Manama: The head of the Higher Education Council has defended the decision to suspend summer courses in four private universities, saying that they were not mandatory.
"The summer option is usually offered by universities that have three courses and students have to pass 180 hours to get their degrees," said Dr Alawi Al Hashemi. "It is just an option and not an obligation for the students or the university."
Al Hashemi was reacting to a plea by students from private universities barred from offering summer courses to the education minister to reverse his decision.
"We wish that the minister reviews the sanction against the universities because he would in fact be punishing students keen on finishing their courses and graduating," the students said as they gathered to discuss the case. We are aware that some universities had been found guilty of irregularities, but the Higher Education Council should think of other punishment measures, such as making the universities pay fines," Hajer Abdul Rahman said.
However, Al Hashemi said that the council’s decision did not affect all schools.
"Only four universities are concerned with the partial ban, so it is not a blanket decision, and only 25 out of 254 summer courses on offer are targetted by the measure," he said. "For instance in one university, only three out of 22 courses would have to be dropped, while in another one it is five out of 19," he said.
The council last year embarked on a wide review of the 17 private colleges and universities to ensure full compliance with higher education standards and criteria. The assessment was sparked by the Kuwaiti education ministry to stop recognising most of the degrees awarded by Bahrain’s private universities on the grounds that they were below standards.
Recommendations by an investigation team were used in September to take punitive action against universities allegedly involved in financial or administrative irregularities. Measures included ending courses and barring universities from taking in new students for the academic year.
The council last week said that some of the universities again failed to comply with its orders and barred them from holding summer courses.
"The decision not to have summer courses in my university means that I will have to graduate six months after schedule, and this is a real problem for me," a student said. "I hope that the council will not deprive us of such significant opportunities for our future and resort to other action in case it wants to hold the universities responsible for their behaviour."
Private universities mushroomed in Bahrain in the past decade after several Gulf nationals refrained from travelling to Europe or the US for fear of reprisals or difficulties in the post-September 11 tension. Easy terms offered by the colleges and universities have also attracted several Saudi and Kuwaiti nationals.
