KUWAIT: Kuwait University (KU) rejected demands to reduce the minimum GPA average for admission in its colleges during the next academic year. The call to drop down the minimum GPA required for high school graduates to be entitled for KU admission came after the opening of its Shadadiya campus, which can take a larger number of students. The minimum GPA was raised in recent years based on claims that KU's old buildings could not take more than 7,000 new students a year.
Some MPs had reportedly made requests with Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Hamed Al-Azmi to issue a decision to increase the number of general secondary graduates accepted into KU to more than 7,000, and admit all applicants, suggesting that this can be made possible by simply reducing the GPA requirements.

When the source was asked about the possibility of increasing the number of expatriate students, they said the university continues its policy of accepting the top 10 graduates in the science and arts divisions, the education minister scholarships, diplomatic missions, seats as decided by the university, in addition to expatriate children of Kuwaiti women.

In other news, several educational allied services employees staged a sit-in at the Education Ministry's building in protest of being left out of bonuses that were approved for education ministry employees, and warned they may give up supervisory jobs. Protesters rejected what they described as "marginalization of allied educational jobs," and being not included in the financial raise that was approved by the Civil Service Council.

By A Saleh