Student Services:

The University provides extracurricular activities for its students, the most important of which are:

Free Education:

Education is free, and students pay only token tuition fees.

 Dormitories:

At a token price, the University provides proper residence for a number of students, and this number is constantly growing. In 1983-1984, the number of occupied beds totaled 1448, 2000 in 1984-1985, and 3619 in 1994-1995. In 1997-1998 the number of occupied beds became /3800/ and the dormitories have increased to /10/. It has playgrounds, two centers for national and international communications. The dormitories have a common cafeteria and an eatery that can seat 700 students. The University is also in the process of building more residential units in order to reach a prospective capacity of 6000 beds.

 The Student Credit Union:

This bank offers long-term loans to students at a token interest rate of 1%. These loans are to be paid back once the student graduates and finds a job. The bank also provides financial assistance to needy students.

 Rewards for the Distinguished:

In memory of Damascus University’s graduate, Martyer Engineer Bassel Hafez Al-Assad, Decree No. /14/ was issued. It granted a group of top students a distinction certificate and a financial reward as follows:

-                The president of the University grants the following:

A. The top three graduates of each class of all departments of the university receive “Martyr Bassel Al-Assad Academic Distinction Certificate” in addition to financial reward of 15.000 S. P. for the first, 13.500 S. P. for the second, and 12.000 S. P. for the third, on the condition that the student’s annual average is above 70%. In case more than one student have the same annual average of the third student, each one of them receives the same financial reward which is granted to the student.

B. The top graduate will be rewarded “Martyr Bassel Al-Assad’s Graduation –with- a Distinction Certificate” in addition to a financial reward of 50.000 S. P., on the condition that the graduation average is above 70%. The top graduate is the student who has obtained the highest graduation average as per the results of both semisters, including reset exams of the same year.

C. Distinction certificate and financial rewards are offered in the year following the student’s distinction.

This decree was implemented as from 1993/1994.

 Other Facilities and Services:

These include a post office, a consumer goods store, cafeteria, student eateries, and student social, sport, and artistic activities.

 University Textbooks:

The University provides textbooks at the price of cost of printing, purchasing them from the other universities of the country, or of buying them directly from the market.

Instructions dictate that each course should be accompanied by a book, regardless to student numbers.

5% of all printed books are given away for free.

5% of the total number of printed copies is sent as presents or exchanged with other institutions, commissions or universities both inside the country or abroad.

The commission for books participates in various exhibitions in Syria or in other Arabic countries in compliance with the instructions of the Ministry of Higher Education.

The development of the numbers of printed books:

Since its outset (1981-1982) the commission for books has printed 936 books. The total number of copies printed is 1241450. This is shown in the following chart:

A quick reading of the chart shows that the academic year 1981-1982, which is when the Academic Textbook Production Committee began its work, witnessed the publication of 107 textbooks to cover the needs of the various faculties of the University for four years.