CAIRO: The faculties of engineering and computer science at Egyptian universities as well as higher institutes for technology will accept 5 to 9 percent more students next year, based on a decree issued by Minister of Higher Education Hani Helal The same decree reduces the quota of students applying to faculties of medicine this year by 12.5 percent. Helal said the move is meant to encourage students to enroll into faculties that are in high demand on the job market, instead of the majors often chosen by students who receive high scores on their thanawiya amma exams: medicine and engineering. Since these two faculties only accept students with the highest grades, therefore, they have long been viewed as the "finest paths of study, leaving other faculties less popular among students. "People want these schools because of the social status they are associated with. Being a doctor or an engineer automatically puts you in this high standard in society, however, [people] do not consider the demands of the labor market, said Fatma El-Hout, principal of Sheraton Heliopolis School. The cut in the number of students accepted into medical school is in line with last year's decisions, after a court ruled in favor of the Doctors' Syndicate plea to reduce the number of prospective medicine school students by 15 percent. The syndicate last year filed a lawsuit against the Supreme Council of Universities, headed by Helal, demanding a reduction in the number of students accepted in medical school by some 12 to 15 percent. The court ruling, which was issued in September 2007, states that the number of students should go down from 10,500 to 3,500. The Doctors' Syndicate has been campaigning to decrease the number of applicants and urged parents not to pressure their children to enrolling into medical school and, instead, to advise them to apply to other fields needed in the job market. "The medical profession is exhausting and studying medicine requires a lot of money while the conditions are deteriorating and the salaries are low, said Hamdy El-Sayyed, head of the Doctors' Syndicate. "With this decree we are also trying to change the misconception in our society that medicine and engineering are good while all other careers are bad. People have to start considering what the market needs when they are applying for universities, a source inside the Ministry of Higher Education told Daily News Egypt. When the Ministry of Education reportedly raised the requirements for the top universities in order to decrease the number of applicants this year, people questioned the government's motives behind this with a majority saying the state wants to push more students towards joining private universities.
