‘No solution’ yet to Kuwait University admission crisis

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KUWAIT CITY, July 31: Solutions to the university admission crisis do not seem imminent, as Kuwait University has refused to accept students beyond its capacity. It submitted its recommendations to the Council of Public Universities, and the latter returned the ball to the Kuwait University again during its meeting last Tuesday evening. It called on the university to reconsider the numbers available in 12 different colleges in order to accommodate the number of accepted applicants, reports Al-Qabas daily. The figures indicate that the number of applicants to the university reached 15,000.

However, after excluding students who did not complete the admission requirements or did not attach full documents, the number decreased to about 12,000. Even then, the university will not be able to accept all of them, as the capacity is no more than 8,071 seats. The file has returned to the corridors of Kuwait University again, as only 244 students in the faculties of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy were accepted.

The fate of the rest of the students has not yet been determined. Expectations indicate that the most likely scenario for resolving the crisis this year is to announce the acceptance of about 6,000 students in the first semester, and wait to announce the names of those whose admission to the second semester has been postponed, until solutions are decided upon to accept all who meet the conditions or settle only with the number announced by the university, which may require a longer study and the need to find the most appropriate alternatives.

According to an academic official, no solutions are on the horizon unless the Kuwait University’s budget is increased in a way that ensures the provision of sufficient seats either for the new students who will be accepted, or for the continuing students. In this context, the General Coordinator and Official Spokesperson for the Association of Faculty Members and a member of the committee in charge of finding solutions to the admission crisis at Kuwait University Dr. Anwar Al-Shariaan explained that the committee submitted its solutions to the Council of Public Universities. Efforts are ongoing to find the most appropriate solution that would guarantee the quality of education on one hand, and avoid harming the students’ academic future on the other. In a press statement, he summarized the crisis in two points – lack of sufficient budget to raise the university’s absorptive capacity, and lack of independence of the university decision.

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