Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Ministry of Higher Education on Saturday announced the results of the unified admission to Jordanian public universities for the 2013/2014 academic year.

42,715 recent Tawjihi graduates were accepted into various faculties at Jordanian public universities for the upcoming academic year, Minister of Higher Education Amin Mahmoud announced during a press conference on Saturday.

Mahmoud noted that faculties of Medicine in public universities accepted 580 students, nearly doubling the number of accepted students into medicine programs compared to previous years.

Out of the 42,715 students admitted into public universities, the minister noted that 20 percent of them were admitted on the basis of "Makrumah" scholarships for children of military service personnel, 5 percent of teachers' Makrumah, 350 students were admitted on the quota reserved for students from refugee camps.

The minister noted that 5 percent of the students admitted into public universities received their high school Tawjihi (General Secondary School Examination Certificate) from outside Jordan.

The results of the unified admission were published on the Ministry's official website, yet many students reported being unable to access the site that witnessed heavy traffic upon the announcement of the results.

A reported hackers attack on the main unified admissions website of the Ministry of Higher Education caused a complete shut down of the site Saturday afternoon, Ammon News learned.

The hacking attack began nearly an hour before the announcement, with the electronic attack affecting the site of the National Information Technology Center (NITC).

All websites related to the NITC network were down as specialists were working to recover the site, head of the Unified Admissions Committee Ghalib Hourani said during the press conference.