Egypt’s newest university just might be its most unusual.

On a mid-October school day, there were no hordes of students chatting in the halls or rushing to class. There were, in fact, no students at all. And the converted Dokki campus was full of business offices, not science labs or lecture halls.

Instead, visitors got a glimpse of the future when the Egyptian E-Learning University (EELU) opened its doors on October 3. 

With public universities overflowing with students and private school tuition out of reach for many, the online university is among several education initiatives giving Egypt’s youth new options while helping meet the need of businesses for skilled, educated employees. 

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization & Statistics (CAPMAS), in 2007 there were 1.8 million students enrolled in Egypt’s 18 public universities and about 80,000 at private institutions. Cairo University alone has more than 230,000 students.

In most countries, there is a positive correlation between education and employment. Conversely, in Egypt, those with low levels of education have low unemployment, while more education increases the odds of being unemployed. The CAPMAS 2007 labor force survey confirms this pattern, showing a 17.3-percent unemployment rate for university graduates compared with a 9-percent rate overall. However, many experts suggest these figures are higher.

While several factors contribute to the problem, a major issue is the failure of the education system to produce graduates well-suited to available private sector jobs. According to a 2008 World Bank report, “Youth Unemployment, Existing Policies and the Way Forward: Evidence from Egypt and Tunisia,” Egypt’s policies have “generated a whole generation of youth with the wrong set of skills.”

Yasser Dakroury, professor of computer engineering at Ain Shams University and acting president of the Egyptian E-Learning University, notes that “the public universities aren’t very flexible; the thanawiya amma [general secondary exam] plays a big part in what students can study. Private universities are better because, once admitted, students are mostly free to choose a department. But they are also much more expensive.”

The EELU is attempting to be the best of both worlds. A nonprofit private university, it is funded by the government but operates under the more flexible regulations that govern private institutions. Based on a feasibility study done by the university, Dakroury hopes that “after seven years we can be completely financially independent from the government.” With tuition averaging LE 2,400 per semester, the Egyptian E-Learning University is substantially less expensive than most private universities. Partial scholarships are available for high-performing students and the university charter allows for additional assistance in special circumstances.

The university’s inaugural class consists of 60 students in commerce and business administration, and 30 in communications and information technology. It is a small university with big potential. By the start of the next academic year, the university plans to add degree programs in teaching and engineering, and after that languages and translation, economics, political science and law. The EELU has also reached a partnership agreement to offer programs jointly with the Italian Uninettuno International Telematic University.

Mohamed Abdel Rahman, a first-year student studying business, is satisfied with his decision to attend the Egyptian E-Learning University. “I saw announcements on TV about the university and liked the idea that I wouldn’t have to go to the college every day. I live in Ismailiya, and so going to a college in Cairo would have taken 3-4 hours [traveling a day]. With the online college, I just come in to the Ain Shams center twice a week.” 

One concern about online universities is that they don’t provide adequate opportunities for student interaction, but Abdel Rahman says he has met many of his fellow students. “We meet each other at the college and online in the virtual classroom. They are almost all my friends now.” He also noted that it is easy to communicate with faculty. “Lecturers are very helpful and responsive to questions. At some public colleges you can’t even talk to the professor. Here it is cool.”

Overall, he thinks being a student at the online university is “easier and faster” than at a traditional university, although, he acknowledges that maybe it wouldn’t be for everyone. “I don’t think any student could do it. You need good English and to know computers well.” On the other hand, this is also an advantage. “I don’t think finding a job will be a problem. Passing from this college shows that you’re good in English and good in computers, whereas passing from other private schools would only show that you’re good in English.”

Dakroury believes that “in the coming years the EELU will become one of the best and biggest universities in Egypt.” Although startup costs can be significant, once an online program is up and running, adding students and academic capacity can be easy and relatively inexpensive.

Students outside Cairo can register at designated computer labs in Tanta and Assiut. Once registered, students can do most of their work from anywhere with an Internet connection. Some universities in the capital, including Cairo and Ain Shams, offer computer labs designated for use by EELU students. 

The Egyptian E-Learning University offers a mix of self-paced and lecture-driven courses. Lectures are done via videoconferences, which students can access at the special computer labs at partner schools or view later on the Web. The self-paced courses resemble sophisticated PowerPoint presentations, with voice, text and images used to illustrate concepts. Periodic tests and assignments help to ensure that students are absorbing the material.

Once a week, students are expected to visit an EELU computer lab to discuss their progress with tutors. Dakroury observes that “students in Egypt wish to be enrolled in a full program, not just taking classes. The face-to-face meetings help the students build a sense of community, so they don’t feel they’re doing it alone.” Professors have online office hours scheduled during the week to allow students to contact them, and since the course materials are always available online, students are able to study just about anywhere.

An online university can have all the fancy technology it wants, but it still faces challenges. As with any new university, it needs to build credibility so its graduates will be taken seriously. Dakroury insists that won’t be a problem. “For any employer, what they look for are skills and knowledge. Whether [students] graduated from a public, private or private nonprofit university, they are all accredited from the same source [the Supreme Council of Universities].”

There is no doubt that online education is on the rise worldwide, particularly in the US, where the topic has been studied and measured extensively. According to “Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008,” a report funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a technology focused nonprofit organization, more than 3.9 million college-level students – more than 20 percent of all students – took at least one online course in fall 2007, a 12-percent increase over the previous year.

One of the most noteworthy contributions to online education comes from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare (OCW). The university offers virtually its entire catalogue of courses online, for free. So far, 1,900 courses have been uploaded, encompassing everything from English literature to aerospace design. Several other US universities are following suit. According to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, more than 120 universities worldwide are participating in the OCW movement and posting materials online for the public. A new website, academicearth.org, compiles courses from all over the Web and puts them in one place. It was recently recognized as one of Time.com’s 50 best websites of 2009. However, these are still just courses, without a supervised method of instruction, mostly for personal enrichment or to supplement for-credit courses.

In response to the rise of online learning, the US Department of Education published a controversial meta-analysis in May 2009 that combined the results of more than a thousand previous studies on online learning. The report, “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning,” showed that a blend of face-to-face and online education is the most effective form of learning, but e-learning alone is just as effective as traditional classroom instruction.

Even some proponents of online learning are skeptical of the results. Among them is Samir Shaheen, a professor of computer engineering at Cairo University who is affiliated with Cairo University’s E-Learning Center. “Face-to-face learning is much better than e-learning,” he asserts. “But since we don’t have enough professors, enough people to teach, enough space, people are looking at e-learning. I’m not saying e-learning is bad. People should understand e-learning has a role. But you cannot teach computer engineering or medicine with e-learning.”

The E-Learning Center was formed with a grant from the European Union and focuses on teaching online learning skills to computer science students, helping them design and create programs. The center also trains professors at other universities in ways to adapt courses to include more online elements and get the most out of available technologies.

Shaheen observes that one of the challenges facing the spread of e-learning is that people assume it is easy to create an online course. “You can’t just put some PowerPoint slides online and call it e-learning. In e-learning the message has to be concise; the order has to be very clear. The students aren’t beside you, so you have to make their life easy. If I go to a class, I look at the eyes of students and understand if they are following me or not... I can change my way of explaining things, change my language.”

Overall however, he is optimistic. “Will e-learning succeed in Egypt? I have a very simple answer: Of course it will succeed. We already have similar programs that are accepted. This is just new technology.” The programs Shaheen refers to are older distance-learning programs such as Cairo University’s Intisab [affiliation] program and the Open University.

With Intisab, “a student doesn’t attend classes. All he does is buy the book, stay at home, and come to the exam. For sure e-learning is better, because he now has access to lectures, he can ask questions by e-mail and his peers can answer him.” In the Open University, “students come once a week on Friday. They meet professors to ask questions, but don’t attend lectures... They take lectures home on videotape. They also use the education channel of Cairo University. It is basically an early form of e-learning.” According to Shaheen, the Open University was intended for students starting their education late, but this year the program started accepting students straight from high school to accommodate the large number of students entering the university system. “These students are finding jobs, so definitely e-learning students, who will be better prepared, will also find jobs.”

Despite Shaheen’s optimism, many university graduates aren’t finding jobs. There are a number of programs in Egypt to address the mismatch between graduates’ skills and private sector employment opportunities. The government, through the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT), runs the EDU Egypt program, which trains graduating university students in computer and business skills. Started in 2007, the program hopes to reach a total of 10,000 students from 10 universities during the current academic year.

The government has also backed a program called the International Computer Driver’s License, a widely recognized basic computer skills course and exam. So far, more than 200,000 Egyptians had been certified. The American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt runs courses for recent graduates designed to ease the transition to the workplace. It also offers over 200 online courses in various fields, including business and management, information technology and desktop computing, and business skills.

Shahinaz Ahmed is CEO of the Education for Employment Foundation – Egypt (EFE – Egypt), which employs a unique business model to help university graduates find jobs. “We’re not trying to replace the university system but to supplement it,” she says. “The public education system doesn’t address students’ desires or comprehensively reflect the available jobs in the private sector. That’s where we come in.”  

In essence, the foundation establishes a social contract between potential employee and employer. The organization recruits and screens underprivileged youth, then finds employers looking for quality employees. It persuades employers to partially fund training and designs job-specific courses. The foundation arranges interviews between young Egyptians and participating companies. Those who pass muster will get training through the foundation and the guarantee of a job upon successful completion of the program. “This is not a charity,” Ahmed says. “The students pay a nominal fee, the businesses pay, and so both value the service we provide and take it seriously.”

EFE – Egypt has worked with textile manufacturers and banks, providing entry-level jobs in exporting, management and customer relations. Ahmed notes that they often need convincing to invest in their employees. “Many employers are not focused on how to retain talent. They are convinced that their entry-level staff will soon leave them for a better job, so why pay them more?” She tells employers it is their responsibility to persuade qualified workers to stay with the company.

She also says that many of her students want stability and fear the potential volatility of the private sector. “Many graduates are waiting for government jobs, and even though they can get something that will pay much more they are concerned that it won’t last.” But without a solid foundation of relevant education and skills, graduates will not feel secure about private sector jobs, which traditionally are regarded as unstable. “It’s a big commitment, and we do everything we can to help our students,” she says, “but some inevitably feel that it’s not for them.”

Of all the applicants to EFE – Egypt programs, 5 percent are eventually placed with companies, an indication of their rigorous selection and training process. “Our graduates are usually highly qualified, so the company has strong incentives to help keep them around.”

Like the Egyptian E-Learning University, the foundation started out small, but has big plans. “In our second round of training we’re working with 60 students,” Ahmed says. “Based on the growth of other programs in Yemen and Jordan, we hope to place 300-500 students next year, and hopefully 1,000 annually after that.” Her expansion plans will rely on forming partnerships with NGOs in governorates outside Cairo to expand the program. “EFE is a model, not just an organization. Part of our mission is spreading our ideas and getting other NGOs to start doing similar activities.”

In recognition of the need for after-graduation training, the American University in Cairo’s School of Continuing Education this month will launch a certificate program in “Career Management and Employability Skills.” The school is Egypt’s largest continuing education program, with nearly 38,000 students.

Charles Norman, dean of the continuing education school, affirms the challenges facing university graduates. “Based on a review of several data sources, there are strong indications that some graduates lack the necessary employability and work-readiness skills required by potential employers.” Of particular note is the conclusion from a thesis study that finds “generic soft skills are more important than academic knowledge in the [Egyptian] job market.”

AUC’s new certificate, the Egyptian E-Learning University, government and private sector programs, and other innovative initiatives are augmenting traditional education and helping to increase options for first-year students and graduates. Programs that embrace technology and new alternatives can help meet the needs of Egyptian youth and business