Amman, July 23 (Petra) –In its session held Thursday, the Senate,
chaired by Senate President Faisal Fayez and attended by the Cabinet,
approved the amended Universities Law for 2026, as received from the
Lower House of Representatives.

During deliberations, the Senate advised the government to adopt
“unified” criteria for naming chairpersons and members of Jordanian
university boards of trustees.

The senators said this process should be based on competence,
experience, and integrity, while initiating annual performance
indicators to assess these boards’ work, in accordance with the
universities’ strategic and operational plans.

The Senate’s recommendations also called for a “comprehensive”
national evaluation after 3 years of the law’s enactment to measure
impact of the amendments on quality of higher education and harness
findings in any subsequent legislative reviews.

As approved by both chambers, the bill restructures the boards of
trustees of Jordan’s public and private universities, after
integrating amendments to the government’s draft, which proposed
reducing the number of board members from 12 in the existing law to
8, by adopting a 10-member board.

Regarding public universities, the parliamentary amendments to the
government’s proposed version increased the number of experienced and
qualified professors on the trustees board from 3 to 4 and added a
member representing the industry and commerce sector.

As for private universities, the amendments increased the number of
academics to 3 on the board of trustees from 2, broadened the
required expertise to include the university’s field of
specialization, business and technology, and raised representatives
from the industry and commerce sector from 1 to 2.

//Petra// AG