Every year, families in Jordan pay deposits for degrees that will not be recognised when the student comes home. It is not usually because the university was bad. It is because one box was not ticked before enrolment — a Tawjihi average below the required minimum, a university not on the Ministry’s recognised list, or a programme that did not require enough time on campus.
Recognition is not something you sort out afterwards. Almost every condition is judged against the day you enrolled. This page explains the two separate gates a foreign degree has to pass in Jordan, and exactly what to check before any money changes hands.
Two gates, not one
People use “recognised” to mean two different things, and confusing them is expensive.
- Academic equivalency (معادلة الشهادة). The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, through its Recognition and Certificates Equivalency Directorate, confirms that your foreign degree is equivalent to a Jordanian one. This is what employers, government posts and postgraduate admissions ask for.
- Professional licensure. For regulated professions — medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, law and others — equivalency alone does not let you practise. A separate professional body registers and licenses you, on its own conditions.
A degree can clear the first gate and still leave you unable to work in the profession you studied. Both have to be planned for before you choose the university.
Gate one: the Ministry’s conditions
The university must be recognised before you enrol
The Ministry publishes a list of recognised foreign universities. The institution has to be on it at the time you enrol — not at the time you graduate, and not at the time you apply for equivalency. If you study at more than one institution, every one of them has to be recognised, however few credits you took there. This catches students who start at a college and transfer.
Check the list yourself before you pay anything: Recognised Universities — Recognition and Certificates Equivalency Directorate. If a university does not appear, do not accept anyone’s assurance that it “will be added”.
Your Tawjihi average has to meet the minimum for that field
This is the condition that surprises families most. The Ministry requires that you met the Jordanian admission minimum for your specialisation before you enrolled abroad. A foreign university may happily accept a lower average — that acceptance does not protect you later.
| Field of study | Minimum secondary school average |
|---|---|
| Medicine and dentistry | 90% |
| Engineering, architecture and pharmacy | 80% |
| Sharia and information technology specialisations | 75% |
| Nursing and medical sciences | 70% |
| Law | 65% |
| Other specialisations | 60% |
If your average is below the line for the field you want, the honest options are a different specialisation, a foundation or bridging route where one is accepted, or improving the average before you commit. What is not an option is enrolling anyway and hoping.
You have to actually be there
The Ministry sets a minimum period of regular in-person study for each level. For students who enrolled from 1 October 2023 onward:
| Level | Minimum in-person study |
|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree | 8 months per academic year |
| Associate diploma | 8 months per academic year |
| Advanced diploma | 6 months |
| Master’s degree | 6 months |
| PhD, scientific specialisations | 16 months |
| PhD, humanities | 8 months |
| PhD without a prior master’s, scientific | 22 months |
| PhD without a prior master’s, humanities | 14 months |
This is the rule that catches programmes marketed as flexible, hybrid or largely online. Before enrolling in anything that lets you spend most of the year at home, get the residency requirement in writing from the university and measure it against the table above.
How the equivalency application works
Applications are submitted electronically through the Ministry’s portal at rceapp.mohe.gov.jo, with documents uploaded and the fee paid online. Published fees are 50 JD for a bachelor’s degree, 75 JD for a master’s and 100 JD for a doctorate for Jordanians, and 150, 225 and 300 JD respectively for non-Jordanians.
Your certificates will also need authentication before they are accepted — the chain usually runs through the awarding country’s authorities, the Jordanian embassy there, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Amman. Start collecting these while you are still in the country of study; it is far harder to do from Jordan afterwards.
Gate two: being allowed to practise
For regulated professions, a recognised degree is the entry ticket to a further process, not the end of one.
- Medicine. The Jordan Medical Council governs licensing and postgraduate certification for doctors. See studying medicine abroad and practising in Jordan.
- Engineering. The Jordan Engineers Association publishes separate registration conditions for Jordanians who graduated from Arab and foreign universities. See what the Ministry and the Association each require.
- Dentistry. A licence through the Ministry of Health and membership of the Jordanian Dental Association — see a dentistry degree from abroad.
- Pharmacy. A Ministry of Health licence and membership of the Jordan Pharmacists Association — see a pharmacy degree from abroad.
- Nursing and law each have their own association or council, with their own registration steps.
Each body sets its own requirements and changes them from time to time. Confirm the current conditions with the body itself before you choose a university, not after you graduate from one.
The checks to make before you pay a deposit
- Find the university on the Ministry’s recognised list yourself, and take a dated screenshot.
- Compare your Tawjihi average with the minimum for that specialisation, using the table above.
- Ask the university, in writing, how many months per year you must be physically on campus.
- If the profession is regulated, read the licensing body’s conditions for foreign graduates.
- Ask anyone advising you which of these four they have checked for your case, and to show you.
GESCO runs these checks before we place a student, and we will tell you when a university you like does not clear them. It is the least comfortable conversation in this business and the one that saves families the most money.
If you will work in the Gulf
Recognition in Jordan does not travel. Each country decides for itself, and the conditions differ enough to change which programme you should choose: see the Saudi rules, which rule out three-year bachelor’s degrees without a foundation year and equivalence professional doctorates at bachelor’s level, and the Kuwaiti process, which depends on documents certified by the cultural office while you are still abroad. Where a student may work in more than one country, plan to the stricter set of rules.
Sources and currency
The conditions and figures on this page come from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Recognition and Certificates Equivalency Directorate, checked on 6 September 2026: frequently asked questions, instructions and regulations, and the recognised universities list. Rules change. Verify against the Ministry before making a decision, and treat this page as a guide to what to ask, not as a substitute for the Ministry’s own answer.