Introduction

In May 2025, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education announced the establishment of 12 new private universities within a record time frame, with classes scheduled to begin in the 2025-2026 academic year.¹Private universities, as defined by the Egyptian government, are universities established and administered by the government but with high fees that cover their operating costs. They differ from public universities in that they do not offer education services free of charge, as public universities do. This brought the number of private universities in Egypt from 20 before the announcement to 32, with the new universities set to begin operating just five months after the announcement.²State Information Service, “Minister of Higher Education announces republic decisions to establish 12 new private universities”, available at https://mediadr.sis.gov.eg/bitstream/handle/123456789/102850/....pdf This expansion comes within the framework of an unprecedented boom in this sector since August 2020, with the number of private universities increasing from just three established during the first decade of the new millennium.³These three private universities are: the French University in Egypt (2002), Nile University (created in 2006, and officially converted to a private university in 2014), and the Egyptian Private University for E-Learning (2008). For more information, see the Supreme Council of Universities, available at https://scu.eg/en/

The uniqueness of this ministerial announcement lies in the surprising speed of its implementation, especially compared to the journey of private universities in Egypt, which took decades to reach launch, operation, and student enrollment. Its importance is also highlighted by the fact that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has embraced this project from its inception and has keenly and repeatedly promoted it, as will become clear in the analysis of the narrative.⁴Presidency of the Republic, “President El-Sisi Follows-up on Work Progress in the Grand Egyptian Museum”, available at https://www.presidency.eg/EN/.../news-1042023/ Therefore, it was not surprising that the prime minister stated that “all credit for the rapid establishment of private universities goes to President Sisi’s directives”.⁵رئيس الوزراء: "يجب أن ننسب الفضل كله في إنشاء الجامعات الأهلية بأسرع وقت وبأعلى جودة ممكنة لفخامة الرئيس"، الأهرام، متاح علىhttps://gate.ahram.org.eg/Massai/News/4987278.aspx

From this perspective, studying the state’s narrative on the rapid promotion of this policy is particularly important, as it provides a clear example of one of the radical changes pursued by the state in the field of university education and shows how these policies are constructed at the narrative level. The importance of this analysis is compounded when we consider that the Egyptian president, in one of his statements on the policy of establishing private universities, concluded by saying: “What I hope to see achieved will be the roadmap for the country”.⁶Sixth Bulletin, “President Sisi: The establishment of private universities aims to provide a lower-cost educational environment” (Arabic), 25 October 2022, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k3aIH1DJIE   This demonstrates that this policy is not isolated from other current public policy sectors, but rather reflects a broader approach adopted by the president in dealing with public issues he considers to be priorities that must be addressed.

In light of this, this study seeks to analyze this narrative using the narrative framework of policies, which is based on the assumption that humans are “storytelling animals” (homo narrans), and that stories play a fundamental role in how individuals and groups understand public issues and in the design, processes, and outcomes of policies.⁷Michael D. Jones, Elizabeth A. Shanahan, and Mark K. McBeth, eds., “Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework”, in The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, p. 1 (Jones et al, “Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework”). This approach focuses on deconstructing the tactical construction of the narrative and how its elements are used to influence political processes and outcomes, based on the premise that changing public opinion requires telling a good story rather than relying on the details of the policy itself.⁸Jones et al, “Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework”, p. 9; Jones et al, “Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework”, p. 2.

The narrative framework is based on four basic structural elements. I will use these to analyze the state’s private university narrative in order to deconstruct the symbolic conflict around educational justice, which is now occurring more than 65 years after the adoption of the principle of semifree public universities.⁹Jones et al, “Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework”, pp. 6-7. The structural elements are:

1. Setting: This is the context in which the public policy issue is raised, including facts that are taken for granted, legal and constitutional constraints, geographical and demographic characteristics, as well as rules agreed upon by most of the parties concerned. It is the stage on which the events of the political story unfold.
2. Characters: These are central to every political narrative; the framework classifies these characters into three main types: heroes, who have the ability to solve the problem; villains, who are blamed for causing it; and victims, who bear the consequences. These characters do not have to be specific individuals; they can be abstract entities such as the environment or freedom, or broad social groups such as students.
3. Plot: This link connects the different characters and the general framework of the policy “story”, and often has a beginning, middle, and end. The narrative framework does not provide a strict procedural definition of the plot, which opens the context to accommodate multiple forms.
4. Moral of the Story: This is the outcome that the narrative usually presents as the optimal solution to the problem at hand. It may take the form of a new direction for the state or simply a call to maintain the status quo. However, some narratives may lack a clear solution and instead aim to highlight the magnitude of the problem or focus on the uncertainty surrounding it.