In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful

His Excellency, Brother Ali Abul Ragheb
The Prime Minister

I send you my best greetings and wishes for success. Our vision for the build up of Jordan, the model, is based on a number of props that form important requisites for achieving sustainable economic and social development, and provide an environment where justice, freedom and decent living are the main features. Our conviction has always been that the Jordanian citizen is the aim and base of development. We focused our concern on the importance of investment in education, training and rehabilitation, with an aim to prepare a generation of youth, capable of thinking, analyzing, creating, excelling, and being aware of their rights and duties towards their homeland and nation, as well as keen on participating in different stages of work and nation building.

As you are aware, the issue of higher education has formed one of our important national priorities, due to its being one of the main challenges facing our development course in the last period. Higher education was one of the pivots that were discussed in the 2nd National Economic Forum, held at the Dead Sea from 31 March to 1 April 2001. It was tackled as an important pivot in the human resources development strategy, that was prepared by the Economic Consultative Council, and was studied in the education forum in ‘Jordan the Future' held in mid September of last year, as well as the 3rd National Economic Forum held in Aqaba , in October of last year.

Thanks be to Allah, the results were positive. A number of achievements were realized on the path towards developing the Higher Education sector, such as reconsideration of university study plans and programmes, focusing on the teaching English, IT, establishing specialist centres to develop the capabilities of teaching staff, as well as the computerization of all university activities, and the execution of several reforms to deal with the funding situation of universities. Stemming from the importance of the higher education and scientific research sector in speeding up the reform and modernization process which is being extensively undertaken, and the demands of the coming phase for graduates who have the necessary skills and abilities that equip them to deal with different technological and technical developments, as well as to be armed with values and behaviours of work, production, achievement, and excellence, and building on what has been established in the past three years, from computerizing education and focusing on foreign language skills, and developing curricula and educational systems in the school phase, we need to conduct a comprehensive study on the challenges facing higher education, design work plans and clear time frames to realize our vision for this sector.

But before all of the above, we should implement a package of immediate procedures, to ensure the availability of the right environment needed for developing and upgrading the competence of the higher education sector, the most prominent of which are legislative reforms that would allow:

- giving a bigger role to the private sector to participate in the shaping of the higher education future, by increasing its representation in the Higher Education Council, facilitating its participation in providing more opportunities for distinguished higher education to Jordanian and non Jordanian students.
- continuing the study of funding for universities by ensuring that they are provided with the necessary resources, through a continuous restructuring process of university fees, and establishing a fund for needy students, to be funded from many resources, the most important of which is the government subsidies to universities.
- introducing the concepts of quality control in different components and stages of the higher education system, through the establishment of an independent foundation that implements international standardization.
- reconsidering university admission policies, to achieve the largest degree of harmony between students desires and available specializations. This could be achieved through a study of admission methodology on faculty levels, and the facilitation of moving from one specialization to another within any one faculty.
- providing the necessary mechanisms to embrace and care for students who have excelling and creative abilities, as well as encouraging scientific research and development.

Our aspirations and aims that we endeavour to achieve are substantial, and demand collective efforts. We are all invited to support and care for the youth, to discover their energies and potentials, because they are the first and foremost who deserve our care and support. Also, there is a responsibility that falls on the youth themselves, which is to demonstrate their abilities in competition, excellence, and to realize their own creativity, which will formulate the features of the homeland's future and that of generations to come.

We beseech Almighty God to grant you, and your colleagues the ministers, success, and to show us all the path of goodwill to achieve the aspirations of our people, and build Jordan the model.

Peace be Upon You, Allah's Mercy and His Blessings,,

Abdullah II Ibn al Hussein
Amman,
14 May 2003