The "Air-Conditioned" Engineer

Dr. Hani Hilal (who is the new minister of "higher" education in Egypt) came up with an "innovation" few days ago. After few months of secrecy and tight-lipped preparation, he finally unveiled his plan to overhaul graduate education in Egypt.

Big Titles - Little Roles

To begin with, the title of a "minister" for "higher" education is unheard of in the civilized world. In the outside world ("Bilad Barra" as Egyptians used to call it), the rector or the president of a university is trust-worthy enough to run his 0r her own university and is only accountable to his board of trustees or regents. The board is appointed by the state (if the university is a state one) or by the owners if the university is privately owned and normally draws membership from respected dignitaries, Nobel prize laureates, distinguished scientists, and successful businessmen and women. Not in Egypt of course where a president of a university is only a high-level bureaucrat.

Dr. Hani Helal. Minister of Higher Education and State Minister for Scientific Research. Dr. Hilal was a professor of Engineering at Cairo University before stints at UNESCO, at the Egyptian embassy to France, and finally as head of "Singor University" in Alexandria. I tried with no luck to find a website for "Singor University." However, it appears that the whatever information I couldn't find about Singor University landed Dr. Helal the top educational spot in Egypt.

I remember once stopping by the office of Cairo University president few years ago. Time was 6-7 pm. The university president came back at that time and his administrative assistant was still there. I sat in the assistant's office by her desk which had a pile of files that was about 2 inches thick. Waiting for the president and having nothing else to do, I couldn't help but ask what the pile was. She replied that this is the "mail" that Dr. Shehab (at that time, Mofid Shehab was heading Cairo University) has to sign. I got even more curious and I couldn't help but ask if this was the mail for the week. She replied that this was only for the day and that every day the poor guy had to come every afternoon back to his office to sign what he couldn't finish in the morning!

Through the discussion, I came to learn that any faculty member (and for example, Cairo University has perhaps ten thousand of those) who wants to take a leave or a sabbatical has to submit a request that eventually goes to the university president to approve! Just an example of bureaucracy gyration.

It gets worse, the president of a university cannot decide on when classes start or when they end or when exams start or how long they last. This all comes from the minister -- who when debated replies that these are taken by a sovereign decision (code name for a decision taken by the president or people around him). The university president also cannot create new colleges, new departments, cannot appoint deans (decision is again made by the minister and eventually by the president of the republic). The university president doesn't even have a budget to start new endeavors except as approved by the minister or the prime minister.

Dr. Samir Shaheen, Dean on Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. For almost a year now, Dr. Shaheen has been tight-lipped regarding the new scheme even though he and Dr. Hilal have been working at it in complete secrecy. Both Hilal and Shaheen had stints at Egypt's UNESCO offices. Dr. Shaheen's brother-in-law is also a minister. Dr. Shaheen has other qualities: he is hard-worker and dedicated but shows no respect for disagreement and no stamina for debate. In one meeting, he told attendants (all are Professors): "do you think this is a soccer match, with everyone of you kicking a ball to me?" He was referring to an issue that all attendants unanimously disagreed with him on and in which he didn't even want to hear the disagreement argument. He for sure fits the profile of the "reform" minded, self-righteous team that is filling now all positions in Egypt. All of that team has an unfounded but a toxicating air of arrogance. They all also have the appearance of being connected to the west through stints that serve to punch the ticket but give no real understanding of how the west actually works.

The title of the president of a university or a faculty dean in Egypt is a big title but is really void of any real responsibilities except for the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. I thought that this is where reform was needed and I was hoping that in his secret deliberations, Hani Hilal will come out from the meditation that he and the members of his supreme university council have been doing with more independence for the universities. No way -- I was disappointed.

Dr. Hilal's Cocktail

Egyptians have a nice word for what Dr. Hilal came up with. It is called "Iftikasa." This has no equivalent I know of in English. It is really a cocktail of invention, hallucination, and nonsense.

Here is how it will work. Suppose you just got your high school certificate ("Thanawiea Amma") and you got good grades. You go to the University Admission Coordination Bureau ("Maktab Al-Tanseek") and submit your papers where you write your admission preferences. This is all the same so far.

Comedian Mohamed Sobhy in his first TV debut: Ali Bey Mazhar. Ali Mazhar is a lower middle class Egyptian in the 1970s who sees everybody around him prospering -- sometimes through illegal means. Unable to climb the social ladder and become rich, he decides to pretend to be rich. He also pretends to have connections to Mohsen Bey -- a fictional influential personality that he pretends to know. The TV series and the subsequent movie embody a common social problem in Egypt in which a large segment of the society is unable to climb the social ladder is not given even the fair chance to do so. Confronted with their own dreams, a large segment of society develop an outer thin shell of pretension so they can defend themselves in the face of the sheer unfairness in the society. A common expression in Egypt is: "Don't you know whom you are talking to?" The hilarious part is that the person who is talking is arguing with a bus driver and is obviously poor and un-connected. That shell of pretension is probably what keeps those people sane.

Differentiating only based on grades and not anything else, I always thought that the coordination bureau is one of the fairest systems in Egypt. So, even "Tant" (Egyptian for "aunt") Soso or Mohsen Bei could not help you there. Even the United States was starting to move in the direction of a standardized universal test (SAT) which is now mandatory for admission in the vast majority of American universities. Granted it is not the sole criterion for admission in an American University, however, in a country like Egypt that got comfortable with nepotism, I thought that the coordination bureau was the most suited system.

Not any more though. In the new system, let us say you have good grades and you got admitted to the Faculty of Engineering. Now, you have two options, either you go to the normal track in which you pay a tuition of LE 55 per year. Or you go to the "speical" track in which you pay LE 8-12,000 per year.

If you pay the LE 12,000 tuition, you get to specialize in cool disciplines such as "natural gas" or "robotics." Of course, you will not pay this money for nothing. These cool disciplines are those which are most attractive from an employment point of view. Besides, if you have LE12,000 to afford every year, really you should find easy employment even if you are dumber than a pig. Now aunt Soso doesn't need to make 3 calls to get you employed. You now have a cool specialty such as "robotics" so she only has to make one phone call or maybe even no calls at all -- and in that case you don't have to get her daughter anything!

I don't know how on earth these guys come up with these ideas. The only analogy I can find is the air-conditioned bus in Cairo. With the government unable to meet all transportation needs of the 10-14 million inhabitants of Cairo, private sector stepped in and came up with the micro-bus.

A micro-bus in the streets of Cairo. Initially these micro-buses were new and attractive -- exactly like the new private universities in Egypt. Over time and in the absence of regulations, they got old and their standards were lowered. Now, they are one of the reasons of the unmatched chaos in Cairo streets. The similarity is that like their university counterparts, their customers are captive audience. If you want to go to a remote suburb of Cairo in the middle of the night and can't afford a taxi, a micro-bus is the only solution. Likewise, if you want to become an engineer and your grades don't qualify you for one, a private university is the only solution. Over time, these private universities will give a facade of good education: air-conditioned classes, small sizes, and nice-looking buildings. But because all of their graduates have guaranteed jobs through their connections, the quality of education will not be necessary but rather a headache to the students who are the true customers. Private colleges in the world maintain their standards because the strong employment competition means that they must graduate only the best to stay in business. That is non-existent in Egypt.

The Egyptian government saw that those microbus owners were making more money that the government is. Therefore, the Egyptian government came up with the "cool" bus -- which is essentially more expensive but less crowded. They first came up with the minibus. That still got crowded over time and couldn't compete with the micro-bus. So, the government came up with another "cool" bus and made it an "air-conditioned" one.

The evolution of a Cairo bus: Top , a private bus company in the 1940s and 1950s ran the Cairo bus system. However, the company was under strict regulation and its license was under the threat of revoking so the private company endeavored to provide adequate service that is reasonably priced. Then, Cairo buses were nationalized and lots of water passed under lots of bridges then came the era privatization and openness. Mini-buses appeared on the street. Small and comfortable, mini-buses were more expensive the regular buses. Over time, they too became crowded (lower picture). Being small and owned by government (meaning unaccountable to anybody), their agility is contributing to the chaos on Cairo streets.

The analogy here is that the Egyptian government unable to meet the education needs of Egyptians, it allowed private universities to mushroom in Egypt. Everybody who owned a popcorn stand in Cairo converted it into a technology university...the equivalent of the micro-buses. Enviable of those micro-universities and wanting to reduce it subsidy to the education system, the government came up with its own "cool" more expensive bus -- sorry I meant the privilged new "air-conditioned" education system.

Final step in the evolution of Cairo buses: The Air-Conditioned Bus: More expensive than a mini-bus, this was supposed to be the ultimate solution to Cairo's buses. I am all for privatization and market dynamics, but we need to understand the market drivers and how to create a true value-added before embarking on a chaotic privatization scene in which government run entities are competing with un-driven private entities with captive customers. This is far from the capitalism I came to know and live.

I think few years from now, one engineering graduate will ask another: "Are you air-conditioned or not?"

The Sad Side of the Story

Even though I laugh at the analogy, it is unfortunately too true. Treating education with bus-like ideas is a bad policy. The semblance of fairness we had in our education system will now be all gone. To those poor kids out there, you have no chance. Egyptian average income is LE10,000 per year...Less than the necessary tuition. I don't understand how public education become all of a sudden unavailable for the average-income person.

If this doesn't make you sad, I don't know what will. Ranking of Cairo University among African ones. Although this is solely based on the websites of ranked universities, it still gives an indication. Cairo University is ranked as number 29 in Africa and 4748 in the world. The American University in Cairo is the top rated Egyptian university and is ranked 9 in Africa and 1518 in the world. All the other new private universities in Egypt rank below Cairo University. I am often confronted with the financial argument that we have poor universities in a poor country. That is certainly true but doesn't explain how the University of Dar Es-Salaam in Tanzania is ranked 2566 -- more than 2000 steps ahead of Cairo University. Granted that ranking is only based on web presence of these universities, but I thought that Dr. Nazif (prime minister), Dr. Ali Abdel-Rahman (president of Cairo University), and Dr. Samir Shaheen (Dean of Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University) are all computer geeks or at the very least computer-literate!

The saddest side of the story is that all these micro-universities and air-conditioned ones will make the Egyptian street (sorry I meant education) a jungle that is quite similar to the chaotic status of the Egyptian traffic. All those micro-buses and mini-buses were sold to us as the panacea that will solve all of Egypt's problems. Any pedestrian in Cairo knows that in the absence of regulations, those micro and mini-buses are making the problems worse. Education is no place for those "Iftikasat."

[on a personal note, the Egyptian education system is truly in danger now. I have engineers from all nationalities working on my team. I will not go to describe the Norwegian engineers because it is unfair. I will stick to our region. I have been recently impressed with the Saudi and Qatari engineers but unfortunately rarely so with the recent Egyptian graduates. Not only that the new Saudi graduates are technically good but they are also ambitious, aggressive, and want to prove themselves...real fresh air that is contrary to the entitlement stereotypes that most of the world has about them. Now, I am a graduate of the Egyptian system and I am very proud of it, and I am certain that Egypt as a country is capable still under the harshest conditions to produce top brains. But we can't just rely on the individual abilities. We need to provide systemic help not systemic hurt. I am afraid if we don't wake up soon, the world and our neighbors will pull so far ahead of us that we will never catch up. ]

I don't mean to add insult to injury. Ranking of Asian universities shows the Hebrew University to be ranked as number 131 worldwide. While Egypt is looking to partner with unknown universities to create the likes of the Canadian-Egyptian University, Qatar went to partner with Cornell University (ranked #10 worldwide) to create Weill-Cornell Medical College - Doha. Texas A&M is another top-notch American school that created a campus in Doha in collaboration with the Qatari Emir's wife charity organization. I had the chance to tour all of these new campuses and meet with their heads and I have to say that their future is bright if they keep the momentum going. All of these are exclusive deals, meaning Cornell cannot establish any other medical college anywhere in the Middle East (including Israel and Egypt). If Egypt wants to create a joint venture with an American university, it shouldn't be with the bottom of the barrel as is happening now -- otherwise it is just a manifestation of Egypt's chronic foreigner superiority complex ("Al-Khawaga" complex).

To see the university ranking for yourself, it is available at webometrics. To check what Qatar is doing, you can go to Qatar Education City. For your information, all the American schools in Doha offer merit and income-based scholarships. Qataris and non-Qataris from all over the world are both eligible. I encourage Egyptian students to consider it as a nearby, cost-effective way of getting good education and an American degree.

The Solution

The Egyptian government always complains that those criticizing it don't come up with a solution. I volunteer one that is analogous to NPR (national public radio) in the United States. NPR is enshrined in the American culture as the one radio that reflects the views of the average American. Even when they picked the accent used on NPR they decided to make it a Mid-Western accent which is geographically and politically in the heart of that vast country. NPR (and its sister TV stations PBS and C-SPAN) is funded in three ways, partly by the US government, partly from taxes on all private radio stations across America, and partly from private donations. This system has many advantages: (1) the government has a reduced burden. (2) The proliferation of private stations only helps the public ones to get more money and grow. (3) NPR always has to get private donations so it is always engaged with the American people all the time.

A 1945 picture of Cairo University. We often forget that Cairo University was built on the donations of the Egyptian people. In fact Lord Kromer, the then de facto ruler of Egypt always hated the project fearing that creating an educated class in Egypt will threaten the British rule on the banks of the Nile. It is not true that Egyptians don't donate. They do when they trust the destination and when they feel it will contribute to a good cause.

I think this is the ultimate solution to the Egyptian universities dilemma. In the mean time, my sympathy goes to all the "un-cool" and "un-air-conditioned" graduates out there. Their hope is that at least they didn't ride the micro-bus.

The logo of National Public Radio (NPR). Even the most capitalistic country on earth realizes the need for media outlet and education that is free of money influence. In addition to a ton load of privately owned radio and TV networks, the Unted States has NPR (in radio) and PBS and C-SPAN (on TV) which are dedicated to free independent and the unbiased view of the average American. It is worth mentioning that most of American universities are owned by state governments and guarantee affordable education for all residents. Many of America's top universities are publicly owned: University of California (Berkeley campus is among the top 10 schools in the US), University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus is in the top10 schools in the world), and so on. Tuition for residents in any of these universities is about 1/5h-1/8th of the average income in the United States ($40,000). All of them offer merit-based and income-based scholarships.

University of Texas tower. Most funding for state universities comes from taxes or donated endowments. A state such as Texas spent a significant portion of its oil and gas tax income on building a strong education system -- resulting in the University of Texas climbing up the ladder to be one of the top public universities in the country. Oil funds were used to create an endowment that is invested in the American stock market to create revenues for the university. It is common also for universities to take debt in the form of bonds to fund major expansion projects.

Although I have only little evidence, I smell a National Democratic Party policy in this. It has the hallmark of being so. (1) It is a sneaky attack on the rights of the Egyptian people. (2) It is packaged as a brilliant reform idea. (3) It has the suspense element of the appearence of modernity with a mystic touch of a promised connection to the outside world. And finally, (4) the air of arrogance and self-righteousness, all coming from spoiled amateurs whose only credintials are a privilged background and spending few years in a foreign country with no real connection to the true core of the Egyptian society. Same old, same old as the elections campaign. This of course didn't escape the observant eye of the Egyptian people. It is only the Egyptian government that is naive enough to think it outsmarted everybody.

"Buses R US": The title of an old Egyptian movie that apparently the Egyptian government is using as a slogan for its education policies now.

After discussing the subject of the "air-conditioned" engineer with one Egyptian, he told me that the Egyptian government new slogan should be: "Buses are us."