On Raising University Tuition Fees in Jordan and Poor Planning

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There is a lot of talk lately about a governmental
intention to raise the tuition fees in public universities in Jordan.
But while officials in the Ministry of Higher Education dismiss the rumours,
many in Jordan
have learned through experience that if a rumour is officially dismissed, it
will soon turn into reality.

Interestingly, a more controversial measure was taken
very recently to provide financial support to public universities in the
country. A one JD tax was forced on anyone who had a landline or a cell phone
(paid once a year). That means/meant the following:

1- The grand majority of Jordanians currently pay a tax
to support public higher education.

2- A large number of these taxpayers do not have access
to this public higher education, and they admit their sons and daughters to
private universities or to no universities at all. This means they are forced
to pay to teach other people's sons and daughters when they should not.

3- Most of these taxpayers are forced to pay the same
tax two or three times, or more. If a person has a landline and a cell phone,
he or she will pay the tax twice. His or her sons and daughters who have cell
phones will also pay the same tax regardless of their age.

4- Cell phone owners in Jordan already pay 16% sales tax
and an "additional" 4.5% tax, which totals 20.5%.* Now it is safe to
add this infamous one JD tax to the total cost.

5- This would certainly generate more money for public
universities. Public universities already received revenue up to 20-25 million
JD from the ambiguous "additional fees" that students had to pay at
the start of each semester in 2006.* The revenue generated by the one JD tax,
however, is no more than four million JD.** This means that a ridiculous amount
of 400,000 JD will go to each of the ten public universities we have.

6- The Ministry of Finance took the trouble to dig as far
back as 1985 to find a law to shave money off Jordanians. The law is called: قانون الرسوم الإضافية للجامعات الأردنية رقم (4) لسنة 1985 (Additional Fees Law no.4 for Jordanian
Universities, 1985). Not only that, the Ministry took the time to
"interpret" the word "phone" in the law and to finally
deduce that it is a word generic enough to include cell phones along with
landlines.

7- If the Ministry of Higher Education eventually decides
that the old-new law does not help it generate enough money to fill the
monetary cracks in public universities (and it doesn't), it just might raise
tuition fees.

8- The Ministry of Higher Education finds it easier to
collaborate with the Ministry of Finance to impose taxes or to act on its own
and raise tuition fees, all instant quick-money solutions, instead of designing
long-term revenue-generating projects and plans. If nothing else, this
indicates poor planning and poor supervision over the financial assets of
public universities in Jordan.

To return to the main topic of this post, even
back in July 2006 there was talk about raising tuition fees for public
universities. The rumours were dismissed and the Ministry said there will
be no changes over the fees in 2006. Well, now we're in 2007, I wonder if any
surprises await us this year.

An important question is this: How much more can the
Jordanian citizen pay to get some education? And, even more importantly, is the
quality of education provided in public universities in Jordan
really worth all this money the citizens are forced to invest?

* Al Rai
newspaper

** Al Ghad newspaper