Dr. Ahmed El-Kased, President of Menoufia University, participated today in the periodic meeting of the Supreme Council of Universities, headed by Dr. Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and attended by Dr. Mohamed Abdel Latif, Minister of Education and Technical Education, Dr. Mustafa Refaat, Secretary of the Council and members of the Council, and Dr. Adel Abdel Ghaffar, Media Advisor and Official Spokesperson for the Ministry, at the branch of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in New Alamein City.

Dr. Ahmed El-Kased confirmed that the Minister of Higher Education stressed during the meeting the necessity of continuing the readiness of laboratories in universities throughout the electronic coordination period in its various stages and the readiness of university hospitals to receive new students and conduct the necessary medical examinations before they join universities. The Minister also indicated the universities' readiness to participate in the "Learn Healthily" initiative to evaluate the physical efficiency of all new students, and the universities' readiness to participate in the "100 Days of Sports" initiative at the beginning of the new academic year. The Minister also directed the universities to continue their efforts to receive the new academic year 2024/2025, and to complete all maintenance work on buildings, stands, classrooms, laboratories, and university cities, and to ensure the presence of safety and security measures in all university facilities; to preserve lives and facilities. Dr. Ahmed Al-Qassed pointed out that Dr. Ayman Ashour praised the activities in which the universities participate in the New Alamein City, including the participation of the universities in the car rally, which was attended and sponsored by Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, with the participation of 43 student teams from 28 Egyptian universities, with the participation of 750 male and female students in the current year's edition, in addition to the participation of the universities in the "Al-Alam Al-Alamein" festival, in all cultural, artistic and sports activities, explaining that the students of Menoufia University have achieved advanced positions in these competitions. The Minister also praised the achievements made in the international classification of universities, including the inclusion of 8 Egyptian universities among the top 1000 universities in the world in the Shanghai Chinese classification for the year 2024. The Minister directed the need for universities to continue providing support to researchers to increase scientific publishing in prestigious scientific journals; to raise the classification of Egyptian universities in the major international classifications. Al-Qassid added that the Council reviewed a report on the most prominent activities of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research during the month of August, noting that the Council reviewed the Prime Minister's approval of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research's vision for Egyptian universities to offer study programs in cooperation with universities in the Gulf and African countries, provided that these programs grant academic degrees in a way that contributes to maximizing the investment of Egyptian universities in their scientific and human assets and knowledge rights outside the country. The Council authorized the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research to take the necessary measures in this regard. Al-Qassid pointed out that the Council approved updating the controls for organizing student graduation ceremonies at Egyptian universities, to emphasize that organizing graduation ceremonies and university student events is exclusively within the university campus and university facilities. It is not permissible to call any event held outside university facilities a "graduation ceremony", and it is not permissible to use the name or logo of the university in such events. Faculty members, assistants and administrators at universities are prohibited from attending them, and this presence is considered a departure from the authentic university values ​​and traditions. The date of the event is also determined in the annual semester activities plan, and this plan is approved by the relevant councils. The approval of the Council must also be obtained. The college in the event of organizing events at the department, program, division or college level, but in the event of organizing an event at the university level, the approval of the relevant Vice President of the University and the University Council must be obtained, and a committee is formed to supervise the organization of any student event headed by a faculty member and the membership of a number of faculty members and administrators at the university, and one or more executive committees are formed and faculty members, assistants and administrators at the university are the basis of these committees, and these committees carry out their executive tasks under the supervision of the Supervisory Committee, and students participate as assistants in the implementation under the supervision of the Supervisory Committee and the Executive Committees. Mr. Mohamed Abdel Latif, Minister of Education and Technical Education, explained during the meeting the challenges facing the pre-university education system in terms of classroom shortages, teacher shortages and the density of curricula compared to education systems at the regional and international levels, and the Minister presented the elements of the Ministry's executive plan to deal with these challenges at all levels.