University Education [Archives:2001/38/Focus]

Mohammed Al-Haj Al-Kamali
Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts
The system of admission fees in universities is still in full swing, according to the decree issued by the Cabinet. There is no exception to that decree except for the sons and daughters of the teaching staff. The discount of admission fees for the teaching staff has reached 50 percent, and to the administrative staff up to 75 percent. So the state is obliged to give free education from the basic levels to the secondary levels. But university education is pertaining to that side i.e. to the free education. In addition to this, what is paid to the university in admission fees isn’t equal to what is supported by the government for the benefit of public education. There is no obstacle in the augmentation of university fees. Let’s give an example. Each year the student pays 1750 YR for tuition fees, but what do you think of the student who pays daily 500 YR for a bunch of qat?? I think the media should concentrate deeply on this aspect. The students who have poor grades can go to the vocational or technical institutes. If the student’s objective is only to get a job and nothing else, I strongly advise them to register their names in the vocational institutes. The university has registered all the accepted students through the Committees of the Students Affairs. The university has done its best to specify the number of students according to the capacity of colleges. Therefore, the academic study in the university and particularly in the Faculty of Art needs diligent students. The student along with the university faces various problems, such as, outputs of the basic education, scarcity of potential faculty, and distance learning which entails vigorous efforts and constitutes a heavy burden. Consequently, in my point of view, the decree of the Supreme Council for the universities to cancel distance learning is a first step to correct the path of learning in the universities. In this way we will come out with fruitful results.

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