Possibility of Finnish higher education in Egypt discussed with amb.

CAIRO – 14 December 2018: Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and Finnish Ambassador to Egypt Laura Kansikas-Debraise discussed on Thursday the possibility of establishing branches of Finnish universities in Egypt to exchange scientific expertise.

During their meeting, Abdel Ghaffar praised the relations between Egypt and Finland in different scientific and research fields, stressing the ministry's keenness to benefit from the pioneering educational experience of Finland.

Meanwhile, the ambassador expressed her country's keenness to cooperate with Egypt in the educational and scientific fields.

They both discussed the possibility to sign an agreement between Egyptian and Finnish universities to promote the cooperation between the two countries, increase the scientific scholarships provided by the Finnish government to Egyptian students and researchers and linkthe faculties of education in Finland with those in Egypt.

In July, Parliament enacted the law regulating the establishment of foreign universities in Egypt.

The law aims to benefit from the educational and scientific research experiences of international universities to achieve significant progress in the higher education system and strengthen the ties between Egypt’s higher education and that of developed countries.

Under the law, the international branch of a university shall be committed to Egyptian provisions and shall notify the specialized ministry with the university's curricula; criteria to accept students in a university branch will be the same as those of the main university.

Branch campuses will be required to enroll a percentage of Egyptian students and employ a percentage of Egyptian staff in administrative and teaching positions.
All certificates awarded by the branch shall be recognized by the country of the main university; additionally, there will be an annual allocation of grants to students, allowing Egyptians to study or train at the main foreign university.

Each branch campus is required to submit a five-year plan with the expected number of students and costs; the branch will be supervised by a council set up by the Ministry of Higher Education to monitor quality.