BUE Boss Reveals Establishment of Univ. of London South Bank's Branch in Egypt (Part 1)

By: Mai Shaheen

13 years of hard work in order to achieve the dreams that it was based on, today British University in Egypt (BUE) starts to gain it aims given the starting point and its scientific systems.

Over the years, the high institution has decided to establish the international branch of its official partner, London South Bank in Egypt and its new specialties.

The details are in a special dialogue with Dr. Ahmed Hamad, President of BUE, in its first part.

• Regarding competitiveness of foreign university branches in Egypt, How do you evaluate them? What about the BUE in this equation?

It is a new experiment, as both the President of the Republic Abdul Fattah El-Sisi and Dr. Khalid Abdul Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said that instead of sending students abroad in other countries, why not bring the best branches of universities in the world to Egypt, The first goal is to make sure students in Egypt acquire knowledge in the country and not abroad, and the second to attract hard currency, since the presence of universities at a high level in the world will be an incentive to us.

The aim of these branches in Egypt is that they are independent of themselves from any educational systems in Egypt that they give the same certificate that they give in their country, hence the conditions of restrictions and study is the same as moving universities from their country to Egypt.

• What are the details of the establishment of an international branch of the University of London South Bank in the administrative capital?

Point of correction, the branch will not be established in the new administrative capital, but the branch will be established near the campus of the British University in Egypt, and will be a separate branch in accordance with the law of the establishment of branches of foreign universities in Egypt.

• What about the budget?

The budget has not yet been agreed, and we are still in negotiations between the two sides. We have an agreed concept of embracing the branch within the campus of Egypt.

•What is the difference between the branch and BUE?

The University of London South Bank gives its certificates to most of our disciplines, but the purpose of the branch is for advanced technological sciences.

It was the best university last year in England and has the highest employment rate for its graduates in English society. Since we worked with it 7 years ago, our aims focus on how its curriculum leads to the recruitment of students, and a center that houses 5,000 researchers which is a very large number.

The branch is coming to apply its philosophy here in Egypt, there will be reciprocal studies between Egypt and England in the university.

What about disciplines?

The section focuses on the science of the future. A questionnaire on these sciences has been created and found in many modern sciences such as robots, industrial intelligence, bioinformatics, genetics, space research, nanotechnology and mechatronics.

So we have 3 main goals in these future sciences, namely modern technology, modern science and bioinformatics.

• What about the names of Egyptian universities of foreign character in Egypt? and What distinguishes your university from the rest?

BUE has entered into a scientific partnership since the beginning of the work 13 years ago. We have the same vision, after the founders of the university found the most appropriate systems of higher education in Egypt.

We have America, Europe, England, East Asia, Japan and Russia. The university with the British system is the most appropriate system for Egyptians; for many reasons.

Therefore, the answer to why Britain, it is the most appropriate educational system for us, and the name of the British University in Egypt; means the application of the same quality standards in higher English education institutions in Egypt, and then came the name of the university, 13 years ago we started with full partnership with two major universities, the first of which is Loughborough University.

It was the world's number 10 in the world ranking. It also gives a certificate of accreditation. In addition to BUE, the university system allows two certificates, In the Supreme Council Universities, in addition to the scientific partnership certificate from Loughborough University, and then students get two certificates if they meets the British University terms and conditions of Loughborough University, in addition to the London South Bank University.

I know that the only British university in Egypt that gives certified degrees from Egypt and England is the British University in Egypt, because it is not about the application and adoption of the curriculum, but the adoption of the curriculum.

The first step is then to exercise full control in the description of the program and delivery to the student, and the examinations are reviewed before the student obtained, and the rights of the student are reserved.

•How are exams reviewed before students receive them?

The university professor does not give the exam at the end of the term. There is a system that has been in place since the establishment of the university until now. In accordance with the quality rules and standards, the exam is taken in the middle of the semester. So the professor is obliged to explain the course completely. At time of the mid-term he sends the exam to the English University's participants to check it.

After that, the observations on the exam for a full month, properly corrected and modified according to the first review, both in terms of type of question, duration and grades, and then students sit for the exam. Then before the announcement of the result, comes the official program of the English University to review the correction and answers, and if all steps are correct, the result is announced, this is repeated every semester.

The student has the right to object, and he is given the right to appeal, by setting an appointment with the professor of law and giving him the correct answer form for the exam, especially since the university philosophy is that the exam is a continuation of the study.

I would like to confirm that there is a periodic review of the foreign partners for academic work within the university. If there is a defect in one of the programs, a warning will be given to withdraw the partnership if this imbalance is not corrected.

We also have another system; in case students fail up to 6 courses, they are given a second chance to take the exam in the summer leave to maintain academic level.

• What about the international ranking of the University?

The ranking of universities began a little while ago, beginning with China's Shanghai University classification, the Times Higher Education, then the US News, as well as the QS, so we have many ranks and each has a point of view in classification.

We have two famous candidates in the Middle East: QS English and US News. We have a comparative advantage over the rest of the private universities. We are the first in the QS classification at the level of Egyptian private universities and we are preceded by the American University and the Maritime Academy of Sciences. And we have obtained an advanced ranking in the US News category.

This year, we held the first place in the US News classification at all Egyptian public and private universities as well as universities with special laws.

There are criteria that have been adopted in these classifications, especially in the criterion of the ratio of faculty members to students. We have assigned a professor for every 20 students, and this is the result of the experience of working with the English side.

There is no university in Egypt with this percentage and the standard of scientific research, Especially with the establishment of serious in our work, the first 10 years of our age we were interested in the quality of higher education in 2005, BUE was not recognized in Egypt at the time. But after the National Authority for accreditation and quality of education reviewed our work over 4 years of, they found out that we kept the same pace with English quality. Then came the role of scientific research four years ago.

The second message for the university is that we set conditions for members of the faculty according to the law to effect the promotion between scientific grades every 5 years according to scientific research provided.

There is a good policy for private universities, which is followed by the Supreme Council of Private and Private Universities: the adoption of any new program of the Sector Committee in the Council.

However, the study of this program is only started after reviewing all the criteria and conditions to start from the stands and laboratories for the new program and the number of faculty members Their proportion to the students, as well as material resources, and the approval of the Committee gives, at the start of the program, any proportion of students at the beginning and so on.