Court battle as open learning graduates denied bar admission

Thousands of Egyptian university graduates who have studied under the open learning system are locked in a court dispute with the Egyptian Bar Association after the body refused to license them, allegedly due to their low-quality education.

Obtaining a licence from the independent Bar Association – Egypt’s highest body regulating the affairs of the legal profession – is obligatory to work as a lawyer in Egypt.

The head of the Bar Association, Sameh Ashour, defended the association’s view.

“Open education is a futile system, the aim of which is to collect money [from enrollees] in return for offering nominal degrees,” Ashour said, as he made his case in court this month.

“The Bar Association will not turn into a garage for open education graduates whose standards are weak,” he said.

Open learning system

The long-running row has seen several twists and turns. Open learning started in Egypt in 1987, aimed at assisting people who failed to meet the minimum required marks to qualify for regular university courses.

Under the system, the non-regular students, most of whom are working, are allowed to apply to schools of law, arts and mass communication at state-run universities. They pay fees, with the amount depending on their majors.

Not all state universities provide open education courses, which are specially designed to suit non-regular students as most have jobs.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands have graduated from these schools amid claims from some professional associations that the quality of their education is inferior to that of regular universities.

Court challenges

After the Bar Association refused to recognise them, several open learning law graduates challenged the association in court, which initially ruled in their favour in 2014. But the association stood by its stance, arguing that it abided by the law.

“The Bar Association does not have a hostile position against open education graduates,” Salah Sulaiman, a member of the association’s board, said.

“We just apply the law, as the higher education ministry has recently issued a decree considering certificates [degrees] awarded to these graduates as certificates of legal studies, which do not amount to the bachelor of law,” he told the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

“In addition, there are other professional unions, which refuse to admit open education graduates,” Sulaiman said.

Opposing view

However the graduates see the issue differently.

“We have the legal right to be registered at the Bar Association,” said Amer Hussein, who heads a grouping of open education graduates.

Hussein cited a 2011 decree made by the Supreme Council of Universities, a state agency in charge of academic policies in Egypt.

“This decree makes the open education certificates equivalent to degrees obtained by regular students. This decree is still valid,” Hussein said.

“Moreover, some open education graduates who studied law had previously been licensed by the Bar Association. It does not make sense that some graduates were admitted in the past while the new ones aren’t. We will not give in.”

Meanwhile no comment has been forthcoming from higher education authorities as the court dispute heats up.

Last month, a court in Cairo sentenced the head of the Bar Association to two years in prison and ordered him to pay bail of EGP20,000 (US$1,100) pending an appeal.

The court convicted him of failing to comply with an earlier ruling that gave open learning graduates the right to be licensed by the Bar Association. The verdict was revoked on appeal earlier this month.

Some open education graduates have said they will file a new lawsuit, signalling the start of a protracted court battle.

Ending the stalemate

Some academics have, meanwhile, made suggestions to end the stand-off.

“The universities which have graduated these students are a part of the problem,” said Mahmud Khalil, a journalism professor at state-run Cairo University, in a press report.

“University officials should sit down with officials at professional unions in order to come up with a solution that will guarantee meeting the conditions set by these unions for their members and at the same time safeguarding the rights of these graduates,” Khalil wrote in the independent newspaper Al Watan.