Draft budget allocates over LE 68B for higher education

CAIRO – 6 June 2017: State budget draft for FY2017/18 allocates over LE 68 billion for higher education and LE 35 billion for scientific research, according to the draft submitted by the minister of finance to the House of Representatives, media outlets reported Tuesday.

According to the draft, the 2014 constitution stipulated allocating a percentage of the national budget to higher education and scientific research, amounting to 2 percent and 1 percent respectively, which would gradually increase to fit with international standards.

Committing to these rates has become a priority for the government since the FY2015/2016, the draft noted.

In an interview with Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar in April, he confirmed that the Ministry has been working on several solutions to develop scientific research.

“We have reached out for the different Ministries and sectors, asking them to state how we can benefit them with scientific research,” Ghaffar told Egypt Today, explaining that the next step will be working with universities and colleges so that at least 80 percent of the researches are directed towards a specific problem.

Based on the latest statistics, there are 3,100,000 students enrolled in the higher education system in Egypt.