Santa Fe College hosted a delegation of sixteen Egyptian administrators from technical vocational colleges from April 17-28, 2017 as part of a six-week Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) funded by the United States Department of State. The CCAP with Egypt was administered by Florida State University with Santa Fe College as the lead community college partner.
Egypt currently has the largest higher education system in North Africa and the Middle East, serving approximately 2.7 million students per year. Most Egyptian students dream of enrolling at a university and earning a high paying job in fields such as engineering, medicine and law. Unfortunately, Egypt’s 24 public and 25 private universities are unable to absorb the large and growing youth population and demand for higher education. The result is an overcrowded university system with a low completion and graduation rate. Many Egyptians who do earn a university degree find it difficult to secure employment in their field due to an oversupply of engineers and other key professionals. Meanwhile, only a minority of Egypt’s youth enroll in the country’s technical and vocational sector due to a stigma in society against such institutions and vocational jobs. As a result, youth unemployment remains alarmingly high at over 30%. Egypt’s unemployed but educated youth directly contributed to the 2011 Arab Spring in Cairo. The Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt plans to address this challenge by creating new institutions, including new community colleges, in order to expand access to higher education and develop the skilled workforce the country needs. They must do this while also linking instruction to real-world scenarios and training students with the skills, knowledge and competence that employers need. The CCAP for Egypt sought to support this work by exposing Egyptian higher education administrators to best practices in the management of a model community college at Santa Fe College.
The Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by Florida State University and Santa Fe College.