AMMAN — Despite the ongoing unrest in the region, Jordan continues to attract foreign students looking to study abroad in 2012.
As study abroad programmes begin to wrap up their fall semesters, they are also preparing for the next influx of American students, set to arrive for the new semester this January, officials of programmes in Jordan said.
Jerome Bookin-Weiner, director of study abroad and outreach at America-Mideast Educational and Training Services Inc. (AMIDEAST), said enrolment in AMIDEAST’s study abroad programmes in the Middle East has doubled over the past three years.
“All of our programmes, except the one in Morocco, are in their third year, so compared with three years ago we have grown enormously. From our first year we have essentially doubled and next semester looks to be even bigger,” he said in an e-mail to The Jordan Times.
AMIDEAST was forced to cancel its programme in Cairo in the fall of 2011 due to the security situation and low student enrolment, which Bookin-Weiner explained “was itself a result of security concerns from students and their parents”.
However, determined students still yearning to spend a semester or more in the Middle East have turned to Jordan.
Gwendolyn Schaefer, a student at the University of Kentucky who completed two intensive Arabic courses with AMIDEAST this summer and continued with the organisation this semester, had hoped to study in Cairo long before the protests broke out in January.
“Egypt was actually my first choice. I had always wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was a kid, so it was essentially fulfilling a childhood fantasy,” she told The Jordan Times last week. “However, after things started to go downhill fast, Jordan became a much more viable option.”
Schaefer did have some initial concerns about studying abroad in the region when the political climate was quickly changing, but as she begins her final month in Amman, she said, she feels good about her choice.
“Being stubborn was my best decision to date.”
Some students cite Jordan’s stability throughout the Arab Spring and growing interest in American foreign policy in the Middle East as reasons why they decided to come to the Kingdom.
Adam Simons, a student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who is currently spending two semesters studying with AMIDEAST, noted that "the recent revolutions amplified the region's significance and led to a paradigm shift when looking at the region socially and politically".
For students like Schaefer and Simons, Jordan provides a great opportunity to learn about the region and its culture in a unique environment, according to Allison Hodgkins, resident director of the Council on International Educational Exchange's (CIEE) study abroad programme in Amman.
"The country is both unique and representative of the mainstream Arab world. Its hospitality, amazing nature and sound educational institutions make it a very attractive location for US students to spend a semester or longer," she said in an e-mail to The Jordan Times.
CIEE, which has been running a study abroad programme in Amman for many years, declined to comment on its expected enrolment for the Spring 2012 semester, citing security concerns.
As for those packing their bags to head back to the US, many, like Schaefer, are already making plans to return to Jordan.
“I’m looking to return this summer, if at all possible, for an internship,” she said, “as for the more permanent future, if I received an opportunity to work in Jordan, I would be back in an instant”.