Capacity of Yemeni universities at 81,000 students

Of the 133,810 high school graduates from the 2006-2007 academic year, 56,000 students will be accepted into governmental universities and 25,000 into private universities for the 2008-2009 academic year, as reported by the Supreme Council of Universities and the Council of Planning for the High Academic Studies in their joint meeting last Wednesday.

Chaired by Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, the meeting defined the capacities of the governmental and private universities, decreasing the percentage of the governmental universities by 24 percent less than in the 2007-2008 school year and increasing the percentage in private universities by 10 percent more.

The council also studied draft legislation aimed at enrolling high school graduates directly following their graduation, instead of the current system that keeps them home for a year before they can enroll in colleges. The council assigned a committee to study the issue and its impacts on the capacity of the universities and was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdul Kareem al-Arhabi, and a number of ministers and directors of Sana’a, Aden and Hadramout universities. 

The establishment of a information technology college in Sana’a University was approved, as well as a medicine college in Amran University. The council also approved new departments in Ibb and Hadramout Universities. 

Students who graduated in 2006-2007 who are supposed to be enrolled this year were 133,801 with 87,176 males and 46,634 females.

A source at the Ministry of Higher Education said that decreasing the capacity of the universities was decided to force graduates whose grades do not allow them to enroll in  universities to join the social colleges and technical institutes, as the labor market requires more professional graduates of technical colleges rather than university graduates. 

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