Universities proficiency test to be revived

The government will apply anew a controversial national test designed to measure the quality of first college degree graduates at Jordanian universities, a senior official said.The decision was announced by Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Rowaida Maaitah during a forum held at Al Rai Studies Centre affiliated with the Jordan Press Foundation. The discussion was dedicated to higher education issues, including the deteriorating quality of higher education.Maaitah acknowledged that there were “pressures to cancel the test” which had been applied for several years and used as a measure to evaluate the outcome of programmes offered by local universities.The cancellation was supposed to be followed by applying “another format of the test” in 2009, but no step was taken towards an alternative. The minister did not elaborate on the nature of the general mandatory test.Maaitah was joined in the forum by university presidents, who gathered as part of a wider dialogue to come up with a new and effective approach to address outstanding issues that are seen as a hindrance for a better quality of higher education in Jordan, where 26 universities, including 10 run by the state, offer education to hundreds of thousands of Jordanian and Arab students, along with others.