PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK announced a major overhaul in Egypt’s higher education strategy a little over six months ago, which could be summed up in one phrase: Improving quality and increasing quantity. Although it will take years before we can assess progress on the first point, the government has been making strides to achieve the latter.

In addition to new state college branches in Beni Suef, Banha, Fayoum and the Northern Valley as remote faculties morph into full-fledged independent universities by the upcoming academic year, the government officially accredited the Canadian, Egyptian-British and Egyptian-Romanian universities in November 2004; less than two months ago, they were followed by Chinese-Egyptian and Russian Universities the first of their kinds in the Middle East.

While the Russian Embassy was unavailable for comment, the Egyptian-Chinese University (ECU) is only a year from enrolling its first class.

“The idea of opening a Chinese university in Egypt has been on the table for about a year,” says Huo Wenjie, first secretary at the Chinese embassy in Cairo. “Academic work will begin in [the academic year] 2006-07 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of economic and cultural cooperation between Egypt and China.”

Located in Heliopolis, ECU is a branch of China’s Liaoning University, listed by an independent Chinese university rankings website as being in the top 14 percent nationwide. ECU, Wenjie continues, will offer 43 undergraduate disciplines and 53 master’s level programs, including a particularly strong MBA curriculum that should appeal to Egyptian business leaders looking to do business with the emerging economic powerhouse.

The Northeast Institute of Finance and Economics, Shenyang Normal College and Shenyang Institute of Russian merged in 1958 to form Liaoning University, now considered among the top academic facilities in China and with a small (by Chinese standards) student body of almost 20,000.

Dr. Karima Abdel Karim, chairman of Egypt’s International Education Institution (IEI), will be financing 51 percent of the project along with Chinese partners. She says that committees from both countries exchanged visits and that the Liaoning University committee was impressed by the quality of education and facilities provided by her existing academic institutions. Abdel Karim also owns and runs a number of higher education facilities, including the New Cairo Academy for Arts and Sciences, which comprises a higher management and foreign trade institute.

“IEI is responsible for attracting investors and building the premises,” says Wenjie, “while Liaoning University is in charge of the academic side. It will create the syllabi of its main specializations IT and commerce.” He adds that ECU programs will range between four and five years and that all syllabi will be approved by the Ministry of Higher Education to ensure that the teaching material conforms to the requirements of the Egyptian education system.

Every year, 18 faculty members will be posted in Cairo, and although instruction will be carried out in English, students will be required to study the Chinese language starting from their freshman year. “Students will also have the chance to complete their final year in China, in which case they will gain a double degree, one from Liaoning and another from ECU,” he adds.

Abdel Karim says the university will offer an unconventional academic experience.

“It will be mandatory for students to apply what they are learning during their undergraduate years through projects requiring them to, say, market specific products or plan a management system for a factory, depending on their area of specialization,” she says. “There will therefore be more stress on the practical and applied aspect of the learning experience and less stress on theory. Their chance to travel to China will give them first hand experience in how a nation can be truly productive and strengthen their work ethic.

“The Chinese experience has taken the world by storm,” she says. “Their success in the areas of industry and trade has been phenomenal and it’s exactly the type of experience we need to emulate and expose our youth to during this phase in our economic growth. Teaching university-age youth how to be productive is essential in creating a professional caliber scarcely found in Egypt at the moment.”

For Wenjie, ECU will crown economic ties between China and Egypt that, he says, are already developing very quickly. Warming Sino-Egyptian relations come as oil and resource hungry China looks to expand its foothold in the Middle East and Africa.

“There are many Chinese-Egyptian businesses that require professional cadres not yet available in Egypt,” Wenjie says. “The purpose of the university is to boost development on all fronts and in all fields between the two countries. Both Cairo and Ain Shams Universities have chairs in the Chinese language. Further progress in our economic relationship requires a familiarity with the Chinese language and educational system. The ECU will strengthen our economic and cultural ties.”

With many foreign universities now vying for a niche in the Egyptian higher education market, ECU will have to define itself as a substantially different educational experience to stand out.

Abdel Karim, though, isn’t worried about competition. “Graduates of ECU will compete strongly with graduates of other foreign universities because the scope of bilateral economic relations between Egypt and China is developing rapidly,” she says.

Although officials from the Russian embassy were unavailable for comment despite repeated calls, the government has reported the Egyptian-Russian University will open its gates next year at Badr City, 45 kilometers along the Cairo-Suez Road. According to a short government statement, the school will specialize in the fields of IT and aeronautics, and a brief April 14 story posted by the Russian information service Ria Novosti added that it will also train specialists in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, tourism management and linguistics. et