Al al-Bayt University president resigns over incident

AMMAN —  The Higher Education Council (HEC), chaired by the minister of higher education and scientific research, Adel Tweisi, received a letter sent by Al al-Bayt University (AABU) President Dia Eddin Arafeh in which he expressed unwillingness to renew for a second term at the university.

The HEC, in a press statement on Thursday, said it condemned the recent events at the AABU, which represented a behaviour that does not fit with the academic institutions in Jordan.

The HEC called upon all Jordanian universities’ boards of trustees to take the necessary and strict steps to ensure that such unacceptable behaviour is not repeated, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Upon hearing that university president Dia Eddin Arafeh’s term might be renewed, around 20 to 25 employees on Monday stormed the president’s office demanding his resignation, according to Reem Zoubi, director of the media affairs department at AABU and head of the university radio station.

The employees who attacked the AABU president’s office have been suspended from work and referred to an internal committee for investigation, an official university source.