There are a lot of private universities in Egypt nowadays; private universities are not controlled by the government so there have been a lot of opinions about the quality of education and the differences between the public universities and the private universities in Egypt.
In this paper I will discuss those differences showing the advantages and the disadvantages of both of them.
Private universities are universities that are not controlled by governments although a lot of these universities collect public funding, in particularly in the shape of tax breaks and public student scholarships. Reliant on their place, private universities may be questioned to government guidelines. Private universities match up to public universities and national universities.
Universities in Egypt are mainly divided into governmentally-funded or privately funded. Schooling in Egypt is without any costs by the government and has been a vital spread good for a long time in Europe and in the United States. Affiliation is always open for private universities, in particularly in the Arab world.
Private universities are Egyptian or external, and normally have a much reduced student body and with a larger amount of fees. Private universities are each strongly exceptional. From variations in syllabus and educational paradigm to objective reports, each private university generates an ambiance that is really only for it. The students, not the government are the precedence of the private university. Lecturers make the aim high at the start and students keep hopping to fulfill these aims for the rest of the 4 years. If academics and only academic is the aim throughout the university years, then go to a private university if you can. Most parents do their best in order to provide a best education and opportunity for their sons and daughters to succeed. The outcome of this is that their sons and daughters turn out to be an extremely strong participator to the public and the people. From a lot of experiences, very little matches up to the academics that are gained at a private university.
Education and tutoring at private universities are the importance more than the syllabus itself. The syllabus is hard and the course-work never ends, but education is main objective at private universities. It is very hard for students to work while learning at a private university because it will be impossible to keep a balance between working and succeeding at courses.
Although education is very high the workload is too much and this makes it very difficult to have any external activities while studying.
Moreover, the fees of private universities are very high. Therefore, if there are no financial problems then go ahead and attend a private university, but if parents cannot afford it or students will fail then you have to set your priorities first and each student has to know that they will have to work hard in order to succeed.
The rest of the article will be discussing more of the pros and cons of private universities, and how they could be of a benefit and what could make parents and students hesitate and think more than once before entering a private university.
Body
The government and the higher education control.
Private universities have become very popular over the past few years in Egypt, and the reason behind this was to reduce the load on public universities, who admit millions of students that they cannot find places for.
Private universities are Egyptian or foreign, and they normally have a way reduced student body and with much more expensive fees. Earlier in 1993, there were only 2 private foreign universities that were launched many years ago. The American University in Cairo was established in 1919, and the Arab Academy. Nowadays there are 8 private universities, and there will be 3 more private universities that will be launched soon.
A lot of arguments and researches have been conducted around private universities, and whether they are good or not, and if they are better than public universities or not. Many questions were asked around this topic, and a lot of results with a lot of different opinions have evolved. Many people were against private universities and with public universities, others were in favor of private universities over the public sector, and others were in support of both which found that each one has its advantages and disadvantages.
Escaping from the public universities!!
Since private universities have been established it was noticed that many students started to get attracted to the private sector over the public sector regarding its expensive tuition fees. Below is a table that shows a comparison between students attending public universities and private universities:
Year
Private Universities
Public Universities
2005
40884
2212536
2004
36834
2177661
2003
30431
2083451
2002
24946
1953561
2001
16774
1790604
2000
11954
1705715
1999
6274
1688434
1998
3201
1586972
1997
1911
1471991
As we can see from the above table that there has been a great increase in the number of students who admitted for private universities.
So what does private universities look like and what do they offer more than what public universities offer? This is a question that has been asked by many people. Most private universities in Egypt are either universities owned by individuals or offshore campuses of foreign universities. Private universities are not often a chief reason on making higher education international; somewhat they are locally attached organizations with their individual programs. A lot of private universities tutor religion, information technology, and business administration, and these are the most sectors that are thriving in the whole world.
Challenges in the higher education in Egypt
For the beginning of the evolvement of private universities, these universities have faced a lot of false impressions such as low quality of education, expensive tuition fees and so on but as time went by these false impressions just started to disappear. An idea that is commonly known within private universities is that their normal tuition fees for a student is nearly equivalent to that of public universities. This idea has been denied by a research that was not published by the Federal Department Education. Private universities leaders quarreled for a long time that in spite of their harshly expensive fees, the whole fee of tutoring a student at a private university was on an average with the similar fee of schooling at a public university, together with all funding and aids. There is no doubt that there are some private universities that have extremely expensive tuition fees, but there are still other private universities that their tuition fees are somewhat reasonable.
Private universities are moving fast towards their quest of giving education to a lot of people, sideways to their strong points and their weak points. Although public universities are playing the essential part, the important influence of private universities cannot be overlooked. Private universities give education to those people who cannot take advantage from the education that is provided by the public universities. If students did not get the opportunity to study at a public university they might not study at any university or they have to go to a foreign country in order to get the education they need. Therefore, private universities prevent students from leaving the country and still maintain a good education.
Moreover, private universities offer courses that are connected with the desired career and also the syllabus is renewed on a regular basis so that it will always stay up-to-date to guarantee quality. The nature of private universities is much more concentrated to the academics more than public universities. Yet, there are no political aggressions that can be noticed in the private universities.
In addition, in private universities the relationship between the student and the professor is different from that in public universities. Students in private universities can talk without restrictions with their professors because the number of students is not too much, which also gives the chance for the professor to give a better education because there few students. Moreover, private universities are also making employment chances for the new teachers. Also, different activities are carried out and inspired by the students of the private universities instead of the public ones, for example sports, debates, and so on.
Also private universities reduce the nightmares of registration. Because the number of students at public universities is large, students usually have to struggle with the system in order to apply or to get into the classes required for them to graduate. This will not be a problem at private universities; if you are a new student and you are trying to apply for a private university this will not be a problem because the number of students is small, therefore, making the decision for the enrollment is done by studying each case for each student alone. If you are an existing student and you are trying to register for courses for graduation, this will not be a problem either, because the number of students is not large, each student will be able to register for the required courses and all students will be able to graduate on time.
Moreover, private universities provide a cozy group environment. At private universities students will get to know each other better and form intimate relationships for good. Unlike public universities, students will not be able to know each other because the number of students is very large and everyone will be busy trying to succeed instead of forming friendships. Also, students will not drop of course and they will not fall behind because if a student is facing problems, whether if they are educational problems or personal problems, professors or advisors will be able notice that and they will try to help them.
Private universities provide active alumni, and because private universities have small number of students, students will be able to be a member of an alumni group for good.
Because the number of students at public universities is large a student will have to be perfect and also up to standard to be able to contribute in activities such as sports, music, drama, etc. with a smaller number of students at private universities everyone will be able to participate in any activity, a student will not have to be superior in order to participate. Therefore, students will be able to get involved any activity they want.
Private universities Vs. Public Universities
To summarize the advantages of private universities over the public ones, private universities offer smaller class sizes. Because the university grounds are usually small in size, private universities also have small class sizes. This gives the opportunity for larger student/professor communication and a more attractive learning experience. It is uncertain that a huge lecture hall will be found on private universities grounds.
Also, because the classrooms are small and the ratio of professor-to-student is small this gives a greater chance for student to interact and participate more in class. Shy students are more capable to interact in a reduced and cozy environment than a lecture hall filled with hundreds of students. Moreover, a minor collection of students will be able to have debates with higher quality and they will be able to interact better at a personal level with their lecturers and professors. Different from public universities who have large student numbers; private universities place professors in each class. Because public universities have large numbers of students professors don’t often go to each class, instead university courses will normally be given by professors’ assistants, or doctoral students rather than professors themselves. Therefore, private universities have smaller class sizes, they provide more participation in class, students will be able to communicate better with their professors, they will be able to get involved in activities, they will be part of an alumni community, and students will be able to live in a cozy and a family-like environment.
Although private universities have a lot of advantages as we have discussed above, they still have some disadvantages. One of the most critical disadvantages and the reason that could drive many students and parents away from private universities is their tuition fees. Private universities have very expensive tuition fees, students that want to enroll at these universities must be very well off in order to be able to pay the money required. Students who will not be able to pay the tuition fees will have to follow scholarships and financial aid forms. Also if students who could not afford the fees and want to attend these universities will have to take a weighty student loan debt, which is a major disadvantage because beginning your years with weighty loans can be quite a huge load.
Another disadvantage is that private universities provide narrow graduate programs. For students who wish to continue a graduate or a doctoral degree, a lot of private universities will not provide any postgraduate degree, they only provide baccalaureate degree. Any students wishing to continue postgraduate studies will have to go and attend a public university.
Moreover, private universities have very narrow major offerings. Because private universities are small, they do not provide different majors. The varieties of majors are only available at public universities because they are large and a lot of students enroll at these universities. In addition, private universities have fewer departments with not so much professors or courses that are offered.
Conclusion
Private universities have become very popular today, and many parents and students prefer to enroll at a private university today over public universities.
Private universities has many advantages, which are that private universities provide education to those who cannot benefit from the education that is been provided by public universities. Private universities offer courses that are connected with the desired career, syllabus is always up-to-date, no political aggressions is found at private universities, and students and professors have a more open relationship, they both can talk freely with no restrictions. Moreover, private universities reduce the nightmares of registration, they provide a cozy group environment, and students at private universities will be sure to be members of active alumni.
Although private universities have a lot of advantages, they still have their disadvantages which are expensive tuition fees, they provide narrow graduate programs, and they provide narrow major offerings.
