His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday inaugurated the permanent headquarters of the JD49 million German-Jordanian University (GJU).

King Abdullah  was accompanied at the ceremony by Her Majesty Queen Rania. Their Majesties were briefed on GJU’s programmes and plans and toured the university’s science lab, which provides scientific programmes for schoolchildren.

Located in Mushaqar,  Madaba, the GJU, which is a public university, founded in 2005 by Royal Decree, in accordance with a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Stressing that the university offers majors in applied sciences designed to meet labour market requirements, Labib Khadra, the university’s president, said the second phase would be completed in two years at a total cost of JD16 million.

The new phase will be implemented under a debt-swap agreement to be signed between Jordan and Germany, noted Khadra.

He added that about 1,500 of the university’s students have already been granted different types of scholarships to Germany as part of an exchange that has reflected positively on their achievement and performance.

The university, the president said, has built partnerships and ties with the industrial sector in Jordan as it seeks to tune its programmes to labour market needs.

Also present at the ceremony was German Federal Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan, who stressed in her remarks the important role the university plays in fostering innovation and equipping its students with skills demanded by employers.

“The university places heavy emphasis on innovation… Science, research and technology are the language of the future and this is what the university focuses on,” said Schavan.

“Through its focus on science and technology, the university seeks to turn out students who are capable of development and of enhancing the living conditions of their societies,” said the German minister.

At the event, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Wajih Owais said the university was considered a quality leap in Jordan’s higher education sector.

He stressed the role of the university in transferring German expertise in different technical fields to Jordan, stressing the Kingdom’s keenness to foster academic cooperation between the two countries.

Through its eight schools, the university offers 23 specialties.

According to university officials, the facility is modelled on the German universities of applied sciences, characterised by their focus on putting knowledge into practice and on promoting knowledge transfer.

The university, they said, aims to play a significant part in promoting links between Jordan and Europe, particularly Germany, by taking advantage of best practices in education in both Jordan and Germany.

The university has more than 2,645 students currently, 15 per cent of whom are non-Jordanian.