Education overpopulation
Hundreds of MUST medical students may soon be looking for a new place to study. Mona El-Nahhas examines a higher education crisis
Several private universities are feeling the brunt of a decision to accept more students into their various medical faculties, against a Higher Education Ministry council's warnings. A recent court decision declared the additional admissions illegal, meaning hundreds of pharmacology students at Misr University for Sciences and Technology (MUST) must now ready themselves to search out alternative places to study.
Similar violations recently discovered at MUST's faculties of medicine and dentistry might also put a larger number of students in the same boat.
The number of students each university is allowed to accept is determined by the Private Universities Council, which was formed in 2002 to supervise the educational process at private universities. It was established by a presidential decree, and is chaired by Higher Education Minister Mufid Shehab.
As the 2002 academic year began, both MUST -- a private university established in 1996 -- and 6 October University surpassed the admissions allotment at their faculties of pharmacology. To back up their position, MUST's owners filed a lawsuit at the Administrative Court contesting the enrollment limits, and in October 2002, the court ruled in their favour. Shehab said that while the ruling would be respected, he would also be contesting it at the Supreme Administrative Court. In effect, he gave the two universities the green light to accept the new students, while warning them to stick to the council's limit of 430 students next year.
In 2003, 6 October University complied. MUST, on the other hand, took on over 1000 students.
Now, just two months or so after joining the pharmacology faculty, those students who have unwittingly ended up in violation of a November 2003 Supreme Administrative Court ruling vindicating Shehab are in shock. Although they are attending the university, the extra students do not have official documents legalising their admission. Only the fist batch of 430 students has the coveted registration cards that bear the ministry's seal, as well as Shehab's written approval.
After the ruling, the Private Universities Council committee dispatched to survey MUST reported that the number of pharmacology students there exceeded the number of pharmacology students at all public universities combined. The committee also informed the council that the university's laboratories and limited teaching staff were not up to par. Similar violations were also discovered at the faculties of medicine and dentistry.
Although the ruling gave Shehab the right to abolish the admissions of all the students accepted by MUST's pharmacology faculty in 2003, he said that the 430 students allowed by the allotment would not be affected. The university, meanwhile, should deal with the remainder.
The Council, at a recent meeting, formally warned university officials that they must rectify the conditions of violating students; otherwise, the council said it would not acknowledge the degrees they will get after graduation. The council also threatened to use measures stipulated by the executive statutes, which include the right to shut down violating universities or stop admissions to them.
MUST Press Spokesman Mahmoud El-Deiri, speaking on behalf of the university owners, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the university has not yet decided how it will deal with such a complicated issue. "Amending the conditions of extra students will not be easy, especially with the new academic year already two months in, and mid- term exams having begun," he said.
Uneasy relations between the university's board of trustees and its president have also made reacting to a critical situation like this more difficult. When the board of trustees, who represent the owners, refused to implement the court ruling, university president Abdel-Aziz Hamouda reacted angrily, and threatened to submit his resignation.
A source close to the university told the Weekly, "it took the two sides nearly a month before they agreed to transfer violating students to similar faculties at other private universities." According to the source, the transfer process will begin after mid-term exams, with both Misr International University and the new German University the most likely candidates to take on the extra load.
