In recent years, the Government of Egypt has driven major reforms for modernising the country. However, Egypt's higher education system has remained largely unchanged and without fundamental reform of the sector the country will face difficulties in improving its competitiveness. This independent review of Egypt's higher education system focuses on areas in need of attention by policy makers and stakeholders, including system steering and institutional governance; student access to higher education; educational quality and effectiveness; research, development and innovation; and finance. It contains an analysis of the system and valuable recommendations which, taken together, represent a major programme of structural and cultural reform of Egyptian higher education over the decade to 2020.
Author(s): OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Edition: Pap/Cdr
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 308
Foreword......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 7
Acronyms......Page 11
Executive Summary......Page 15
Purpose and scope of the exercise......Page 45
Country Background Report......Page 46
Caveats......Page 47
Definitions of tertiary education programmes......Page 48
Economic development......Page 53
Human development......Page 55
Population......Page 57
Workforce......Page 58
Education system......Page 62
Technical and vocational education......Page 63
TVET and the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)......Page 64
In-service training......Page 65
Higher education......Page 66
Main findings and conclusions......Page 68
Overview......Page 71
The Government’s Five-year Plan......Page 72
Accommodating demographic growth......Page 74
Strategic choices for higher education......Page 76
Recommendations......Page 78
Introduction......Page 81
Policy framework......Page 82
System steering in Egypt......Page 94
Governance of the TVET sector......Page 97
Institutional governance reform in Egypt......Page 106
Main findings and conclusions......Page 124
Recommendations......Page 126
Policy framework......Page 137
Where should decisions about student admissions be made?......Page 139
What are the criteria by which student admission decisions should be made?......Page 141
Concerns about the current system for admission to higher education in Egypt......Page 144
Assessment of proposed changes to the higher education admissions system......Page 150
Main findings and conclusions......Page 156
Recommendations......Page 157
Annex 5A. A Typology of Admission Policies Worldwide......Page 159
Policy framework......Page 163
The quality of Egyptian higher education......Page 167
Quality of technical and vocational education and training......Page 168
TVET qualification standards......Page 169
Specific observations regarding the quality of higher education......Page 171
Educational inputs......Page 172
Quality of the educational process......Page 177
The effectiveness of higher education for Egypt’s labour market......Page 183
Internationalisation of Egyptian higher education......Page 186
International student mobility......Page 190
Academic staff mobility......Page 195
International dimension in the curriculum......Page 196
Capacity to support internationalisation......Page 197
Quality assurance and improvement initiatives in Egypt......Page 198
National qualifications framework......Page 203
Main findings and conclusions......Page 204
Recommendations......Page 209
The Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) framework......Page 215
Readiness for the knowledge economy: the knowledge economy index......Page 220
The structure and organisation of the RDI system in Egypt......Page 221
Comparative analysis of Egypt’s performance in RDI......Page 229
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of Egypt’s RDI system......Page 237
Lessons from international experience......Page 243
Restructuring the RDI system and its institutions......Page 244
The challenges of priority setting in RDI......Page 249
Ensuring the long term sustainability of public funding of RDI......Page 251
Energising the RDI agenda......Page 252
Evaluation and assessment of funded RDI initiatives......Page 253
Main findings and conclusions......Page 255
Recommendations......Page 256
Introduction......Page 259
Resource mobilisation......Page 260
Financing technical and vocational education and training......Page 265
Private funding of higher education......Page 268
Cost-sharing......Page 269
Research funding......Page 272
Formulating a sustainable funding strategy......Page 274
Resource allocation......Page 280
Resource utilisation......Page 285
Equity aspects......Page 290
Main findings and conclusions......Page 294
Recommendations......Page 295
Annex 8A. Resource Diversification Matrix for Public Tertiary Institutions by Category and Source of Income......Page 297
Progressing reform in Egyptian higher education......Page 301
Selection of implementation strategy......Page 302
An agenda of initial initiatives......Page 304
Informing the debate......Page 307
Recommendations......Page 308
