Queen Rania Joins Students, Staff as UJ Launches New Master’s Program in Human Rights

(Jordan Times – Amman) – Her Majesty Queen Rania joined students and teaching staff at the University of Jordan (UJ), at the launch of a new master’s programme in human rights and humanitarian development.

The launch marked the Kingdom’s celebrations of Human Rights Day observed worldwide yesterday.

Meeting with students enrolled in the new master’s programme, Queen Rania stressed the need to enhance students’ capacity in this field, in terms of theory and practice.  The students shared their reasons for joining the programme and their ambitions with the Queen, who also met with students with disabilities who participated in the launch.

The UJ faculty of law offered the programme for the first time this semester, and expects the number of students to rise to 20, UJ International Relations Office Director Ahmad Majdoubeh said. He added that the current number of professors teaching programme courses stands at 10.

The programme is in cooperation with University of Pavia, the Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) of Pavia, the University of Padova, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at Lund University, which recently joined this partnership.

During the launch, the IUSS announced two scholarships for Jordanian students, named the Queen Rania Al Abdullah Scholarship in recognition of Her Majesty’s efforts in the field of human rights and education. The institute will offer the scholarship winners the opportunity to continue their master’s in the field of human rights and humanitarian development at the University of Pavia.

Queen Rania also attended the signing of an agreement between UJ and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to encourage the exchange of teaching staff and students to take part in conferences, lectures and seminars among other academic activities.

The Queen also toured the UJ faculty of engineering and was briefed on senior students’ graduation projects.