AMMAN — Most
Gazans who arrived in Jordan after the 1967 Arab-Israeli and do not have
Jordanian national numbers are considered by law as foreigners, including
students who wish to enroll at Jordanian universities.
اضافة اعلان
Tasneem
Al-Nassar, a Gazan who was born in Jordan and completed her undergraduate
studies at the Jordan University of Science and Technology seven years ago,
said that Gazans signing on with Jordanian universities face extremely tough
procedures.
“Application
procedures are extremely tough for Gazans,” she sighed.
She said Gaza
nationals face hindrances starting at an early age. “Once born, the Gazan will
be given a temporary Jordanian passport, which is used for admission to a
Jordanian university, but through the Palestinian Embassy in Jordan,” she said.
“Admission in
this manner is extremely tough; the numbers are limited, and Palestinians from
the West Bank frequently take precedence over Palestinians from Jordan,” she
explained.
Nassar added that
she was admitted to university because she had a “very high average in Tawjihi
(the Jordanian General Secondary Certificate),” but this was not the case for
her siblings, forcing them to look for alternatives, such as the widely known
“international parallel program” at Jordanian universities. The program is more
expensive, and its tuition fee may reach twice the cost of parallel programs
for a Jordanian student.
“It is rare for
any Gazan living in Jordan to bear the cost in view of their prevailing living
conditions, which include the difficulty of finding job opportunities,” she
explained.
Karam Al-Qandil,
a Gazan who was born and raised in Jordan, graduated from Jordan’s Yarmouk
University two years ago. He said he took the international parallel program.
“My family lost a
lot (of money) until I graduated,” he said. He explained that he was considered
a foreigner at college so his tuition fees were more than twice the fees for
any Jordanian within the national parallel program.
Qandil added that
he attempted to apply for studies through the Palestinian Embassy, but the
numbers were limited and the prerequisites included a high average in Tawjihi,
the high school certificate obtained once students successfully complete the
12th grade.
“It also depended
a lot on the guy having connections to get the acceptance, even if he did not
qualify,” he contended.
He said that he
also faced other obstacles while vying for a free college seat through the
Ministry of Higher Education, as a limited number of seats are allocated for
refugee camp residents in Jordan and those whose mothers are Jordanian.
“Gazans have no
space there because those seats are not intended for them,” he said.
Muhannad
Al-Khatib, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, confirmed to
Jordan
News that students from the Gaza Strip are unable to study in Jordanian
universities under the unified admission system because “they do not have a
Jordanian national number, and thus are treated as foreigners.”
But he explained
that Gaza students can be accepted into the unified admission program, if they
were camp residents. He said that admission, however, is subject to
instructions under a royal decree, which allocates a specific number of college
seats to Palestinians, which is usually 300.
Another
alternative is for students whose mothers are Jordanian and have a Civil Status
Department identification card and a Tawjihi certificate, the student is
eligible to compete for one of the 150 seats allotted for that category.
Khatib said that
the Higher Education Council often suggested providing facilities for Gazan
students. He said some are already being enforced, such as the University of
Jordan, which admits Gazan students to its parallel program at the same cost as
Jordanians, not foreigners.
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