If the academic profession does not maintain adequate income levels, academic performance throughout the system inevitably suffers. Academics must receive sufficient remuneration to live an appropriate middle-class lifestyle. Through an Egyptian example of university professors demanding sums of money to their students, this article deals with the inevitable consequences of inadequate academic salaries.

Public universities in Egypt are institutions with multi-layered corruption – from sexual harassment to nepotism. The Daily News Egypt was intrigued by a recent corruption case in Ain Shams University and decided to look into the different forms of corruption directed at students at public universities. Students recount their experiences with corruption and propose solutions.

Egyptian higher education remains in a state of crisis after the 2011 revolution. Internal corruption, a lack of funding and student support and safety are among the factors adversely affecting students and the system. Economic, political, and physical insecurity in the country make it very difficult for serious changes to be made.

Thousands rallied behind a top-ranked student in a potential case of injustice and corruption. The student, who had achieved nearly perfect marks in previous years, scored zero out of 100 on all seven exams that she sat. The family believes that she is a victim of corruption and that her papers were swapped with another pupil’s.

Cairo University, Egypt’s biggest state-run academic institution, has initiated an action plan against thriving but unlawful ‘teaching centres’ in its vicinity, accusing them of “undermining the educational process”. The centres, located just outside campus, are accused of pirating academic books, producing sub-standard study guides and holding fee-charging crash courses for students. Academics, whose books have allegedly been pirated by the centres, say their complaints to law-enforcement authorities have not drawn a response.

The online disclosure of college admittance high-school exams has led to nationwide disruptions in Egypt and Algeria. Despite vows by authorities to make sure tests are secure, exam questions have been leaked prior to exam administration in both countries for several years. An October decree by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for prison sentences for unauthorized disclosure of testing materials. But that decrees has failed to deter a cluster of Facebook groups that have leaked exam questions.

The state of Egypt’s public schools is an essential indicator of the ways in which the Egyptian revolution has not reached its citizens. In fact, private tutoring has now become Egypt’s de facto education system. A number of teachers have admitted, unofficially, that they teach the strict minimum in class so as to be able to recuperate these same students in private tutoring sessions. According to some estimates, Egyptian families spend over 1 billion dollars in private classes to compensate for the poor level of education: a cost which comes to almost a quarter of the family income.