University Students Pay a lot for Education, only to be Received with Unemployment
Reem Qandil – Palestine Economy Portal
Translated by Tamara Barakat
Tuition fees for scientific programs are much higher than those of the social sciences, which increases the burden on students majoring in these programs.
According to Hussein Jaddu, the Vice President for Administrative and Financial Affairs at Al-Quds University, determining the fees of each credit hour depends on the expenses of each major. Some majors require laboratories and high operational expenses, and still students only cover 60-65% of their education expenses.
Students question the reason behind the disparities in the fees of credit hours for the shared courses or university required courses among students from different majors, even though, for example a medicine student receives the same experience as a social sciences student in these courses.
Jaddu justifies this, saying that each major has its own fees for each credit hour regardless of the course taken by the student since the cost of education for each student is calculated in total.
Parallel Education
Universities give students who did not achieve the Tawjihi score required for admission into a certain program the opportunity to attend the program in exchange for paying extra tuition fees that sometimes amount to a double of the original tuition fees, through a system called “parallel education.”
The main motive behind this system is to allow these students to study at home instead of having to study abroad in other Arab or Western universities that demand higher financial burdens and expenses.
Jaddu adds that the purpose of parallel education is not to make profit, but to give the students the opportunity to study in Palestine instead of having to travel abroad.
Role of Ministry of Education
Dr. Muamar Shteiwi, the General Manager of the Higher Education Department, said that the Ministry of Education does not play any role in determining the tuition fess of universities since the law of Higher Education grants the Palestinian universities financial and administrative capacities, and so the fees are set according to what suits the income of the universities.
Higher Education Law No. 11 (1998)
Article No. 15 of the law states that “a Board of Trustees is responsible for each of the higher education institutions, and these institutions are administered by their Board.”
There are 14 public, private, and governmental Palestinian universities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, each including around 15,000 students, and about 30 thousand students graduate from them each year.
Palestinian universities suffer from stifling financial crises, and they cannot meet their financial obligations toward their employees. This is caused by the inability of the Government to provide them with the money it had designated for them in the budget during the past five years. The external support received by the universities is not sufficient and does not cover their expenses, and consequently, they suffer from recurrent crises.