CAIRO - The Government's rosy promises concerning official jobs for top university students and postgraduates with MA and PhD degrees seem to have gone with the wind. Around 7,000 disappointed postgraduates with an MA and PhD have been waiting for a long time to find employment. On the other hand, university graduates without postgraduate degrees have been given prestigious jobs. Gamal Moussa, who has a PhD in engineering, noted that the Government promised jobs to postgraduates several months ago. The officials asked postgraduates to go to the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration to hand in their applications for jobs in various ministries and governmental agencies. He thought it bewildering that graduates were given prestigious jobs, while postgraduates were only offered inferior posts with low salaries. On the other hand, Salma el-Saeed, who has a PhD in history, said that ministerial decrees were issued in July, August and September in view of employing top university graduates and postgraduates with an MA and PhD. She asserted that the Cabinet was committed to the appointment procedures in all categories, regardless of whether the students had paid for their studies themselves or been on a scholarship. “We are surprised that some governmental authorities have appointed postgraduates on scholarships while excluding and ignoring those who paid for their studies," el-Saeed added. Mahmoud Abd el-Aziz, who holds an MA in communications, told Al-Ahram newspaper that the State should treat people equally and only use qualification as an employment criterion. Shaaban Abdul Allim, the head of the parliamentary education committee, stressed that they had come up with many solutions regarding equal employment opportunities. He noted that postgraduates would be employed as teachers at various colleges according to university regulations. Postgraduates specialising in agriculture would be given jobs in agricultural research centres of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Sinai and New Valley or national cultivation projects. Allim added that postgraduates with an MA and PhD, who were in the top 1000, would be given jobs in teacher training and research to improve their financial situation, so they could complete their studies and get a professor degree. Law postgraduates would be employed in the judicial authorities, such as the prosecution or human rights research centres, according to Article 118 of the judicial authority law.
