Arab world's verdict on legal education: The Egyption case between status quo, assessment, and some hope

Abstract

In the Arab World, especially Egypt, Supreme [Higher] Education Development (“HED”) has always been underestimated by the governing authorities, being perceived to be no more than a problem needing some attention and courtesy. Since the fourth decade of the 20th Century, there have been influential actions and powerful movements towards broadening access to higher education through establishing universities and other higher education institutions. Despite the significance of higher education development as a necessary requirement for achieving comprehensive progress, the public expenditure on higher education has decreased in the past few years to reach unaccepted ratios which cannot suffice to achieve any kind of reform. However, due to the permanent budget deficit, it has become a necessity to out additional sources of funding besides rationalizing the public expenditure devoted to each institute. This report surveys in its first part on the legal education in Egypt and other Arab countries. The second and third part of this report discuss in further details the legislative, regulatory, and institutional framework on legal education in addition to the admission procedures. In part four, the report highlights the internal rules, regulations, and resources of the universities and law Schools including the assessment of the faculty member, student, institution, etc. Finally, the report will provide and offer some future proposals to enhance the qualification and the managerial system of legal education in Egypt and the Middle Eastern nation in the light of their revolutions, as they are designing their constitutions.