Prime Highlights-
- Chinese language enrollment in Jordan tops 3,000 students, up nearly 40 percent in two years.
- Jordan’s Vocational Training Corporation runs 35 branches with over 300 workshops nationwide.
Key Facts-
- Jordan advances eastward pivot with education as key pillar of China cooperation.
- Yarmouk University plans China Village complex to anchor Chinese language and cultural training.
Background-
Jordan is deepening education ties with China, placing the sector at the center of its eastward strategic pivot. Yarmouk University, the country’s second-largest public university, plans to build an on-campus complex called China Village, dedicated to Chinese language training and cultural exchange.
University president Malek Alsharairi said Yarmouk aims to build Jordan’s strongest academic partnership with China, spanning disciplines from medicine and engineering to architecture and music.
He noted the university will open Chinese language electives to students across all faculties, and described China Village as a hub covering China’s technology, economy, governance and heritage, extending beyond Confucius Institutes in scope.
He added that the Fine Arts Faculty has begun blending Chinese opera into its coursework, with plans for a dedicated Chinese theater program. Alsharairi said Jordan’s neutral regional position makes it attractive to Chinese firms pursuing reconstruction work in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Yarmouk enrolls more than 30 Chinese students studying Arabic, drawn by affordable tuition and the alignment between Jordanian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic.
Guo Wei, Chinese ambassador to Jordan, said seven Chinese language teaching centers operate nationwide, with enrollment climbing nearly 40 percent in two years to surpass 3,000 learners.
Vocational training is gaining momentum. Rafat Mousa Al-Sawafin, head of Jordan’s Vocational Training Corporation, said the agency runs 35 branches with over 300 workshops but called cooperation with Chinese institutions limited, urging expanded support. Officials hope to send delegates to the WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai in September.
