Even though Egypt has known quality education in private schools for centuries on end, private universities are relatively new to the scene
Anyone who lives in Egypt realises that quality higher education is in short supply, a long-standing problem in Egypt. Indifference on the part of the State, chronic lack of funds and appropriate technology, as well as the absence of sound planning are among the reasons for the decline of the service. Not one Egyptian university—including the mother university, Cairo—has managed to occupy an advanced position on the world scale. They come at the tail end of lists at best, while most of the time they are not even classified.
Blow to equal opportunity
Private universities, however, local and foreign, are springing up on the Egyptian scene, offering a glimmer of hope that young people who can afford it may find adequate higher education. Given the fact that many such universities receive financial support from the business sector, they are better able—compared to State universities which normally operate on limited funds—to offer advanced facilities and attract eminent professors.
Yet private universities have become the target of stinging accusations of placing profits ahead of educational excellence. To say nothing of the prevalent culture in Egypt which considers their very existence a blow to equal opportunity, since better education is available for whoever is able to pay the price while those who lack the means should make do with inferior education. With a view to the huge significance of the issue, Watani took it upon its shoulders to explore the variety of views on the topic.
Space for improvement
The private sector’s contribution to the field of education must be conditional on its commitment to guarantee a minimum standard of quality, National Democratic Party Policies Committee member Hussam Badrawi , and chairman of the party’s education committee believes. Private education should also be committed to offer financial aid to competent students who cannot afford high tuition fees, he says. Moreover, Dr Badrawi says, public universities should be aided to become more independent financially and more competent on all fronts.
Dr Badrawi points out a host of allegations against the performance of private universities: they make no significant contribution to research; the standard of educational service is modest in some cases; and some universities do not abide by the rules governing the number of students enrolled, the minimum scores required to attend the university and fairness of exam results. Despite these problems, Dr Badrawi believes we should build on the positive aspects and correct the faults. He proposes a number of measures to improve private university education: widening the ownership base, attaining independent management; re-formulating the relationship between private universities and the Ministry of Higher Education in a way that guarantees the former’s commitment to the rules set by the latter, and enhancing democratic practices via student unions and activity groups. Finally, Dr Badrawi says, the universities’ budgets should be checked by credible auditing firms to make sure that allocations are directed to the right channels.
Limited effect
Magdi Qassem, head of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE), says the decision to establish NAQAAE was taken out of a willingness to improve the standard of Egyptian education and bring it up to an international scale. “NAQAAE,” he elaborated, “is an independent body and it is directly affiliated to the Council of Ministers”. Even though Dr Qassem admits that private universities have brought about a leap forward in terms of the number of universities in Egypt, he voices reservations about the argument that private universities could act as the locomotive that would pull Egyptian education out of the doldrums. “The impact of private universities will remain more or less minor since the number of students they accommodate is limited,” he says. “If we are serious in our pursuit to develop Egyptian education, public higher education has to be enlarged and improved.”
Dr Qassem believes that the Japanese University of Science and Technology in Burg al-Arab southwest of Alexandria is the best example of a partnership between Egypt and a foreign country in the area of education. Japan, he says, has spared no effort to provide technical and scientific support to its Egyptian partners.
Yet Dr Qassem finds one strong privilege in a foreign university education: it secures better job opportunities to graduates.
Partnerships
“There is only one ‘real’ foreign university in Egypt,” Professor of Mathematics at the Faculty of Engineering at Menoufiya University Emil Sobhi Shukrallah says, “that is the American University in Cairo (AUC).” AUC, he explains, is the only university in Egypt that is independent of the Ministry of Higher Education. Other universities usually termed ‘foreign’, such as the German, French and Canadian universities, are privately established out of partnerships between Egyptian universities and universities abroad, and are subject to the ministry’s supervision.
Dr Shukrallah adds that “private and public universities provide the same product, but students in private universities are less qualified because these universities accept students with lower scores. Moreover, professors there are somehow accountable to the students who can prevent a professor from teaching if they convince the management that he or she is inept.”
When it comes to the quality of education in Egypt, Dr Shukrallah believes that graduates from public, private, or foreign universities, are far less qualified compared with their counterparts a generation or two ago. Dr Shukrallah admits that Egypt does not need such great numbers of university graduates. Rather, he says, we need to upgrade technical education and promote a culture respecting hard work and proficiency.
Profit-oriented
Former head of the Sadat Academy Hamdi Abdel-Azim lashes out at private higher education. “Private universities are profit-oriented institutions with high tuition fees,” he says. “The quality of education is not a priority there.” “The very essence of private higher education undermines the principle of equal opportunity which public education was meant to guarantee.
Mohamed Abdel-Mordi, chairman of the biology department at Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST), says the quality of education provided by private universities differs from one to another. As for job opportunities, he indicates that a high proportion of students are non-Egyptians, so many of them leave after graduation.
Different rules
Finally, Watani sounded the students themselves on their learning experiences. Mohamed Hassan, a student at 6th October University, said private universities enabled students to study what they wished freely as they did not have to abide by rules stipulating minimum scores. However, he said, these universities disproportionately raised tuition fees on a yearly basis. The government had to interfere and put a limit to these practices, he said.
Fahd al-Samaraie, a Kuwaiti student also at 6th October University, said professors in private universities dealt with students in a more respectful manner compared with those in public institutions. His colleague Mohamed Omar found that cronyism was one of the major defects of private universities. “Surprisingly,” he added, “in some cases there are students who attend classes only a few days before the exams, but they still get high marks.”
MUST student Rami Bakr offers another advantage of private universities with the suggestion that they offer better job opportunities than public ones.
WATANI International
25 July 2010