Jordan University of Science and Technology

History

A total of 2,300 students were enrolled in 1986. As of the academic year 2006/2007, about 20,000 undergraduate students and 1559 graduate students were enrolled at the university.

Each year the university grants over 3000 Bachelor and Master Degrees. The university started with 110 faculty members; now it hosts 750 faculty, of which 109 are full professors. The steady enrollment of the student body is grounded on the university's vision to raise and maintain the standards of higher education in Jordan, in parallel with national educational policies.

Having its roots at Yarmouk University in Irbid, JUST emerged as an independent university on September 1, 1986. JUST detached five faculties from Yarmouk University to form its academic nucleus. These faculties were: Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Nursing and Faculty of Engineering. Consecutively added to these faculties are Faculty of Science and Arts, Faculty of Medical Applied Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Computer and Information Technology, and Faculty of Agriculture.

University Presidents

Campus

The university campus is located in Ar Ramtha, 70 km north of Amman, the capital, and 20 km east of Irbid, the second largest city in Jordan. It covers an area of approximately 11 km², featuring the main buildings of a total area of 355m², constructed according to modern architectural designs suitable to the nature of its faculties. The main campus is surrounded by a green cover of 135m². In addition to academic buildings and the JUST Library, the campus includes the university farm, 12 auditoriums, a concert hall, fine arts galleries and museums, as well as comprising athletic facilities including a 7000-seat soccer stadium, a multipurpose indoor arena, a swimming pool, a squash court, and a gym.

The university campus is divided into two sections, known as the Medical Faculties Complex, a group of buildings in the northern part of the university, comprising the faculties of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Applied Medical Sciences, Pharmacy and Science and Arts, and the Engineering Faculties Complex, a group of buildings in the southern part of the university, compromising the faculties of Agriculture, Computer and Information Technology, Engineering, Architecture and Design and Veterinary Medicine. Students can use available buses to move from one complex to the other. Although there is a mini train on campus, it is not often used, and due to the relatively short distance between the two complexes many students prefer walking.

There are two libraries in JUST, one in the Engineering Faculties Complex and the other is in the Medical Faculties Complex. While both libraries give the students an appropriate and suitable place for reading and studying, the two-floor library at the Medical Faculties Complex is relatively larger, also contains 115,000 books, and 45,000 volumes of back issues of periodicals, which makes it the main library at the university. At the present time, a third library is being constructed in the area between the Engineering Faculties Complex and the Medical Faculties Complex which is larger in size than both existing libraries and is set to become the largest library in the Middle East.

Aside from the employees and guests restaurants, there are also three restaurants for students; one in each main campus, and one located near the soccer stadium.

Every department has a computer laboratory for the students to use. There are also two open labs one in each campus. Moreover, six additional labs are available for the graduate and undergraduate computer science students and students who are taking related courses at the PH building located at the Medicine Faculties Building. The campus is covered by a secure wireless internet connection (WLAN).

King Abdullah University Hospital

Named after the founder of Transjordan, Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, the King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) is the largest hospital in northern Jordan, serving approximately one million inhabitants of the Irbid, Ajloun, Jerash, and Mafraq governorates. It is also the teaching hospital affiliated with Jordan University of Science and Technology, located within the campus adjacent to the university's Medical Faculties Complex. The hospital is staffed with full-time physicians and surgeons who are faculty members of the JUST Faculty of Medicine, in addition to many others from the Ministry of Health, and the Royal Medical Services (RMS). The overall area of various hospital buildings is 95583m², in addition to a double story car park of 9000m² area. The hospital has a bed capacity of 683 which can be increased to 800 beds in an emergency situation.

Structurally, the hospital is composed of a 15 story high-rise building, in which all hospital beds are located, and a 3 story low-rise buildings in which patient clinics, diagnostic and other services are located. The hospital is connected to various health science faculties via the ground floor of the low-rise building. The hospital includes the departments of General Surgery, Special Surgery, Emergency Department, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Cardiac Center, Diagnostic X-Ray, Pathology and Laboratory, Endoscopy Unit, Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Physiology Function Test, Neuroscience, Nursing and Information System Department.

Academics

Jordan University of Science and Technology is home to twelve faculties. The medium of teaching at the university; lectures, exams, and tuition, are primarily in English language, with Arabic being used mainly to facilitate student understanding as the greater majority of students are of Arab background.

Medical Faculties Complex

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A group of building in the northern part of the university comprising the faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Applied Medical Sciences, and Science and Arts.

Medicine

The JUST Faculty of Medicine, the second medical school in Jordan, was established in Yarmouk University at the northern city of Irbid in 1984; the faculty then branched out into Jordan University of Science and Technology in 1986. The faculty is closely associated with King Abdullah University Hospital, the teaching hospital where postgraduate students undergo their residencies. As the faculty’s main teaching hospital, KAUH provide students with the opportunity to attend lectures, tutorials, clinics, ward rounds, and surgeries. Medical students graduating from JUST are widely renowned for their achievements in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), gaining postgraduate positions in well-known global institutions. Furthermore, the Faculty of Medicine has been an active participant in medical research and has hosted numerous international events and conferences, with focus on subjects in relation to myocardial protection and research, pediatrics, anesthesia, and internal medicine. As of September 2011, the faculty will be hosting the Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRC Path) Part 1 written exams in all Pathology specialties, which will enable Jordanian and Arab Pathologists to sit the exam outside the UK.

Nature of the Medical Program

The Faculty of Medicine awards the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) after completion of six years comprising three years of medical sciences and three clinical years. Students are admitted to medicine based solely on their grade point average in their high school national general exam (Tawjihi); there are neither entrance interviews nor psychometric exams. The cutoff average used for admissions into medicine is the highest among all the other disciplines offered by universities. For example, the cutoff average used over the past five years has been: 94.9 (2005), 96.3 (2006), 97 (2007), 96.8 (2008), and 97.7 (2009). Although in the minority, the faculty of medicine accepts students from Israel, Palestine, Syria, Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Malaysia, and other countries. Tuition is significantly higher for the foreign students. Initially, the faculty at JUST accepted 50 students into the program, but that number has grown to more than 200 in recent years.

During the first year and a half of their program, students are taught basic science in a traditional format. In an integrated module fashion, the next year and half is devoted to studying nine body systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, hematopoietic, digestive, endocrine, musculoskeletal, neuroscience 1 and 2, and reproductive and urinary. Towards the end of the third year students begin direct contact with patients in hospital settings. The last three years are spent in supervised inpatient and outpatient settings to develop their diagnostic and treatment competencies; the clinical years begin fully at the beginning of year 4 where students rotate through various areas of general clinical medicine. Year 5 continues this pattern focusing more on specialized areas of medicine and surgery. In total, students are required to complete 257 hours of classes divided among compulsory and elective courses. After completion of their 6th year, students are required to complete internship (imtiaz), which is a one-year term in general practice for which they are not compensated for.

Evaluations are based primarily on written exams (marks are based on two midterms and one end of term exam) and percentage grades appear on transcripts. Practical exams are solely based on an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) type of standardized exams. In the final year, the school of medicine invites external examiners (from the United States, Britain, among others) to participate in student evaluations and to benefit from the experience of others.

Residency

Students looking to specialize can apply for residency programs after completion of imtiaz (internship). Most residency programs are four years in length, but notable exceptions include neurosurgery (6 years), general surgery (5 years), orthopedic surgery (5 years), and urology (5 years). Residency programs are divided into two broad groups: major and minor specialties. Major programs include internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, while the rest are considered minor. This division reflects the number of available seats and thus the competitiveness of each specialty. Faculty of Medicine

Dentistry

The Faculty of Dentistry at Jordan University of Science and Technology was founded by a royal decree on 16 September 1983 and the first group of students was admitted in the academic year 1984/1985. The faculty offers facilities for undergraduate and postgraduate training and is developing programs for all professionals in dentistry who wish to continue their education and obtain further qualifications. Faculty of Dentistry

Pharmacy

The Faculty of Pharmacy, the first in Jordan, was established as a department of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Yarmouk University by a royal decree in 1979. The rapid growth and development of the department led to the transformation of the department into an independent faculty on September 19, 1983. Three years later -in September 1986- the Faculty of Pharmacy became affiliated with JUST. Faculty of Pharmacy

Nursing

The Faculty of Nursing was established in 1983 with only 2 faculty members and 23 students. It currently consists of 23 PhD, and 22 Masters prepared faculty members (Adult, Maternal Child, Community & Midwifery) placed in the four departments of the faculty; this body is supported by 27 MSN or BSN qualified clinical trainers. Faculty of Nursing

Applied Medical Sciences

The Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences was established in 2000, and was housed in several makeshift facilities. It was created to educate allied health professionals to fill crucial shortages in the health care needs of the people in Jordan. The faculty has since become a dynamic and vital member of the university health team. The faculty also has a number of sponsored students who are pursuing graduate studies leading to M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in various majors at well-known universities in the USA, UK, and Australia. Upon graduation, they will join the faculty. Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences

Science and Arts

The Faculty of Science and Arts was established by a decree from the Council of Higher Education on January 26, 1987. It commenced its duties as of September 1, 1987. The faculty, one of the oldest and largest at the university, holds seven departments and a program of forensic science, offers both bachelor's and master's degrees and gives students the chance to choose from a plethora of disciplines that employ several pedagogical approaches involving classroom instruction, independent research, student-as-teacher approach, and internships or practical experience. Faculty of Science and Arts

Engineering Faculties Complex

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A group of buildings in the southern part of the university comprising the faculties of Engineering, Agriculture, Information Technology, Architecture and Design, Veterinary Medicine, and Graduate Studies.

Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering is the largest faculty in the university, with its 61 research and teaching labs. It comprises the departments of Biomedical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering power and mechatronics, and Nuclear Engineering. The Faculty takes part and is accredited by the United States Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of (ABET).

Agriculture

The Faculty of Agriculture was established by a royal decree on October 2, 1985. Study began at the faculty in 1989/1990 with 71 students, to grow into over 1100 students in the academic year 2006/2007, including 100 graduate students. The faculty began with only nine faculty members upon its establishment. Currently, the number has increased into 57 faculty members in four academic departments.

Information Technology

The Faculty of Information Technology was established in 2000 and has built an international reputation for excellence in teaching, research, and services since then. The Faculty consists of five departments: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Information System, Software Engineering, and Network Engineering. As one of the largest faculties with 42 faculty members and 1972 students, it is consistently ranked as one of the Middle East's top and essential learning bodies of information and technology as attested by many institutions and specialists.

Architecture and Design

The Faculty of Architecture and Design awards both bachelor's degrees and master's degrees and comprises the departments of architecture and urban planning. It participates yearly in the Arab Architectural Graduation Project Exhibition, which started as Bilad Al Sham Graduation Project Exhibition.

Veterinary Medicine

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was established at JUST in 1990 as a response to the national objective of improving animal health and productivity by increasing their efficiency and thereby reducing the cost of animal production. It is the only Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Jordan. It also houses a Veterinary Health Center (VHC), which serves the purpose of clinical training for students and provides veterinary services to the public. The faculty is a research and a consultative center, in addition to its basic function in promoting and sustaining high standards of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The faculty is an active member of the Arab Association of Veterinary Medical Faculties and it houses its office.

Graduate Studies

The Faculty of Graduate Studies provides advanced studies in different fields including Medicine, Applied Medical Sciences, Science, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Engineering and Computer Technology. The faculty is entrusted with setting the rules and regulations pertinent to graduate programs and degrees and pursuing the implementation of these regulations.

Each faculty is best known with a color:

Research

Since its establishment, JUST has given its utmost priority to academic research. In this vein, the Deanship of Research commenced its activities at the early stages of the university establishment during the academic year 1986/1987. Research, basic and applied, is amongst the principal priorities of the university. Training and supervision in research methodology, especially for postgraduate students, is reinforced by several research centers, such as the Queen Rania Center for Environmental Science and Technology, Consultative Center for Science and Technology, Energy Center, Pharmaceutical Research Center, Princess Haya Biotechnology Center, and the Agricultural Center for Research & Production.

Research funding has steadily grown since the establishment of JUST in 1986, and an average of 200 research projects are sponsored and funded each year. As testimony to this development, JUST was ranked as the top research university in Jordan, and amongst the top 3% universities in the Islamic world, according to a study carried out by the Ankara-based Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRTCIC).

Nature Journal has reported Jordan as having the highest number of researchers in research and development per million people among all the 57 countries members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In Jordan there are 2,000 researchers per million people, while the average among the members of OIC is 500 researchers per million people. This means that the number of researchers per population in Jordan, is higher than Italy, Israel and Greece and just close to the number in United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Deanship of Research at JUST is the administrative and technical body that facilitates, regulates and observes the processes concerning research. It works in a collaborative and complementary manner with other faculties and administrative bodies of the university. Any research on humans should be approved by the Institutional Research Board (IRB) and any research on animals should be approved by the university Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) before being funded. Deanship of Research

Nuclear Science and Technology Center

In consistence with Jordan's efforts to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and lessen its dependence on fossil fuel, and in co-ordinance with the Department of Nuclear Engineering of JUST, a nuclear research reactor, the first in the country, has been set to be built in the university campus which will serve as an integral part of the nuclear technology infrastructure of Jordan.

The five-megawatt (MW) nuclear research reactor, which was inaugurated in December 2016, will become the focal point for a Nuclear Science and Technology Center (NSTC) in JUST, playing the primary role in educating and training the upcoming generations of nuclear engineers and scientists, and providing irradiation services in support of the Jordanian industrial, agricultural and health/medical infrastructures.

The nuclear research reactor center will include radioisotope production and training facilities, future expansion of the center will include a fuel fabrication plant, as well as radioactive waste and cold neutron facilities. The reactor, which will be upgradeable to 10MW, will facilitate the training of nuclear operators and technicians as well as advanced nuclear research in neutron sciences and the commercial production of radioisotopes, it will also allow for practical experience for Jordanians in nuclear energy, reactor physics, radiochemistry and radiation protection. The research reactor is considered by Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) officials to be an important precursor to Jordan's first nuclear power plant, a 750-1,000MW Generation III reactor to be built in an area in Mafraq 40 kilometers northeast of Amman and 15 kilometers away from the Hashemite University.

On 1 November 2010, the university inaugurated the first Internet Reactor Laboratory in the country. The reactor laboratory links the university's nuclear engineering department with the U.S PULSTAR research reactor at North Carolina State University, making it the first U.S research nuclear reactor to be used for educational purposes outside the United States. The new laboratory will enable JUST nuclear engineering students to use the PULSTAR reactor and observe the reactor's behavior under certain conditions via a virtual control panel. The project was set up in cooperation with the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, U.S Department of State, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

During a visit to the university in November 2010, King Abdullah unveiled a model for the 5-megawatt Jordanian research and training facility, calling for creating institutional frameworks to increase investments in research, encourage and support innovative individuals, and lauding the university for the advanced level it has achieved in various sciences.

Center of Excellence for Service Science Innovation

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) are set to create a Center of Excellence for Service Science Innovation at the university's campus in Irbid. The new centre will deliver teaching resources and technology expertise to students over a cloud computing infrastructure - the first system of its kind in the Middle East. IBM consultants will also support JUST with curriculum development and provide expertise in the area of service science, management and engineering (SSME).

The solution will be based on IBM's CloudBurst, which is an integrated service delivery platform that includes BladeCenter technology, storage, networking, virtualization and service management software. The workload-optimized system will provide JUST with a private cloud environment as a platform for innovation. IBM will also help to coordinate the centre and assist JUST in developing new curricula on key technology areas such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Processes Management (BPM), Business Analytics, Business Processes Optimization (BPO), Service Science and Cloud Computing. IBM will use its expertise in these areas and draw on skills from its research and development laboratories to help develop educational resources and run workshops, courses, internships and certification programs. The initiative will support the university in driving skills and expertise in services science to the benefit of national schools, higher education and research establishments in Jordan and beyond.

Library

The library collection comprises 115,000 books, and 45,000 volumes of periodicals back issues. In organizing its collection, the Library adopts the Library of Congress Classification Scheme, and uses the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) and the International Standard of Bibliographic Description (ISBD).

To cope with the new technologies in the field of library and information science, the library started in 1993 to offer retrieved information services through a good number of necessary databases, which are published on CD-ROM or online (WAN) subscriptions.

There are two libraries in JUST, one in the Engineering Faculties Complex and the other is in the Medical Faculties Complex. While both libraries give the students an appropriate and suitable place for reading and studying, the two-floor library at the Medical Faculties Complex is relatively larger, also contains 115,000 books, and 45,000 volumes of back issues of periodicals, which makes it the main library at the university.At the present time, a third library is being built in the area between the two complexes and is larger in size than both existing libraries and is set to become the largest library in the Middle East.

Here is a photo of the new library in JUST:

Publications

The university issues a quarterly journal called the Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering (JJCE). The journal is internationally peer-reviewed. Subjects covered include applications of civil rehabilatations, structural control, smart materials, earthquake engineering, geotechnical engineering and soil/rock mechanics, dam engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, water and environmental engineering, construction management and project planning, surveying and mapping, and infrastructures engineering, as well as numerical and analytical methods.

The Deanship of Research is responsible for the funding of research publications by staff members and students, as well as managing the Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering.

Student Newspaper

Just for Just, is an electronic newspaper initiated by the students of the university.

Students

A students' union is elected annually to represent the students. Student clubs that are responsible for organizing various events throughout the academic year. Of the most prominent of these clubs are the Medical Club, Great Arab Revolt Club, Media Club, Science Club, International student Club, Chess Club, and Culture Club.

International community

The number of international students at JUST continues to rise; in the academic year 2005/2006, more than 3,500 students of 48 nationalities came from outside Jordan. As of the academic year 2009/2010, the university comprised 5,415 international students from 61 different nationalities, rendering it the most cultural-diverse university in Jordan. The International Student Office (ISO) was established in 2005 and is supervised directly by the president. Highly qualified coordinators and staff provide cultural, social and legal consultation, field trips, social events, and meetings with the president. An International Community Fair takes place annually at the university with the aim of encouraging and promoting cross-cultural communication and diversity in the workplace.

On-campus housing

The first building was established in 1993. Due to increasing demand, the number of buildings was gradually raised to eight fully occupied buildings. Each building consists of four floors, the ground floor included. Each floor consists of two major wards, each of which contains eleven rooms, in addition to an adequate number of bathrooms and showers associated with each ward. Each building offers three types of rooms, as follows:

Health care and insurance

Health care is available to all students, the cost of which is included in the semester fees. It covers 100% of most services offered by the University Health Centers, including King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) and the JUST Health Center (HC). The university provides free life insurance coverage to all students. JUST Health Center (HC) in Irbid was established in 1983 to provide medical care to students, faculty and staff. It is also a teaching center for the residency program of family medicine.

Faculty

International affiliations