The national campaign for students’ rights, “Dhabtona,” stopped in front of the Higher Education Council’s decision to reduce admission to stagnant and saturated majors in public universities by 50%.

The campaign saw that many specializations have become stagnant or saturated, as a result of the weakness of the Jordanian economy and its inability to open up areas for work, and not as a result of the fact that these specializations are not consistent with the size of scientific and technological development, or that time has passed them. Especially since some of these specializations are desirable specializations in most countries of the world.

She pointed out that limiting this decision to official universities and excluding private universities from it, puts a big question mark about its efficacy and the desired goals.

The campaign pointed out that this decision will lead to a significant increase in the number of students admitted to private universities, in return for reducing the number of students admitted to public universities. Zahbtona also expressed her fear that this decision will be limited to students of the competitive program and that students of the parallel and international program are excluded from it.

The campaign indicated that the Higher Education Council’s decision in this form will not lead to any results in reducing the number of graduates of these disciplines, as they will go to private universities to study, but it will contribute to increasing the profit margins of these private universities.

The National Campaign for Students’ Rights, “Zahbtona,” said it was surprised by the Higher Education Council’s reduction in the number of students admitted to dental faculties, as it is a saturated specialty, at a time when, weeks ago, it granted licenses to open 17 dental faculties at once. This completely contradicts what the council claims of its keenness to reduce the number of admissions in stagnant and saturated majors.

She stressed the need to reconsider these decisions, and work to distinguish between disciplines that no longer have a labor market due to technological and scientific development on the one hand, and disciplines that the Jordanian market does not absorb due to its weakness on the other hand, in addition to taking into account the wishes of students when reducing or canceling specializations.

The campaign also calls for equality between public and private universities in these decisions, in addition to stopping work on the decision to license new dental colleges.