UJ cancels fee-hike decision that sparked student outrage

AMMAN — The University of Jordan (UJ) has cancelled a decision to increase the health insurance fees by JD10 per semester for all programmes, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday. 

The cancellation came after discussions between UJ Chairman of the Board of Trustees Adnan Badran and UJ Acting President Imad Salah, in which they reached an agreement on the need to develop a more harmonious financial strategy with the university’s status and demands of students for the coming years.

On Thursday, UJ announced it will raise registration fees by JD10 starting from the beginning of the academic year 2018/2019 which the university said would be added to students’ health insurance services and is separate from the regular tuition fees paid for credit hours, based on a decision made last.

The decision sparked outrage among students, who called for boycotting registration for the upcoming autumn semester and planned protests on campus to demand revoking the decision.

Head of the media department at UJ Haya Hourani had told The Jordan Times that the decision of the additional fee was taken due to the lack of funding for public universities, which has created financial problems for the UJ over the past few years.

Salah on Sunday met with a group of the students union’s representatives at the university and informed them of cancelling the fee hike decision, stressing that the interest of the students is a top priority for the university, according to Petra.

He also stressed the keenness of the university to do its best to find solutions in the near and long term, which will address the financial challenges the UJ is currently going through.

The registration fees for the regular programme amount to JD48 per semester, while the parallel progamme’s registration fees stand at around JD58, and the post-graduate programme’s fees reached JD108, according to the fourth-year student.

Malek Noubani, a member UJ’s student union, has said that students have witnessed over the past few years an increase on all services provided on campus. 

Students have launched in response to the hike announcement a campus-wide campaign to boycott registration for the autumn semester and called upon students to take part in a protest organised on Sunday at 1pm in front of the presidency building on campus to demand the total reversal of the decision.