AMMAN - The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is currently studying a plan to modify admission criteria in the Kingdom's public universities, a ministry official said on Tuesday.
Under the proposed plan, students can apply directly to the university of their choice, while each university will come up with its own admission criteria for various subjects, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Wajih Owais said.
He told The Jordan Times that, "if approved", the plan will be implemented gradually to prepare students and universities for the changes.
The planned admission criteria for fine arts, physical education, architectural engineering and veterinary medicine will be implemented starting in the next academic year.
The proposed plan seeks to give public universities more autonomy, according to the minister.
Currently, students apply to state universities through the Unified Admission Committee, which is affiliated with the ministry.
Owais also noted that the ministry is currently studying the proposed ranking system to assess the quality of education in universities.
The system was recently drafted by an ad hoc committee to assess the quality of graduates in higher education institutions, he noted.
"We are also negotiating with the professional associations to conduct assessment exams for graduates before they start the membership process," Owais said, adding that this will help the ministry in the ranking system as it will show the quality of output from different universities.
"However, we are still looking into legality of this exam," the minister explained.
© Jordan Times 2011
