Hashemite University to investigate leak of suspended student’s confidential grades

AMMAN — A Hashemite University student who was suspended for four academic semesters due to his “activities on campus” on Wednesday criticised publishing a detailed document of his grades on a local media outlet, as officials intervened to resolve his issue.

Ibrahim Obeidat, a fourth-year student at the Zarqa-based university, was banned around two weeks ago over his activities on campus over the past four years. University officials said he “insulted” staff and violated regulations by organising activities without permission.

He has not been allowed to enter the campus and attending class, Dean of Student Affairs Mustafa Khawaldeh said.

After a local media outlet published the electrical engineering student’s grades on the Internet, with a detailed description of the registered and dropped courses, Obeidat said it is “unethical” to publish documents that are “supposed to be confidential”. 

Khawaldeh said the university did not release the student’s grades, adding that the administration and the deanship are investigating the source that was able to log into the system and print out the documents published online.

“We treat our students fairly; we do not publish documents that would affect their future. We contacted the media outlet that published the documents to further investigate the source of the leak,” he told The Jordan Times.

“He is our student and we have to do what is best for him,” Khawaldeh added.

But the student argued that “no one can access the system except for the concerned university staff and the IT centre on campus”.

On Monday, the council of deans at the university scheduled a meeting to discuss several issues, one of which was Obeidat’s case, but the council decided to delay its examination of the issue upon the university president’s request.

The discussion was postponed until next week.

“A committee of six deans will look into Obeidat’s case,” Khawaldeh added.

Students from the university are planning to organise a protest in front of the administration on Thursday at noon to protest publishing Obeidat’s grades online and his suspension, activists said.

MPs Mutaz Abu Rumman, Khaled Ramadan and Faisal Aawar met with university officials earlier this week and discussed the student’s case to seek a compromise, according to the university administration.

Abu Rumman wrote on his Facebook page that the university administration has suspended Obeidat “for no specific reason”, adding that the four academic semesters will affect the student physically and psychologically.

Khawaldeh previously told The Jordan Times that Obeidat had been involved in protests and used his title as a former student union member to organise events on and off campus.