairman Adnan Badran told The Jordan Times on Monday that around 65 to 70 per cent of students at the university are enrolled in the regular programme, which means the tuition fee hike does not affect them.