New German-Jordanian University Opened

German Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn inaugurated a new German-Jordanian university (GJU) in the Jordanian capital of Amman during a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. The GJU, which is located near the Amman airport, is a technical college and offers practical study courses in engineering in English. Students will be also be taught German, enabling them to spend a year in Germany in the fourth semester. The German Education Ministry is funding the GJU with two million euros until 2008. The college is hoping to attract Palestinian students from the Israeli-occupied West Bank as well as young Iraqis and Syrians. The GJU in Jordan is the second college in the Arab world with German funding and participation. In October 2003, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder opened the German University in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.