One step towards improving the country's higher ed sector: The Higher Education Ministry has taken an important step towards pushing the country’s higher education sector to the next level through the creation of a new investment arm for Egypt’s higher education sector. The new body aims to serve the government’s goals of improving the country’s wider education system, pushing towards internationalizing its higher education, increasing educational tourism, and making Egypt a regional center for educational services.

The game plan? The government plans to offer a fresh batch of incentives, increasepartnerships with international universities, and boost the private sector’s role, all through its new investment arm, according to a statement from the Higher Education Ministry.

Introducing the USDA: The new investment arm — dubbed the University Support andDevelopment Authority (USDA) — replaces the National and Technological Universities Authority. The government last year announced the authority’s rebrand, saying that the new entity better aligns with the government’s current goals for the higher education sector.

The USDA held its first ever board meeting last Monday, where it outlined some of its tasksand goals, which include:

• Acting as an investment arm for the higher education sector;
• Working on a plan to set up more national and technological universities;
• Increasing partnerships with international universities from different countries;
• Providing buildings for foreign universities looking to set up shop in Egypt;
• Managing the assets owned by the Higher Education Ministry and ensuring they make returns;
• Providing the necessary facilities to investors in the fields of higher education and scientific research.

USDA + SFE: The authority agreed to work with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) to developnew public-private partnerships in the education sector, bring in investments, and restructure state-owned assets to maximize returns. The two entities will also work together to establish joint ventures with the goal of setting up new technological universities and local branches of foreign universities.

Also during its first board meeting: The authority presented a number of offers forinvestments in higher education and scientific research.

A stable exchange rate is the key to more education investments, Universities of Canada in Egypt President Magdy El Kady tells us. Stabilizing the exchange rate will push more foreign universities to set up shop in Egypt, he added.

The goal is to change the perception of the education system: The government’s main goal is to change how the country’s education system is viewed — from a purely service perspective to an investment perspective — sources at the Higher Education Ministry told us.

A number of incentives are being looked into, which include offering land plots at reducedprices and financing facilities, Ahram Canadian University President Seddik Abdel Salam Tawfik tells us.

WHERE DO THINGS CURRENTLY STAND-

Higher education in Egypt at a glance: There are currently 93 universities in Egypt —between public, private, international, nonprofit national, and technological universities — up from 65 universities in 2021, according to figures shared by the Supreme Council of Universities.

Despite this recent surge of investments in the sector, there’s room for more: GivenEgypt’s large youth population, the country’s education sector is attractive for investors, as the market is still not saturated, sources at the Higher Education Ministry tell us.

But, we need more higher ed investments: Egypt’s higher education sector needs moreinvestments in efforts to increase local enrollment rates, Tawfik tells us. There remains a gap between supply and demand, taking into account that the population increases by 1-1.5 mn a year, which translates into an increasing demand for education.

Egypt is a particularly attractive market for education investment due to the size of itspopulation, the rate at which the population is increasing, high education spending, and high international ranking, Tawfik added.

Untapped potential: Egyptian families collectively spend about EGP 20 bn annually on educating their children abroad, according to previous estimates by the Higher Education Ministry in 2020. While there are no up-to-date statistics on what that number is now, it is still a substantial amount of money spent annually, our sources tell us.

WE NEED MORE UNIS, BUT WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY-

Quantity without quality is useless: The government needs to press pause on granting newuniversity licenses for a two-year period so that it can work on boosting the quality of the programs offered by the country’s universities, Badr University President Mostafa Kamal told Enterprise. The higher education sector’s fast-paced growth and the increased availability of different programs has necessitated a pause that would allow new universities to work on the quality of their programs to improve their rankings, he added.

By the numbers:There’s only one university for every 1 mn people in Egypt, Nahda University President Hossam El Mallahi told us, explaining that demand will continue to grow.

Your top education stories for the week:

• Wycombe Abbey’s New Capital branch will open its admission door tomorrow. Wecaught up with the school’s international director, Jason Gregory, last month. (Statement, pdf)
• Egyptian Media Production City is looking into setting up a media academy to complement its International Academy For Engineering & Media Science. (EGX disclosure, pdf)
• Al Habtoor to set up schools in Cairo? Emirati businessman and CEO of Al Habtoor Group Khalaf Al Habtoor intends to set up one or two schools in Cairo.