Free Public Education in Egypt for the happy few

    In September 2014, Egyptian president Abd el-Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree to establish the advisory council of Egypt's scientists and experts, a presidential board that aims to provide advisory opinion on improving education and scientific research. The board announced that it is “exploring to implement a new system for free education in the next academic year.” Made of 11 members, the council is the first of its kind and all of its members are university professors: five of them are professors at the American University of Cairo, while the others work as language professors in Egypt’s public universities and research institutions. The recent proposal specifically deals with higher education and stipulates that enlistment in the 20 public universities in Egypt would give scholarships to the accepted students. This guarantees fully free education for excellent students granted they achieve good results during the academic year. In case students don’t get good results, they will have to pay part of the tuition on their own, and students who fail will have to pay the entire tuition fee. The proposal adds that the scholarship reform will financially help the universities by providing them with the money necessary for buying modern technology.