Global Spotlight: Egypt
Over the past decade, enrollment in higher education in Egypt has been steadily increasing by 1 to 3 percent each year, with the most recent growth numbers hitting 4 percent between the 2017–18 and 2018–19 academic years. One reason behind this uptick: the Egyptian government’s Egypt Vision 2030, a program launched in 2014 to rejuvenate the country’s economy and global status by 2030. With a focus on overhauling the educational system, including higher education, these reforms intend to fundamentally change the way Egyptians perceive education.
To help realize this vision, the Egyptian government accepted a $500 million loan in 2018; funds are currently being used to revive curricula through digital media implementation and an “open book” form of examination. One long-term goal is to increase students’ critical thinking skills, an area of needed improvement identified in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2019. The government hopes that the resulting mindset shift will boost enrollments at Egyptian institutions, as well as encourage Egyptian students to pursue higher education both at home and abroad.
By the numbers:
971: Year that Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the oldest university in Egypt and one of the most prestigious Islamic universities in the world, was founded.
2.4 million: Number of students enrolled in public and private universities in Egypt during the 2018–19 academic year.
19: Number of Egyptian universities that were included in the 2019 Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings of the top 1,200 universities in the world, a
