Universities adopt academic credit-hour system

Al-Fanar Media 04 July 2021

The Egyptian government has approved draft legislation enabling public universities to set the time required for a student to graduate in hours rather than academic years. Officials say this will allow some students to complete their degrees in three years instead of four and so reduce the cost of higher education to the state, writes Tarek Abd El-Galil for Al-Fanar Media.

The credit-hour system has been applied in some disciplines since 2011, but not in conformity with the law. The Supreme Council of Universities has begun work to amend regulations so the new system can apply to all students starting their studies in the next academic year, 2021–22.

“This historic amendment gives … students the opportunity to graduate immediately after they fulfil the number of credit hours required,” Adel Abdel Ghaffar, the media advisor to the minister of higher education and scientific research, said in a phone call. The new system will also give students the freedom to choose their courses and professors in each semester separately, and allows them to select subjects from outside their college’s specialisation in order to acquire skills that were not previously available to them.
Full report on the Al-Fanar Media site

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