Higher Education Forum kicks off

Amman: The Higher Education Forum 2024 kicked off Saturday at the University of Jordan to tackle four key topics: governance, funding, university admission policies and scientific research. Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Azmi Muhafzah said the sector is a top interest of His Majesty King Abdullah due to its role in accelerating development, modernizing the state and developing qualified human resources, which is a real asset of the country. He announced that the Ministries of Education and Higher Education and Scientific Research are about to merge into one ministry, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, under the public sector modernization scheme, which requires new legislation to replace current education, higher education and scientific research and Jordanian universities laws. The minister pointed out that the governance of universities is "a real challenge" in higher education reform due to the multiple councils, starting with the Academic Department and ending up with the Board of Deans, which were not spared from critique despite comprising competent senior members. He said the Education Council adopted a new secondary education plan splitting students after nineth grade into two streams, academic and vocational, and that the secondary stream for both tracks will be three years (tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades), without affecting compulsory education till 10th grade. Under the new system, he added, tawjihi (General Secondary Education Certificate Examination) will be taken over two years as proposed by an ad hoc committee that was formed by the Education Council. Source: Jordan News Agency