Egypt To Fund Masters Students at Harvard

Harvard has entered an agreement with the Egyptian government to provide need-based financial aid to Egyptian graduate students pursuing careers in public service, an initiative which is funding three masters students this year.

The agreement, signed in October 2009, supports Egyptian citizens living in Egypt who wish to pursue a masters degree at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Education, or the Harvard Design School; to attend executive education programs; or to take courses at the Harvard Summer School.

According to the Harvard International Office’s statistics, 12 students from Egypt currently attend the University—a disproportionately small number for a country of more than 80 million. In comparison, Lebanon, a country with a population of just over four million, currently has 23 students enrolled at the University.

The initiative to increase the number of Egyptian students at Harvard was spurred in large part by the experience of Egyptian government officials who have benefited from an American education.

The current Egyptian minister of finance, who received his doctorate from MIT after taking classes at the Harvard Summer School to qualify, and the current cabinet minister, who graduated from the Design School, were instrumental in putting this agreement in place, according to Vice Provost for International Affairs Jorge I. Dominguez.

"The agreement reflects in part their own biography and the need to improve the capacity of leaders in the government," Dominguez said.

Last year’s agreement set up a $10 million fund, but it is unclear what its current value is after the past year’s financial uncertainties.

The University is collaborating in a similar way with Chile and South Korea.

Harvard’s agreement with South Korea, which was originally signed in 1975, had to be renegotiated last year after much of the funds for that program—which was intended to support professors—went unused because the University had no plans to endow new professorships in the East Asian Studies department.

Such a situation—where the University has funds but is unable to use them because of legal restrictions—has been a common problem in recent years, according to Dominguez.

"My nightmare is to sign an agreement and then have no Egyptian students be admitted," Dominguez said. "Fortunately, that didn’t happen."

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer William N. White can be reached at wwhite@fas.harvard.edu.