Bahaa Al Deen Al Nawas – Aug 06,2019

AMMAN — The University of Jordan (UJ) is banking on solar power to alleviate its financial problems by 2022-2023.

The move will help reduce costs and lower electricity consumption, UJ President Abdul Kareem Qudah told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

The solar power project will save around JD8 million for both UJ and its hospital, Qudah said, adding that many measures have already been taken to deal with financial problems by controlling spending and increasing revenues.

UJ is also exerting efforts to become a “smart university” through automating its systems and education, the university president said, noting that 12 per cent of subjects taught went online.

“There have been rumours going around about the level of Jordanian universities regressing, but they are untrue and inaccurate. At UJ the only issue we are facing is financial in regard to the debt,” he said, adding that all other aspects are going very well.

“At UJ we have the lowest fees, especially since in some majors an hour’s fee is only JD12,” Qudah said, adding that 70 per cent of the fees in UJ majors are less than JD29 per hour, “which shows the university’s efforts to progress, but not at the expense of Jordanian families”.

He added that “there are no plans whatsoever to increase fees”, and on the contrary, the administration is trying to find new income sources.

The university president highlighted the high rankings it received from different ranking indices as well as the large number of foreign students, comprising 84 Arab and other nationalities.

UJ is moving forward into becoming an international university, which will eventually improve its status further, according to Qudah.

http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/uj-goes-solar-save-energy-bill