Strategies and Roadmap for Effective

Higher Education in Jordan

Dr. Fakhri Khader

Introduction:
Higher Education includes all types of studies at the postsecondary level, provided by universities that are approved as institutions
of higher education by the competent state authorities. *
In Jordan, higher education refers to a level of education that is
provided by universities and community colleges. Reform in its broadest
view is the modification of existing conditions in response to present
forces or future needs. Specifically, reform in education is a plan which
attempts to bring about a systematic change in educational theory and
practice across a nation. It cannot be achieved piecemeal. A holistic
vision should exist. It must be understood as a system (Mauch, 1995).
A critical set of reforms must all be implemented simultaneously;
otherwise they are bound to fail. (Landgraf,2002).Indeed, limiting the
scope of reform makes the result fragmented and temporary (ElKhawas,2002).
The overall aims of reform policies should focus on achieving
quality in teaching, research, community service, management, finance,
access, student assessment, accreditation, accountability, relevance, and
conceptual framework.
Heraclitus once said "Every thing changes except the law of
change you cannot step into the same river twice.
Change in Jordan is overdue. Other countries are passing us by at a
time when education is more important to our collective prosperity than
ever. There is therefore a pressing need to set up strategies and draw a
roadmap to further develop the higher education system. The current
trends and new challenges facing the system entail the need to rethink its
vision, mission, approaches, and priorities for future development.
Despite countless reform efforts stretching back over the last two
decades, Jordan has missed many spotlights on the road to educational
excellence.
Walid Almaani* once said "If all the experts in education and the
magicians in the world meet in order to save the higher education system
in Jordan, they will not be able to do so without a genuine support from
*
*

Definition approved by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 27th session (Nov. 1993)
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Jordan.

the government. the higher education system in Jordan is in the

intensive care unit and it needs major surgeries it needs two types of
capitals: one is financial and the other is human.
It should be noted that some international and local organizations
as well as a number of senior officials, voiced concern in many reports
about the state of higher education in Jordan. Although there are some
points of strength that need to be preserved in the system, but there are
some practices that need to be discarded, and others have to be invented.
Universities are under intense scrutiny and subject to frequent calls for
reform.
This paper tries to discuss the following topics:
1- The reality of higher education in Jordan.
2- The challenges and obstacles that hamper the improvement of
higher education.
3- Strategies that will set the stage for quality reform in higher
education.
The purpose of this paper is to draw the attention to some salient
features and prominent characteristics in order to set up a "blue print" or
a "roadmap" for quality higher education in Jordan. The roadmap will,
specifically, tackle the following issues:
1. Quality and Accountability.
2. Relevance.
3. Access.
4. Management.
5. Teaching.
6. Finance.
Higher Education in Jordan:
The era of higher education in Jordan began in the second half of
the twentieth century. It started during the nineteen sixties, with the
setting up of several teachers' colleges and the University of Jordan.
In the years between 2001 and 2007 Jordan has seen an increasing
demand for higher education with enrollments growing at annual rate of
14 percent from 77.841 to 218.900 students. Projection for the number of
students entering university is 92.000 per year by 2013 up from 50.469
in 2005. In the academic year 2009/ 2010, the higher education system
carries almost 218,900 students distributed in 10 public universities and
2

16 private universities. This is in addition to almost 26.000 students

studying in 50 community colleges.
As a result of the explosion of students, public universities were
unable to absorb the growing numbers with regard space and faculty
members.
In Jordan, there are two levels of higher education:
1- Two year intermediate level programs at public and private
community colleges leading to diploma degree.
2- Public and private universities offer Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D
degrees.
Institutions of higher education in Jordan are faced with a host of
great challenges and difficulties related to inter alia relevance,
management, finance, access, professional development, quality of
teaching, research, community service, accountability, autonomy and
academic freedom. These challenges have been affecting the vision,
mission, processes, and outcomes of the higher education system. The
system must therefore proceed to the most radical change it has ever been
required to undertake.
Adnan Badran * once stated "The major challenges faced by
higher education in Jordan are: quality, relevance, and lack of creativity".
Also,Marouf Albakheet* noted "Higher education in Jordan faces
persistent and serious problems that need to be solved cosmetic
surgery will not do".
Although the history of higher education in Jordan reveals a
continuing stream of reform that has affected all the facets, the scope of
reform is still narrow.
I know from my experience as a faculty member and chairman of
an academic department and dean of a college, that there has been no
fundamental or concrete changes in the higher education system in
Jordan over the last two decades.

*
*

President of Petra University and Former Prime Minister of Jordan.

Former Prime Minister of Jordan.

Tackling the following issues may help us put things in proper

perspectives:
1. Quality and Accountability:
The starting point in any reform is to focus on quality, and on the
components of a system that would guarantee that quality
(Westerheijden, 2007). Jordanians have always valued the importance of
quality education. Throughout the years, the significance of receiving
meaningful education has increased exponentially.
Quality refers to standards of inputs, processes, and outputs of a
system (Fry & Ketteridge, 2003). It is a multidimensional concept that
embraces all the functions and activities. It is seen as an objective to be
reached in all processes of reform (Jaschik, 2005). Quality mechanisms
are implemented through continuous assessments and comparisons
between observed and intended processes (Bok, 2003). They require
constant search for the sources of dysfunctions and means of correcting
them. Transparent self-evaluation and external review are vital
components of any well developed quality assurance system. In Jordan,
we have no measure of performance. Universities cannot prove that their
students are learning anything. The development of an outcome based
approach to quality assurance, is still a matter of contention in most
universities.
The issue of quality cannot be dissociated from the quest for
excellence. It is judged mainly by the strength of the ethical and
pedagogical principles it embodies (Burke, 2005). However, no new
institutions, public or private, should be created unless they can offer
high standard of quality.
A major element in quality assurance system is the conceptual
framework (Ramsden, 2003). Many of the higher education institutions
in Jordan have their conceptual framework only on papers. In reality,
none of them is using it for describing its philosophy and standards which
distinguish graduates of one institution from those of another.
Most universities have no direction for their programs, courses,
candidate competencies, community service, accountability, assessment
system, field experiences and knowledge base.
Conceptual framework captures the shared vision of the institution
or the program and becomes the vehicle through which the institution
goals are articulated to the broader community. Therefore, universities
should develop their conceptual framework from "ground zero". It should
be used as a guide by which vision and mission are translated into the
4

structure of the program. In the United States, for example, each

department seeking accreditation for the first time is required to submit
its conceptual framework as a precondition for establishing eligibility for
accreditation. The board of examiner teams will look for evidence of the
conceptual framework and report their findings. After submitting the
conceptual framework, the institution will be eligible for on-site visit.

In Jordan, when accrediting the higher education institution, the

Accreditation Commission does not take into account the conceptual
framework of a particular college or department to ensure that the
candidates are prepared as defined by the conceptual framework.
Without quality higher education, Jordan cannot assure genuine
and sustainable development. A powerful shakeup to improve quality is
highly needed. Standards have to be set up, indicators have to be
clarified, and quality assurance system should be implemented. The
search for quality is indispensable for a policy based on merit.
In brief, the picture of higher education is not as rosy as it may
seem. We need to change the picture dramatically from one based on
reputation to one based on performance. Many attempts for reforms did
little but restate the obvious and recycle the devious.
As for the concept of accountability, it is closely allied to quality.
Universities should establish accountability measures proper to achieve
stated goals, and ensure quality of inputs, processes, and outputs. They
should be accountable in various ways to government, students, parents,
employers, and the general public.However, accountability does not
mean subservience.
Higher education in Jordan tends to avoid conducting performance
reviews of its product. Without those reviews, higher education goes
without any form of accountability for all its programs. A survey should
measure what the students learn and rank the universities based on its
performance in educating students.
It is time to measure the outcome of higher education on our
campuses on a recurring and comprehensive basis, and to make it
available to those people who can hold colleges and universities
accountable, such as legislators, boards of trustees, business community,
parents, students and others.

2. Relevance:
Relevance in higher education refers to the matching between what
higher education institutions provide and what society expects from
them. It requires higher education to make an enhanced contribution to
the development of the society as a whole (Eggins,2003; Newman,2004).
In a keynote address, Marwan Muasher* said, "The quality of
education in the region has not kept up with the needs of the economy;
education systems do not support adequately the development of
analytical skills, problem solving skills, critical thinking and innovation
(Hindi, 2008).
His Royal Highness Prince Hassan once noted "The problem does
not lie in transferring knowledge or information from Tokyo to Amman
but rather transferring knowledge from Amman to the field".
Consequently, our graduates find themselves at an increasing
disadvantage as they seek entry into the respective labor markets, where
their skills often do not match the needs of the marketplace. Therefore,
higher education institutions do not properly prepare students to be
successful in a highly competitive world.
Higher education institutions have failed to cope with emerging
changes and evolution of the labor market. Universities are producing
students ill-equipped to participate in the rapidly evolving global market.
Employers expect better outcomes and continually look for products
tailored to their needs. Universities should go out to the field and orient
themselves to the realities for the sake of working out solutions for the
problems that face the society.
Universities and community colleges in Amman and in remote
areas have done almost nothing to serve their local communities.
In addition, the numbers of graduates have far exceeded the labor
market needs. Graduate unemployment is rampant. Today 29% of the
unemployed have a university degree, whereas in 2000 the figure was
still below 15% (Jongsma, 2008). The Jordanian economy does not have
the capacity to absorb the annual inflow of job seekers.
Higher education can no longer be confined to an ivory tower.
Universities should take all necessary measures to reinforce their service
to the community, especially their activities aimed at eliminating poverty,
illiteracy, violence, hunger, nepotism, narrow mindedness, and disease
(Light & Cox, 2005; Bok,2006).
*

World Bank Senior Vice President for External Affairs.

3. Access:
Education is a fundamental pillar of human rights, sustainable
development and peace. It should be accessible to all throughout life on
the basis of merit. No discrimination can be accepted. The unique
criterion for access or non-access must be merit. Access must be
guaranteed for all in a spirit of equality and social justice (Timpane &
white, 1998).
In keeping with article 26-1 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, admission to higher education will depend on the merit, capacity,
effort, perseverance and devotion, showed by those seeking access to it
(Fallows, 2005).
There is a widespread support for the idea that every student is
important and yet, in practice, higher education system in Jordan is set up
to favor few at the expense of the many.
Generally speaking, students are admitted to the universities on the
basis of their grades in the Tawjihi (The General Secondary School
Certificate Examination) or its equivalent.
The enrollment cap enforced by the Higher Education Council on
the private universities restricts the ability of the universities to absorb
increasing number of students.
About 25000 Jordanians study abroad each year, effecting a shortterm economic drain as well as some subsequent contribution to the brain
drain (Buke & Alwaked, 1997).
Admission policies applied by Jordanian public universities are not
fair and constitute social injustice among the Jordanian people. In
accepting students to the public universities, there are two major
problems facing the general public in Jordan. These two problems, in my
opinion, are:
1- The parallel programs.
2- The quotas given to certain sectors of the society.
Public universities created the parallel programs where students
with lower grades have access to the university at a higher cost. These
programs allow the financially able students to enroll at the expense of
others. Public universities leave thousands of seats every year vacant for
those financially able students.
The Higher Education Council decided this academic year to
accept 12670 students in the parallel program to be admitted at the public
universities; this number constitutes almost 30% of the total number

which is 31,415. This prevailing situation has resulted in problems

regarding quality and mismatching of graduate profiles.
In the regular program, where students compete for the limited
seats, the Higher Education Council, for example, allocated 2970 seats at
the University of Jordan which has 1270 faculty members, whereas it
allocated 4200 seats at Al-Hussein bin Talal University which has only
158 faculty members. This procedure will give the University of Jordan
the liberty to accommodate more students in the parallel program.
In addition to this unfair practice, there are certain sectors in the
Jordanian society that have a better chance to be accepted at the public
universities. They are given quotas for their advantage. For example,
20% of all students accepted in the public universities are the sons and
daughters of the armed forces personnel. Other quotas are given to the
sons and daughters of the school teachers, the public universities
personnel, the tribes, and the Palestinian refugees.
Exceptions are also given to students from the less privileged areas
or areas with special circumstances to be admitted to public universities
regardless of their relatively lower grades in the General Secondary
Examination. Schools in these areas should be encouraged to enhance
their quality in the near future by providing their students a quality
educational service.
If we add the number of students admitted in the parallel programs
to the number of students admitted under the quota system, the
percentage of students admitted on competitive basis does not exceed
40% under the best possible circumstances.
This formula is unacceptable under the human rights law and needs
to be altered as soon as possible. A new entry criteria should be used for
admission.
My ideas may sound a little too radical for most people to accept
or even to consider, but with all due respect, I believe it is the right thing
to do if we seek quality, integrity and social justice.
The inability of public universities to attract bright minds only
serve to undermine the capacity of the higher education institutions to
produce well-qualified graduates. Universities should attract the keenest
minds, the finest personalities, and the most humane people.

4. Management:
The ultimate goal of management must be to enhance the
institutional mission by ensuring highquality teaching, research, and
services to the community (Zemsky, 2009).
Management of higher education institutions in Jordan is still
heavily centralized. The Higher Education Council has significant power
over private universities (Burke & Alwaked, 1998).
Decentralizing higher education will make our institutions more
competitive. No longer will a college have to wait 5-7 months for the
establishment of a new major.
The involvement of all key stakeholders in decision making in
higher education institutions is of utmost importance (Eggins, 2003).
Experience has demonstrated the value of such participation in
enlightening the visions necessary for decision making.
Accordingly, university top officials, including the president, should be
chosen via transparent methods with participation of stakeholders, and
they should be held accountable against tasks and objectives. In Jordan,
appointment of the president of the university must be approved by the
prime minister on the recommendation of the board of trustees.
Appointment of the presidents as well as the deans should be based
on merit and selected by independent search committees. Appointment of
a new president or dean should be advertised in the local and regional
newspapers and refereed academic Journals. This procedure will inspire
confidence among academics and students. It will make them feel that
competent scholars are leading them. The universities should be managed
by individuals who are recognized for the quality of their integrity,
scholarship and administration.
University autonomy shapes the relationship between government,
society, and the university. It upholds freedom from arbitrary
intervention. Autonomy is related to institutional self management.
Without self-management, faculty members will become a subordinate
body with a diminished sense of public responsibility. University
autonomy does not mean in any way that the government must relinquish
its responsibility to back higher education. The government should
continue to be the main paymaster to guarantee a publicly accountable
higher education system. Private funds should complement rather than
replace public funds, but the government should not have too much say
in how universities run their own affairs. It must lessen its control over
university administration and curricula to allow for greater academic
freedom (Hettleman, 2009). Faculty members can only teach effectively

and maintain their creativity in an atmosphere of academic freedom, is

needed in order to create diversity and to avoid uniformity. Individual
capacity will blossom only in a supportive environment.
The autonomy of the universities must be respected and fostered,
and it should be accompanied by a high level of responsibility and
accountability (Eisemon & Holm-Nielson, 1995). Autonomy to manage
internal affairs is necessary, but with transparent accountability to
society. Without institutional integrity, no true excellence could be
expected or achieved, neither in teaching nor in research.
5. Teaching:
Most of the universities in Jordan adopt traditional education based
on rote memorization of material without enabling students to be
innovative. Students are not encouraged to take a critical or an analytical
approach towards numerous problems in society. Too much emphasis is
placed on the memory and recall of descriptive knowledge. Not enough is
done to test higherlevel cognitive skills. The three critical determinants
of effective teaching are: Subject matter, educational knowledge, and
pedagogical knowledge. All available evidence indicate teacher
inadequacies in at least two of the three areas.
Network services such as e-mail and web access are not part of the
infrastructure that students and faculty routinely use. Within Jordan's
higher education system, there has been minimal penetration of
information technology (IT), and less communication and networking
that is so much a factor in global education and global employment.
Faculty members are not trained in integrating technology into
pedagogy, and discipline related software has not been made available.
They teach the way they were taught.
Also, there is overreliance on set lectures and there is virtually no
moderation to ensure the fairness and transparency of marking. Faculty
members are not very good at measuring learning outcomes. Because the
value prestige is very high, they try not to show evidence on students'
learning.
In fact, most faculty members are very poorly trained in teaching;
most have no preparation for teaching at all. They need more help in
deepening their own content knowledge and in understanding more about
how the brain works. As a result, universities must adopt appropriate
strategies for the recruitment and training of teaching personnel.
Effective programs should be implemented to improve the capabilities of
faculty and staff (Hettleman, 2009; Zemsky, 2009). If we want to give
10

our university students the best education and training possible, we must
first provide the best education and training to those who will teach them.
The university is worth precisely what the faculty member is worth.
Tenure and sabbatical leaves should be granted to faculty members
with exceptional performance (Timpane & white, 1998).
The curricula, especially in the humanities and the social sciences,
are mostly theoretical and philosophical, creating a tendency to lack
harmony between the students, learned skills and the needs and problems
of society. This mismatch of skills taught and skills required by the
employers leads to high unemployment.
Curricula must express the goals and mission of individual
institution and address the needs of the students (Allen, 2003). They must
be flexible enough to allow for the incorporation of new technologies
with a constant focus on quality (El-Baz, 2007; Westerheijden, 2007).
6. Finance:
All public universities receive subsidies from the government. The
financial burden of public higher education rests on the shoulders of the
government.
Transfers to universities have declined from JD 60.4 million in
2004 to JD 52.6 million in 2007 and 45 million in 2008. Higher
education spending, as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has
declined by roughly 20%.
Limited public funding is one of the main constraints on the process of
change and development in higher education. The government spending
on higher education needs to increase to cater to the rising demand for
higher education.
Funding of higher education should be considered as an
investment, the return of it being as much important as investment in all
sectors (Giannakou, 2006). The real issue is not how much education
costs, but how much it is worth.
Public support for higher education remains essential, but higher
education institutions need to engage in an earnest search for alternative
funding sources (Eisemon & Holm-Nielsen, 1995).

11

Under the current system, often regardless of performance,

universities receive an allocation of funds from the government based on
number of students.
Funding the university should be directly related to the university
ratings, world class research activities, community service, quality of
teaching, and number of students (Eggins, 2003). In Jordan, the
universities that work hard to improve performance and strive for
improvements in quality, are treated no differently from those
universities that do nothing in these areas.
There is no significant differentiation made between poor service
and excellent service. Both excellent and poor universities teach, but it is
only the excellent ones that lead and accomplish change in their
surroundings. Government must therefore pay heed to quality when
allocating resources.

Recommendations:
The higher education system in Jordan lacks a sense of efficacy.
Improving the quality and vitality of our system will determine the health
of our societies for the foreseeable future.
I suggest the following recommendations for possible
consideration and implementation by all parties involved in the area of
higher education at a time that concern for higher education is
increasingly becoming more and more serious.
1. Allowing all potential students to compete for enrollment on the
basis of merit A new entry criteria should be used for admission.
2. Abolishing the parallel program and the quota system.
3. Developing a culture in which awareness of and commitment to
quality insurance and conceptual framework is a norm.
4. Providing for modern communication technology in order to
ensure unconditional access to accumulated human knowledge.
5. Placing stakeholders and their needs at the center of the decision
maker's concern.
6. Expanding student capabilities focusing on analytical skills, team
based activity and computer literacy in order to enhance the quality
of higher education.
7. Establishing a center for the professional development of teaching
staff.

12

8. Creation of a robust culture of accountability and transparency

throughout higher education.
9. Introducing a new form of management which strengthens
collective responsibility.
10.Calling for greater institutional autonomy and mitigating
government constraints.
11.Putting in place effective methods for the assessment of the
acquisition of higher level skills.
12.Introducing measures to evaluate the outcome of higher education
on campuses on a recurring and comprehensive basis.
13.Developing adequate programs to serve local communities.
14.Setting up programs to produce wellequipped graduates to
participate in the rapidly evolving global market.
15.Introducing a system whereby presidents and deans are appointed
through independent search committees based on merit.
16.Allocation of government funds to the universities earmarked to
quality of service.
I hope that implementing the recommendations will make higher
education more accessible, manageable, and accountable to the
community as a whole. Now the question is: Can we improve the
quality of higher education and find a respectable place in the
community of nations? I think it all depends on the political
support and social will power.

13

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