The Supreme Council of Universities held its monthly meeting on Saturday 23-1-2021 in Helwan University, headed by Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, in the presence of Dr. Muhammad Latif, Secretary of the Council, and the heads of universities.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar thanked Helwan University for hosting the parliament session, and the minister congratulated the House of Representatives on the occasion of the start of the second legislative term. He also congratulated Dr. Hanafi Gebali for his election as Chairman of the Council, as well as the two representatives of the Council. Al-Saeed, the former president of Benha University, for his appointment as a member of the House of Representatives, and the Minister also presented him with the shield of the Supreme Council of Universities.

The Minister of Higher Education directed the university presidents to announce the schedules of the first semester exams during the first week of next February, which were decided to start immediately after the end of the mid-year vacation, stressing that the Supreme Council of Universities is in a permanent session to assess the current situation regarding the new Corona virus pandemic on a daily basis.

The minister reviewed what was done in the parliament session last Tuesday of presenting the ministry’s plan during the past period, the achievements that were made, and responding to all inquiries of the representatives, indicating the success of the presented plan in presenting the image that befits the Ministry and the Supreme Council of Universities, and Dr. Khaled Abdul Ghaffar directed the need to cooperate with the requests that come from the House of Representatives in light of the regulations and laws regulating.

The minister stressed the importance of following up the project to establish new private universities and the speed of reviewing educational programs and technical feasibility studies, indicating the need to review the five-year plan for appointing teaching assistants in universities to prepare qualified human cadres for new private universities.

During the meeting, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stressed the importance of using the mid-year vacation period to complete all preparations for completing studies after the leave ends, while continuing to implement precautionary and preventive measures in all universities.

Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar also stressed the importance of the university presidents directly following up on the readiness of university isolation hospitals and the availability of strategic stocks of medicines for dealing with the Corona virus, as well as personal condoms for all medical teams and workers in university hospitals, stressing the importance of the full readiness of all university hospitals to deal with any Possible scenarios in the event of the epidemiological spread of the emerging corona virus, stressing the willingness of university hospitals to increase the capacity of isolation hospitals at any time according to the epidemiological spread rates of the emerging corona virus, and also stressed the full coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population through the Supreme Council of University Hospitals to provide the vaccine to medical teams working In isolation hospitals as a first priority.

During the meeting the council decided:

Approval of the report of the committee formed to study and prepare a decision for societal issues, which aims to raise the university student’s awareness of (overpopulation - human rights - transparency and anti-corruption) issues, provided that studying these issues is a requirement for graduation for all Egyptian governmental, private and private universities

Approving the report submitted by the committee formed to review the draft decision of the Minister of Higher Education regarding the conditions and criteria for selecting university leaders, and the council unanimously approved the proposed draft decision and the criteria for preference form attached to it.

Approval of changing the name of the Institute of Environmental Studies and Research at Ain Shams University to become (Graduate School of Environmental Research) with the necessary legislative measures taken to change the name.

Approval in principle to establish Menoufia Ahlia University, while taking the necessary legal measures in this regard.

Approval of the coordination of students who obtained the Arab equivalent high school certificate (Sudanese - Libyan) for students who obtained high school in the academic year 2019-2020 and who were not coordinated on the scheduled and announced dates due to the circumstances of the global Corona pandemic, which led to the postponement of examinations and postponement of the issuance of secondary certificates in these two countries And that is through the Coordination Office in accordance with the rules established for admission of these categories for the academic year 2020-2021, provided that they are registered in the colleges of universities and institutes to which they are nominated in accordance with the registration and registration rules contained in the internal regulations of these colleges and institutes.

Note that the acceptance of their degrees this year is an exception at the Coordination Office, and their registration for this year is subject to the controls of the internal regulations of colleges and institutes.

The council also reviewed the latest developments related to the executive position of electronic test centers.