If you own real estate in Jordan, you need to pay 3 types of property taxes1:
1- 10% ‘land’ tax (مسقفات)
2- 3% sewage tax (مجاري) which is separate from the one in your water bill
3- 2% education tax (معارف) which goes to supporting your local public schools
It is evidently clear that sewage takes priority over education in this country—and gives an indication of where the education system is heading2.
Let’s get down to business and rank the publicly traded universities in the Amman Stock Exchange.
Overview
There are 37 universities3 in Jordan , public, private, and publicly listed—46 community colleges—and the total number of students enrolled in all studies is around 367,000 students at universities and 28,000 students in community colleges.
There are 5 publicly listed Universities (classified under private university):
AL-ZARQA EDUCATIONAL & INVESTMENT (ticker: ZEIC)/ Zarqa University
THE ARAB INTERNATIONL FOR EDUCATION & INVESTMENT (ticker: AIEI)/ a.k.a. Applied Science Private University or ASU for short (also owns Ibn Haitham hospital)
AL-ISRA FOR EDUCATION AND INVESTMENT "PLC" (ticker: AIFE)/ Al-Isra
PETRA EDUCATION COMPANY (ticker: PEDC) / Petra University
PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT COMPANY (ticker: PIEC) / Philadelphia University
Financial ratios ranking (as of Dec. 2023):
🥇ASU is the largest amongst the 5 universities, but Al-Isra has the best P/E ratio and highest dividend yield. The average Price to Book-value (P/BV ratio) for all 5 is around 1.4
Financial performance ranking
🥇ASU is still the top in terms of revenue, but Zarqa showed the best when it comes to post-COVID recovery, growing +23%
Average annual revenue per student is around ~2,500 JODs.
“Intellectual” performance
Scientia Potentia Est
There are strict criteria when it comes to ranking and comparing higher educational institutions, with many many aspects involved (student satisfaction, job prospects, accreditation, number of departments/faculties, research and development, number of papers published internationally, cost, spending, etc. etc.).
I would like to look at only 1 small aspect: Library funding4; i.e. how much each university spends on Journal subscriptions and purchasing reference books/textbooks (computers + software for research can be included). A university with a big library could be a fertile place to yield bright minds.
N.B. These numbers were taken from each university’s annual report and the only ones I could find. I could be wrong. The universities are more than welcome to correct me and report the exact numbers.
🥇Petra University has the highest library budget (and has its own dedicated accounting item entry separate from normal stationary)
To compare: one of the best universities in the UK, Imperial College London, spends around £62 million5 for its libraries. That’s around £3,000 per student. Around 8% of revenue, 10x that of Petra’s.
This misallocation of spending is not the university’s fault alone: for example Philadelphia University spends around 1.2 million JODs on transportation. Another university spent 200,000 JODs on fuel alone for buses, 4 times its library budget.
Conclusion
Universities going public and being run as a business has many advantages: it’s great way to get big cash early on to invest in large campuses, research centers, libraries, dormitories etc. It also brings transparency to the sector and removes the bureaucracy and inefficiency of a publicly (government) run entity.
However all that cash couldn’t produce a Nobel Prize6 winner, not even an Ig Noble Prize winner.
Private universities are neither capable of focusing on the current needs of the job market (which is what community colleges and vocational training centres are there for) nor are they focused on research and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. It’s worth remembering that research can be highly beneficial to the private market: the Arab Potash company can for e.g. collaborate with a private university in researching uses of potash in batteries. Or hospitals can work with a university to find cures on specific diseases.
Private universities are sadly in the business of selling “degrees”. A piece of paper that doesn’t guarantee any skills or knowledge. University degrees are slowly becoming irrelevant when they are competing with online courses: most students are becoming self-taught, especially in the IT sector.
This is not only relevant to the higher education system in Jordan. The education system as a whole is falling and going down in internationally rankings:
These private universities have of lot to think about when it comes to improving the quality of education in the country. A first step could be in increasing its library budget.
There’s a lot of potential here.
The total property tax is 15% of the estimate rent value of the property and paid annually. If you own only 1 and live in it, the rate is ~0.75%. More detailed calculation can be found here: https://www.amman.jo/ar/eservices/realnatrep.aspx
(down the drain)
List of universities recognised by Gulf countries: https://www.dirasaabroad.com/jordanian-universities-recognized-in-the-gulf/#1
It is said that the famous thinker and scholar al-Jahiz died while researching in his library. So in his honour it would be great to call this the Jahiz index.
Imperial College Financials: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/finance/annual-report/financial-review/expenditure/
To be fair, there were some nominees, not to mention: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/شاهر_المومني