Ministry holds meeting with cultural attachés to promote universities abroad

AMMAN — The Ministry of Higher Education on Monday held its first meeting with cultural attachés of non-Arab countries to present the services of its International Students’ Affairs Directorate (ISA), which aims to promote Jordanian universities abroad while serving foreign students during their stay at universities across Jordan. 

Around 20 attachés from countries in America, Europe and Asia attended the meeting held at the ministry, where officials discussed means for further education and research cooperation. 

Minister of Higher Education Adel Tweisi briefed attendees on the executive plan to attract 70,000 international students to Jordanian universities by the year 2020, which was launched in September last year. 

The number of international students enrolled in Jordanian universities for the first semester of the 2017-2018 academic year increased by a 115 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year as a result of the strategy, ISA Director Fidaa’ Tameemi told The Jordan Times earlier this year. 

“Our purpose is to take care of all international students from their arrival to the airport to the moment they go back home,” Tameemi said, stressing that the ministry supports students throughout their journey and “beyond academic issues”.

“There are currently over 44,000 international students representing 107 nationalities in Jordanian public and private universities,” the minister said during the meeting, adding that foreign students constitute 15 per cent of the total number of university students in the Kingdom. 

Malaysians top the number of international students at public universities with 827 students, followed by Philippines (419 students) and Turkey (200 students), according to Tweisi. 

The minister expressed his hopes to increase the number of international students in the upcoming years, calling on the cultural attachés present at the meeting to “assist Jordan in this endeavour”. 

Social media was also stressed as a channel for the promotion of Jordanian institutions, with popular networks such as Facebook or Twitter being used to inform the international community about the services Jordan has to offer. 

Tameemi presented the recently launched foreign students’ e-services website (accessible through studyinjordan.jo), which facilitates the admission of international students at Jordanian universities.

“The website introduces students to the various Jordanian higher education institutions, as well as the social and economic aspects of the country,” the official explained, adding that students can apply to the Kingdom’s various universities and receive an initial acceptance within three days.

“The aim of our strategy is to spread the word about higher education in Jordan and to show people that the Kingdom offers programmes that go beyond Sharia [Islamic law] and Arabic majors, with distinguished degrees in disciplines such as medicine and engineering,” Tameemi said. 

Concerning educational partnerships with non-Arab nations, the official noted that the Ministry of Higher Education has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the British Council in order to cooperate in research, expressing hopes for the cultural attachés to meet with the university presidents in order to discuss further means of partnership.