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VIII. Institutional Restrictions and Proposed Reforms

Egyptian academics suffer not only from direct repression and self-censorship but also, as many are quick to point out, from institutional restrictions on quality education. These restrictions stem from the structure of the state university system and matters under control of the Ministry of Higher Education. While such problems themselves do not directly violate rights, they demoralize members of the academy and compel them to turn elsewhere for personal and professional satisfaction.377 In recent years, both the Egyptian state and international organizations have recognized these educational problems and offered recommendations to ameliorate them.

Violations of University Autonomy: Professors and Promotions

State control of appointment and promotion governs professional advancement in Egyptian universities. This violation of university autonomy discourages individual initiative and provides disincentives for independent thought. Instead of having students interested in academia apply to graduate programs, the top few graduates in every class receive appointments as lecturers. “Once you’re tapped [for a professorship] that’s what you’ll become,” said Fulbright director Ann Radwan.378 In the English Department at Cairo University, for example, top students become “junior assistants” who teach English to non-majors.379 They continue to teach while they get their master’s and Ph.D. and receive state assistance for research related to their thesis and dissertation. Those who finish their doctorates receive professorial appointments.

Promotion at all levels is close to automatic provided one does not stray too far into red line areas. “If you live long enough, you’ll become full professor,” Radwan said.380 The progression moves from assistant to lecturer, once the Ph.D. is complete. Usually lecturers become assistant professors after five years, associates after ten years, and full professors after fifteen years.381 “Cases in which promotion is a problem or delayed are rare,” Hamzawy said. “They are related to highly controversial issues like Abu Zaid.”382 Others agreed that the Abu Zaid case was an aberration. According to el-Bahrawy, “In the case of Abu Zaid, there were some religious and political issues that the committee didn’t like.”383 Although promotion is rarely denied, the system involves government intrusions on university autonomy.

Promotion depends on tailoring research to state-imposed standards rather than increasing knowledge in the field. “If you are a master’s student, you have to publish a certain number of research [articles] to get promoted. . . . Supervisors have to agree with what you’re saying and choose the subject,” Seif El Dawla said.384 A national review committee, instead of a panel of university peers, makes decisions on professorial promotions. It judges cases based on twenty-five percent department performance (including teaching and committee work) and seventy-five percent research. Under these circumstances, research has become primarily a means to an end. “Little is done for the sake of research. It has a function, to get a promotion or degree,” Seif El Dawla said.385 State control of research at all levels has given professors more reason to fear straying into controversial red line areas and hindered innovation in Egyptian scholarship.

For those who follow the rules, professorial promotion is relatively automatic, but appointment to an administrative position is more narrowly restricted to supporters of the Mubarak government. El-Bahrawy said, “In administrative positions, political views affect [promotion] 200 percent.”386 This process interferes with academic freedom by limiting advancement opportunities for outspoken professors. If professors want to be deans someday, they must work with the government and avoid any controversial research. “On the whole, the government has great respect for courageous and independent and competent professors. They might express displeasure but no further. But [these professors] won’t become deans or rectors,” al-Sayyid explained.387 This appointment system punishes independent thought and puts more intellectually conservative academics in leadership positions.

Lack of Choice: Student Apathy and Frustration

The national universities give students few choices in their education. When high school students graduate from secondary school, they take an exam that determines which university and which faculty they will go to. They have the option of taking the science or humanities exam, but otherwise their test scores determine their future. “If you get good grades, you go to the Faculty of Medicine no matter what you want to do. It’s command education,” Radwan said.388 Because Egyptian students are not free to choose which faculty they enroll in, they do not necessarily study the subjects that most interest them and are often less committed to the learning process.

Once at university, students find education very rigid. The curriculum is largely standardized, and they have virtually no electives. Class sizes are huge and teaching is done primarily in lectures. At Cairo University, the Faculties of Law and Commerce commonly have two thousand students per class.389 Many students said they skip class and just take the exams at the end of the semester. “The whole process of education is based mainly on learning by heart,” said Seif El Dawla.390 If students fail a course, they have to take it again before moving on to the next year of college, thus delaying the rest of their education. The impersonal character of the university system, standardized curriculum, and lack of class discussion dampen enthusiasm for learning.

While a rigid educational system is not uncommon in certain parts of the world, Egyptian students repeatedly expressed frustration. `Ain Shams student Mustafa, who was having difficulty interpreting Machiavelli, said her professor told her, “Just memorize it, don’t understand.” She added, “You can’t challenge any doctor [of philosophy].”391 Muhammad Faruq said he feels stifled by the system. “The whole educational system doesn’t encourage creativity.  It’s a way of thinking, way of upbringing. It doesn’t allow for different points of view. . . . We memorize like parrots. If you don’t write exactly what the professor says, you don’t get good grades,” Faruq said.392 He contrasted the national university system to AUC where students can choose courses and research topics. “It helps to make students feel like humans. Their point of view is important. It helps to introduce better humans into society.”393 Nadir Muhammad said students in the state universities have to make an effort to find the good professors and “spark debate” in the classroom.394 The administration, however, sometimes cuts such professors off from their students. “Professors are fixed in their jobs like tenure, but if they dissent, they give him a salary but won’t let him teach, or only [for] a few hours, or only [at a] post-graduate level,” the al-Ahram journalist said.395 Rather than serve as intellectual role models for students, professors often become part of the state’s repressive system.

Budgetary Burdens

Budget limitations exacerbate the other institutional restrictions on Egyptian intellectual life. Although the university’s budget has increased in recent years, its resources are still insufficient. Minister of Higher Education Shehab said his ministry’s budget, which was 4.7 billion LE (about $763 million) in 2003, is inadequate.396 “Of course it’s not enough for the number of students, but when you compare to twenty years ago, it was 283 million LE [$45.9 million]. The government is giving more but still not enough,” the minister said.397

Professors

Professors frequently complain about insufficient salaries. Al-Sayyid, a full professor at Cairo University, makes 1,800 LE, or $292, per month.398 He supplements this income by teaching at AUC and serving as director of the Center for the Study of Developing Countries at Cairo University.399 El-Bahrawy, a full professor in Cairo University’s Arab Language and Literature Department, makes 2,000 LE, or $325, per month. He said his base salary is much less—about 300 LE, or $49—but it is supplemented with money for administrative work and thesis advising.400 An `Ain Shams professor who is on leave at a private university described the financial situation as “devastating.” “Salaries are not at a human level. The basic salary is embarrassingly funny. An associate professor makes not more than 500 LE [$81] a month. You never exceed 2,000 LE,” she said.401 When teaching at `Ain Shams, she said she “always had to look for extra work to do. I needed another [means] of living.”402 A lecturer in Cairo University’s Faculty of Arts reported that salaries are very small compared to those at private universities or in other fields. “The decision to remain in the university is not an easy one to make,” she said.403

The low salaries affect the quality of teaching and research in Egypt. Many professors increase their earnings by selling books or photocopied packets to students. They prefer large classes because they can make more money and in the process increase the student-faculty ratio. “It’s not what they can teach them, it’s what they can sell them,” said Nadia Touba of Alexandria University. “It’s the result of the economic circumstances here.”404 The salary problem has affected scholarship because many professors no longer prioritize research. They use their free time to teach at private universities or to take high-paying consultancies. “They work in the morning in national universities, then go to private universities to work. Therefore there is no time to do academic research,” el-Bahrawysaid.405 Earning enough money, not teaching and scholarship, is the main goal of many professors.

Dissatisfaction with salaries has caused an exodus of Egyptian academics to the Gulf states where salaries are significantly higher. “The door is open to thousands of professors to work in the Gulf,” el-Bahrawy said.406 This emigration deprives Egypt of some of its homegrown academics. Those who do return bring back the region’s more socially, intellectually, and religiously conservative attitudes. “Some university professors who go to the Gulf come back to spread the culture of the Gulf to their students,” the al-Ahram journalist said. “The first to separate girls and boys in lectures were from Saudi Arabia.”407 Such imported practices move Egypt even further from a system of education that respects and protects academic freedom.

Students

Although advanced education in Egypt is state-funded, students complain about the need for more financial support. First, many students find they cannot afford textbooks. They try to use cheaper photocopied versions, but some professors who depend on book royalties to supplement their meager income will compel their students to buy their books. They ask the bookstore to keep track of who purchases books and penalize students with bad grades if they are not on the list.408 “You have to buy books [inside campus] because professors intimidate students. Most students cannot afford them,” Murtada said.409 Second, although university education is free in principle, the universities do charge a small annual fee of about 80 LE, or $13, which can be difficult for poor students. The state has no system of financial aid to help low-income students cover the costs of books and fees. Interviewees from Cairo, `Ain Shams, and Alexandria universities echoed these concerns.

Facilities

Both professors and students complained about poor facilities. Professors have to rely on their own resources for professional necessities. “There is no motivation even if you want to do work well. There is no pay, no facilities,” al-Sayyid said.410 In Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, six professors share one office. An assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Arts said she did not have an office and worked at home.411 Professors repeatedly disparaged the quality of university libraries. “Libraries, laboratories, and computer labs are at a very elementary level. It’s all a matter of resources and administration and management,” an `Ain Shams professor said.412 Rachid described the library in her faculty as “very bad” without a budget to buy new books.413 The situation is even worse for those who need labs, and professors in the natural and physical sciences thus have priority when the state sends academics abroad.414 Students suffer not only from poor libraries and labs but also from decrepit hostels, where out-of-town students live. The rising number of students makes matters worse. “There is something wrong in the system of education. There is not enough money or facilities,” Murtada said.415

Proposed Reforms

Both national and international bodies have recognized Egypt’s educational problems and called for reform. In 2000, the Ministry of Higher Education published a twenty-five step strategic plan to improve Egyptian universities. These reforms have yet to be implemented, but they provide useful recommendations to supplement those in this report. In 2002 and 2003, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued Arab Human Development Reports, which include assessments of contemporary education and its potential impact on the Arab world.

The Ministry of Higher Education’s “Strategic Plan”

When asked about the universities’ poor condition, Minister of Higher Education Shehab emphasized his package of proposed reforms. The “Strategic Plan to Reform the System of Higher Education” includes twenty-five projects designed to improve university education in Egypt.416 They do not directly address the more egregious academic freedom violations discussed in chapters five through seven of this report, but they offer some possibilities for improving the institutional structure. For these reforms to be more than hollow promises, the ministry must ensure that they are implemented in a way that upholds international standards for academic freedom.

The proposed reforms are designed in part to improve the quality of higher education. “We’ve lived for forty years taking care of numbers, and not qualitative [changes]. Now we’re trying to balance quality and quantity,” Minister Shehab said.417 The plan, for example, gives students more choice in their education. The sixth project modifies the matriculation process so that students’ placements are based on “the capabilities of students enrolling and their interests, in addition to their cumulative grades.”418 Such a reform could increase students’ involvement in and enthusiasm for their education and better match skills to potential careers. The eighteenth project tries to help students at the other end of their education by studying how successful they are in finding appropriate jobs.419

Other projects focus on improving facilities. The seventh project seeks to improve the libraries, which many academics described as disastrous. While well-intended, this project calls for an assessment and strategic plan instead of actual improvements based on available resources. It does not address the censorship of imported books.420 Project twenty-three calls for new sources of financing for the national universities.421 According to the minister, the state has asked for an 11 million Euro ($13.6 million) grant to help fund the reforms. The World Bank has already agreed to disburse a $50 million, or 312 million LE, loan from 2002 to 2007 to pay for eleven reform projects, and the Egyptian government has pledged 720 million LE, or $117 million, over five years to contribute to the plan’s implementation.422

At least two of the projects have the potential to increase academic freedom in Egypt, but if implemented improperly, they could make the situation worse. The first project would create a new university law.423 As discussed above, the University Law of 1979 is one of the major obstacles to academic freedom on campus. Drafting new legislation would give the ministry the opportunity to reform problems like the deans appointment process or the “good conduct” clause for student union elections. The project says universities should “achiev[e] financial and administrative independence,” which would also increase their autonomy.424 New legislation, however, could tighten restrictions on academic freedom if international law is not heeded. The twentieth project requires a review of “prevailing techniques in cultural, artistic, and athletic extra-curricular student activities.”425 Such activities need major reform because the university administration and state police have prevented them from being meaningful forums for expression. The proposal also calls for “deepening national feelings and creating a unity of values of morals.”426 This clause suggests that the project might be used to decrease rather than increase freedom in student activities.

The Strategic Plan is far from a panacea and at this point it remains a paper proposal. It does have potential to improve university life in some ways. To ensure that any changes have a positive effect on higher education, the ministry should bear in mind the recommendations of this report as well as the principles of academic freedom when implementing the proposed reforms.

UNDP Reports

The UNDP has issued two Arab Human Development Reports that address education in the Arab world. The 2002 report found that the education in the region generally compares unfavorably to that of other countries. The UNDP concluded, “Arab countries have made great strides in education, particularly since the middle of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, educational achievement in the Arab countries as a whole, judged even by traditional criteria, is still modest when compared to elsewhere in the world, even in developing countries.”427 It describes quality as “the Achilles heel of education in the Arab world.”428 The findings accurately describe the situation in Egypt, reflecting poorly on the region’s historic intellectual leader and role model.

The report offers recommendations to address these shortcomings at all levels of education. Of particular relevance here are four reforms that the UNDP says are “urgently needed” to improve higher education. The first relates directly to one of the core principles of academic freedom—university autonomy. “[H]igher education should be liberated from the domination of both government and the unregulated profit motive,” the report says.429 While the state should retain responsibility for facilitating reforms, it should free universities so that they are run by independent boards. The second and third reforms address some of the institutional restrictions on university education described above. The second calls for expansion, without “a deterioration of quality,” and the third a “powerful shake-up to improve quality.” According to the UNDP, improved quality involves a financial investment that includes increasing salaries, bettering facilities, and enhancing “teaching and research capacities.”430 The study also calls on the government to reform its rigid matriculation system. Fourth and finally, it argues for additional “flexibility” to allow students and universities to adapt to a rapidly changing world. It urges universities to use a variety of educational methods, continuously adapt to changing circumstances with new technologies, and provide students the opportunity to engage in lifelong learning.431 If implemented, such reforms would help alleviate the academic freedom repression and institutional restrictions that pervade Egypt’s universities.

In its 2003 Arab Human Development Report, the UNDP focuses on building a “knowledge society” in the Arab world and expands its analysis of the state of education in the region. The report reiterates the reforms proposed in 2002 for higher education and continues to emphasize the need for greater autonomy and better quality. It also addresses specifically concerns raised here about Egypt, most notably, the importance of protecting freedom of opinion, expression, association, and assembly. As the UNDP report phrases it, it is “imperative to end the era of administrative control and the grip of security agencies over the production and dissemination of knowledge.”432 The report also calls attention to the role of non-state actors in repressing intellectual freedom. It finds, “Official and unofficial religious circles have also sought to muzzle freedom of opinion and speech through censorship, banning and libel.” 433 If existing conditions are not remedied, the report concludes, “Arabs [will] remain in a marginal position in this next phase of human history.”434



[377] Taha-Thomure lists several institutional problems as “causes for the current state of academic freedom in Arab countries” including “the large number of Arab students studying abroad,” “the intellectual brain drain, that is, the emigration of the well-educated Arabs to western nations,” and “scarcity of research.” Hanada Taha-Thomure, Academic Freedom in Arab Universities, p. 8 and ch. 4.

[378] Human Rights Watch interview with Ann Radwan, executive director, Binational Fulbright Commission, Cairo, February 20, 2003.

[379] Human Rights Watch interview with assistant lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 17, 2003.

[380] Human Rights Watch interview with Ann Radwan, executive director, Binational Fulbright Commission, Cairo, February 20, 2003.

[381] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed el-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[382] Human Rights Watch interview with Amr Hamzawy, assistant professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, Cairo, February 26, 2003. See also Human Rights Watch interview with `Issam Hashish, professor, Department of Electronics and Communications, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, March 3, 2003.

[383] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed El-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[384] Human Rights Watch interview with Aida Seif El Dawla, professor of neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, `Ain Shams University, Cairo, February 26, 2003.

[385] Ibid.

[386] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed el-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[387] Human Rights Watch interview with Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, and Political Science Department, AUC, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[388] Human Rights Watch interview with Ann Radwan, executive director, Binational Fulbright Commission, Cairo, February 20, 2003. In recent years, students have been allowed to join a faculty with a lower grade if they pay more. They usually do home study and take exams pass/fail. While it generates income, the system has sparked some resentment. “If you have two thousand places, you should fill them with students who got the grade required by the state,” recent graduate Ibrahim said. Human Rights Watch interview with Tamir Sulaiman Ibrahim, Cairo, February 20, 2003.

[389] Human Rights Watch interview with Tamir Sulaiman Ibrahim, Cairo, February 20, 2003.

[390] Human Rights Watch interview with Ann Radwan, executive director, Binational Fulbright Commission, Cairo, February 20, 2003. Radwan said, “There are large lectures with sections and TAs [teaching assistants]. Students rarely go to class. It is exam driven—buy books and memorize, not the Socratic method.” Ibid.

[391] Human Rights Watch interview with Mai Magdi Mustafa, Cairo, March 2, 2003.

[392] Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad Faruq, Cairo, March 4, 2003.

[393] Ibid.

[394] Human Rights Watch interview with Nadir Muhammad, Cairo, March 4, 2003.

[395] Human Rights Watch interview with al-Ahram journalist, Cairo, February 14, 2003.

[396] Human Rights Watch interview with Moufid Shehab, minister of higher education, Cairo, March 2, 2003.

[397] Ibid.

[398] Salary figures date to the time of interview in February or March 2003.

[399] Human Rights Watch interview with Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, and Political Science Department, AUC, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[400] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed el-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[401] Human Rights Watch interview with `Ain Shams University professor, Cairo, March 1, 2003.

[402] Ibid. The average annual income in Egypt in 2001 was $1,490 or 9,290 Egyptian pounds (LE). World Bank Group, “Country Brief: Middle East & North Africa Region (MENA)—Egypt,” February 2004.

[403] Human Rights Watch interview with assistant lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 17, 2003.

[404] Human Rights Watch interview with Nadia Touba, associate professor, English as a Foreign Language, Faculty of Education, Alexandria University, Cairo, February 24, 2003.

[405] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed el-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[406] Ibid.

[407] Human Rights Watch interview with al-Ahram journalist, Cairo, February 14, 2003.

[408] Human Rights Watch interview with assistant lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 17, 2003. Some students resort to photocopying books because they are expensive and not always available. Some books, like dictionaries, are subsidized.

[409] Murtada outlined a different five problems including the price of books, numbers of students, system of exams, university guards, and increasing student body without money or facilities. Human Rights Watch interview with Bassam Murtada, Cairo, February 28, 2003.

[410] Human Rights Watch interview with Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, and Political Science Department, AUC, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[411] Human Rights Watch interview with assistant lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 17, 2003.

[412] Human Rights Watch interview with `Ain Shams University professor, Cairo, March 1, 2003.

[413] Human Rights Watch interview with Amina Rachid, professor, Department of French, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003. In addition, after she turns sixty years old she can no longer borrow books. An assistant lecturer from Cairo University said, “I don’t have a library that covers my needs. I rely on AUC, but not everyone is allowed in and you can’t take books out.” Human Rights Watch interview with assistant lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 17, 2003.

[414] Human Rights Watch interview with Sayyed el-Bahrawy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Department of Arabic Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Cairo, February 25, 2003; Human Rights Watch interview with Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, and Political Science Department, AUC, Cairo, February 25, 2003.

[415] Human Rights Watch interview with Bassam Murtada, Cairo, February 28, 2003.

[416] National Conference on Higher Education, The Strategic Plan to Reform the Organization of Higher Education, February 13-14, 2000 [hereinafter The Strategic Plan].

[417] Human Rights Watch interview with Moufid Shehab, minister of higher education, Cairo, March 2, 2003.

[418] The Strategic Plan, p. 42.

[419] Ibid., p. 55.

[420] Ibid., p. 43.

[421] Ibid., p. 61.

[422] Human Rights Watch interview with Moufid Shehab, minister of higher education, Cairo, March 2, 2003; “Egypt: World Bank Approves $50 Million to Improve Higher Education,” World Bank News Release No. 2002/281/MENA, April 16, 2002.

[423] The Strategic Plan, p. 37.

[424] Ibid.

[425] Ibid., p. 56.

[426] Ibid.

[427] UNDP, Arab Human Development Report 2002 (New York: UNDP, 2002), p. 51.

[428] Ibid., p. 54.

[429] Ibid., p. 61.

[430] Ibid.

[431] Ibid., p. 62.

[432] UNDP, Arab Human Development Report 2003, p. 165.

[433] Ibid.

[434] Ibid., p. 163.


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