EGYPT: Government axes 'non-regular' student system

A recent decision by Egypt's Ministry of Higher Education has landed Fathi Mokhtar, a 45-year-old employee at a telecommunications company in Cairo, in a dilemma. Over the past two years, Mokhtar has been studying commerce at Cairo University, a prestigious public institution. He was registered under a 'non-regular' system, which allows students to pursue studies without having to attend classes regularly.

"This system suits me and thousands of students who want to complete their university education while they have jobs," said Mokhtar. "The cost of this system is affordable compared to open education fees."

But recently Minister of Education Hani Helal declared that the system, initiated in Egypt in the early 1970s, had been cancelled starting from the next academic year. He said this was part of a wider plan to upgrade the quality of higher education.

"This move deals a blow to the educational hopes and budgets of thousands of employees like me," complained Mokhtar, a father of four, adding that he would now have no option but to apply for open education which costs at least LE1,500 (around $300) against the LE450 he paid for 'non-regular' studies.

"Why should the decision to abrogate this system be taken so suddenly?"

But Salwa el-Ghareeb, chair of the Higher Council for Universities responsible for drafting higher education policy, said the controversial decision was taken after thorough investigation.

"The system added to over-crowding of classes at governmental universities. For though students admitted under the system were supposed to attend lectures only once a week, many of them often showed up in classrooms, thereby adding to class density," she said.

According to el-Ghareeb, 'non-regular' student numbers reached 70,000 at Egypt's 18 government-run universities last year. She said new alternatives had been devised to replace the cancelled system. They included promoting open education and creating technology colleges in industrialised zones to encourage employees to pursue education there.

However Shaheen Raslan, a psychological counseling professor at Cairo University, argued that the decision should have first been suggested to universities to study and offer opinion.

He said the move mainly benefited private universities and the open education system. "Those [private] institutions levy exorbitant charges on students. Their fees cannot be afforded by people who used to depend on the non-regular studies system."

Since the 1990s, fee-paying private universities have sprung up in this country of 80 million people, around 40% of whom live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

To Mohamed Youssef, President of Beni Sueif, a nascent public university in southern Egypt, canceling the non-regular studies system is the best way to cut over-sized classes in the schools of law, commerce and arts where it was applied.

"Students admitted on the basis of this system used to account for 60% of the overall students enrolled in those schools," he explained. Class density would now drop from up to 3,000 students to around 200 in each lecture hall, which would help improve education quality.

Youssef added that students who would have to shift to the open education system but could not afford its fees, would be assisted through support funds set up by public universities. A project was underway to develop the open education system in order to qualify students in a wider range of specializations than those offered by the 'non-regular' system, providing more diversified skills for the market.