University dorms struggle after standing nearly empty for 3 months — JLW

AMMAN — When the coronavirus crisis first hit Jordan in mid-March, prompting strict lockdown measures to combat its spread, some of the first institutions to be affected were universities, which turned entirely to remote education after campuses around the Kingdom were closed. 

University dorms in particular have felt the significant impact of school closures, the Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) said on Tuesday.

According to a statement by the JLW, which is affiliated with the Phenix Centre for Economic Studies, the only current residents of university dorms are expatriates who have been unable to leave the Kingdom.

In Irbid, Sarah, an employee in a dormitory for female students, described her situation as “difficult and very bad”, telling the JLW that the number of student residents, the dorm’s profits and employees’ salaries have fallen by 50 per cent.

Iktimal, who is employed in a university dorm in Amman, reiterated the “difficult conditions” the employees are facing and the losses that large dormitories have incurred ever since students were evacuated, according to the statement.

“All of our income depends mainly on expatriate students, and they went back to their countries after the coronavirus crisis started due to the closure of campuses, which caused our salaries to drop by 50 per cent due to the lack of profits,” the labour watch quoted her as saying.

“We have been deeply damaged because of the coronavirus crisis. The financial losses are huge, with students attending classes from home without the need for dorms,” Mohammad, the owner of a dormitory for female students in Amman, told the JLW, adding that students from other governorates have also returned to their homes.

Regarding the summer semester, Mohammad said that if the airports reopen, the students who have remained in the Kingdom during the crisis might take the opportunity to return to their countries.

Malek Al Omari, the owner of a company that manages student dorms, told the JLW that the decision to suspend physical attendance at universities in mid-March caused “a very quick evacuation for all dorms”, with “very few” expatriates remaining. 

Most were able to return to their countries under special arrangements, including Iraqi and Kuwaiti students, he said.

“We suffered a 70-per cent drop in profits, and liquidity has been cut off from March until now,” Omari said, noting that only 10 students in total are currently living in two of the dorms he manages, which collectively contain 146 rooms.

“I also have 14 employees, whose salaries have been paid in full the whole time, and I did not lay off any of them,” he was quoted in the statement as saying.

According to the JLW, university dorms “do not have an association to represent them and represent the needs of their employees”, noting that there is “a lack of statistics on student dorms and their employees”.