RIYADH: The University of Shaqra, about 190 km northwest of Riyadh, has responded to reports in a section of the media that the employment contracts for 52 Jordanian faculty members had been canceled.

In a statement, the university said that a year ago it sent a committee to Jordan to recruit faculty for the academic year 2015/16 and that the committee interviewed a number of candidates.

Those selected after interviewing were told that the procedures relating to their final recruitment would be made in Shaqra upon their arrival before the beginning of the new academic year. Three months after the interviews, the university was instructed by the Ministry of Finance to cut expenditures and stop external recruitment, the statement said.

Those who had been accepted for employment were told not to come to the Kingdom. “We requested the embassy to notify those who had been initially selected not to come to the Kingdom because it was not possible to go further in the employment process. We apologized to them for the inconvenience and they expressed understanding of the university’s position.”

The university said that some of the recruited faculty had arrived on the campus and requested the completion of their employment formalities.

“We apologized to them for not being able to hire them because of developments beyond our control. The university did compensate them for the money they had spent on travel and accommodation and so the problem was solved,” said the university.

The local media reported that some of the Jordanian faculty members had decided to sue the university for declining employment after giving employment promises resulting in their coming to the Kingdom and then finding that there were no jobs.

Arab News contacted the labor attache at the Jordanian Embassy to confirm or deny the reports but there was no response.