Students with high school certificates from abroad should pass eligibility test before joining local colleges

AMMAN — The Higher Education Council (HEC) on Saturday decided to hold academic tests for students with non-Jordanian secondary school certificates. They should pass the planned test to be eligible to apply for Jordanian universities, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The decision comes to regulate the issue after the Education Ministry’s decision not to accept secondary school certificates obtained in Sudan triggered a controversy and protests by parents. 

The ministry took the move after Jordanian students were implicated in a case of leaking general test papers in the Arab-African country. 

The HEC’s decision also applies to students who pass non-Jordanian general test in countries other than the original state issuing the certificate.

The council, at a meeting headed by Higher Education Minister Labib Khadra, decided to exclude students who pass in international programmes accredited by the Education Ministry.

Students who receive certificates after passing a national examination in the country issuing the certificate are also excluded from the decision, provided that these students study in the original country issuing the certificate, Petra added. 

The decision also leaves out students who receive a certificate from its original country, and pass an achievement test that qualifies them to be enrolled in that country’s universities.

The decision does not apply to non-Jordanian students who receive a certificate from its original country that qualifies them to directly join that country’s universities, provided that students bring an official certified document from the original country.

According to the council’s decisions, the Higher Education Institutions Accreditation Commission, in coordination with the Education Ministry, is tasked with holding the achievement test and calculating grades of students willing to join higher education institutions, based on the commission’s standards to be endorsed by the council.

The final mark will take into consideration the results of the eligibility test and those of the second secondary certificate obtained by the applicant.

The decision will be applied on all students as of the first semester of the 2016/2017 scholastic year, the HEC decided.