The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has recently formed a committee to set up a proposed system  for assessing the education in the Jordanian universities, headed by the president of Princess Sumaya University for Technology.

A system of assessing Jordanian universities should have been formed a long time ago as it is crucial and indispensable.  To achieve a successful educational process all components of the university including faculty members, facilities and the students should be assessed so as to compete with international universities.  The committee tasked for the ranking system must consider first the quality of graduate students because graduate education in Jordan is deteriorating; it lacks the minimum important requirements for admission such as English language.   For instance, in certain universities graduate students in international programs taught in English are classified in elementary school classes and not as MAs because they are weak in English.  Therefore the number of graduate students should be selective and based on certain criteria such as interview prior the student’s admission showing his/her proficiency and abilities.

I totally agree with committee tasked  about the decline in quality of graduate students because of the universities profitable matters  which has a negative impact on the quality of education.

To enhance and develop the educational process requires that the chaos in the educational institutions, including universities, be overcome.  Numerous graduate students ask their professor to provide them with questions and answers to tests so as to memorize them in order to get high scores.   The professor assigns a nominee student to talk and suggest on behalf of the other students  in the class the material,  textbook assigned and other academic matters, while  the remaining students have no rights either to  suggest or to express opinions.  Moreover, graduate students ask the professor to make the material assigned  a few  pages long.  This request simply comes because of their weakness in the English language.

A compulsory system to assess the professor is essential.   The committee tasked should be required to design a form to be filled by the students at the end of each semester covering teaching method, proficiency and behavior of the professors. The form would then be sent with utmost confidentiality to the personnel concerned, in order to protect the students from impairing their scores.

Private and public universities alike rely on high tuition fees so as to pay their expenses, including professors and management staff salaries, regardless of the quality of teaching provided, the market’s needs and academic reputation.  If this process continues, education in Jordan will become profitless and to no avail.

Khuloud Obaidat

Service  Learning programme - UK