24,723 students admitted to public universities — Khadra

AMMAN — Higher Education Minister Labib Khadra on Thursday said 24,723 students have been accepted at public universities through the Unified Admissions List.

At a press conference, Khadra added that the ministry will start receiving applications from students who have completed a two-year intermediate community college programme and wish to complete their studies at universities as of Monday, for three consecutive days. 

Moreover, the Higher Education Council was to convene on Thursday to discuss the list of students who applied to specialisations that require General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) averages higher than what they obtained and are required to consider alternative ones, totalling 2,668 students, he noted. 

He said that for the first time in years, the number of vacant seats at public universities exceeds that number as a total of 3,151 seats have not been filled through the Unified Admissions List. 

Later on Thursday, Unified Admission Committee President Ghalib Hourani said the 2,668 students will be accepted in public universities.

Hourani said the Higher Education Council decided to allow the students to change their specialties within the same university or to choose a major in another university.

This year, the minimum admission score for medicine dropped by 2.4 points to 95.2 per cent, compared with the two previous years, and the minimum rate for civil engineering also dropped this year by 4.9 points to a minimum of 86.6 per cent, according to Khadra.  

Around 2,790 students will be accepted through the Royal makruma for Tawjihi graduates from tribal communities and underprivileged schools, the minister added.

Khadra said the minimum admission rates for students who wish to study abroad were reduced, noting that the committee for certificate equivalence at the Higher Education Ministry discussed on Wednesday admission rates abroad.

The committee decided to decrease the minimum score for applying to medical and dentistry specialisations to become 80 per cent. 

The minimum Tawjihi score required to apply to study pharmacology and for pharmacology and doctor of pharmacology is now 75 per cent, while the score for engineering is 70 per cent.

Khadra said the decision was taken after the ministry conducted a study on Tawjihi results.

The decision was also taken based on a recommendation from the Jordan Medical Association as well as the apparent decrease in the number of students who scored 85 per cent or more in comparison with previous years.