University restricts admission chances for sports achievers

AMMAN — Students from the Hashemite University (HU) have decried injustice of a decision by the university’s administration to change the policy governing the sports excellence programme.

The decision states that a student must be a first-time applicant, not a transfer and cannot apply to the sports excellence if he/she has already joined the university through the parallel admission system. 

Each semester, a committee of six academics evaluates applications filed by students who seek to benefit from the privileges offered by the sports programme, under which eligible candidates secure seats in the regular admission programme, where tuition fees are half those paid under the parallel system.

All applicants customarily have Tawjihi (general secondary school test) scores that do not allow them to enroll in the university for the majors they want under the regular and cheaper admission system. Their achievements in sports earn them exceptions. 

What happened, according to applicants Sari Omar and Enas Mallah, is that when they filed their applications, they were advised by university officials to join the university on the parallel track “just in case” and were promised that they would be later transferred to the regular programme if chosen for the sports achievers list. 

The list was not announced after three semesters, in Omar’s case, and he and other applicants were stuck in an expensive education system they cannot afford, he told The Jordan Times. 

“On Sunday, we were told our list was cancelled and that any student who applied for the parallel programme has no chance to switch to the regular one,” Mallah said.

University president, Kamal Bani Hani, told The Jordan Times that the criteria for the sports excellence programme includes only first-time applicants and those who meet other university requirements. 

This means that Omar and Mallah have lost their chance because they are no more fresh applicants.

“If we accept those who want to transfer from the parallel into the sports excellence programme, we would be doing something illegal, as it would not be fair to the rest of the students in the parallel or other programmes.” “Students are using the sports excellence programme as an excuse to pay less,” Bani Hani added.