Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that Egypt currently plans to have a total of 125 universities in 2032, bridging the current gap between the population and the universities at the rate of one university per million people.
During the inauguration of King Salman University in Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, Sisi said that the new universities follow international specifications and standards.
“The population of Egypt has now reached 100 million, and we have 72 universities, which means we need 28 universities to bridge the gap between the population and universities,” Sisi said.
“In 2032 the population will reach 125 million, with an increase of 25 million, which requires planning to increase the number of universities to 125.”
“Building a single university costs approximately eight to 10 billion pounds, and when we plan to build 30 or 40 universities, it means that we need about LE400 billion, for construction only, and we are working to bridge the gap between the population and universities at the earliest opportunity”, the president added.
Sisi stressed that the government aims to build universities with international specifications and standards, to provide education at the highest level and link it to the labor market so that a university graduate be ensured job opportunities.
“During the past seven or six years, we made a great effort to reduce the gap between the population and universities by building some universities at the highest levels with international specifications and standards and focusing on modern sciences in order to provide a good education for our children so that they do not have to travel abroad,” Sisi said.
“We have 30,000 Egyptian students studying abroad, and this is a financial burden on their families, in addition to the health conditions that the world is currently going through due to the coronavirus pandemic, and we aim for some of them return to study in Egypt,” Sisi added.
