Project Vision

The higher education system functions on a basis that ensures quality by using information and communication technology to implement and manage the educational process within its institutions, depending on an information center for higher education that provides information required for teaching, scientific and technical research, and serves the community. 

Project Mission

To provide electronic access and circulation of information through university networks directly and quickly, in addition to initiating new educational approaches, achieving complete automation of university management, and preparing the academic community to deal with IT through directed and sustained training.

Project Objectives

ICTP main objectives have been planned as follows:

1. Increasing the efficiency and coverage of the infrastructure for the Egyptian information network and the Egyptian University Networks (EUN) within the Supreme Council of Universities (SCU) to cover the entire higher education system.
2. Initiating comprehensive applications for MIS and DSS in university and SCU.
3. Developing a plan at the university level and SCU to apply the principle of remote and e-learning.
4. Providing electronic formats for sources of information from books, references and periodicals and making them accessible through the university information network.
5. Establishing  centers within Egyptian universities and SCU to offer services that depend on information and communication technology in higher education with the aim of:
6. Transferring curricula into electronic format
7. Training staff members on employing information and communication technology.
8. Automating university libraries.

Main Project Components

The project’s five main components were as follows:
1- Network Infrastructure
2- Management Information System (MIS)
3- E-learning
4- Digital libraries.
5- ICT training
Project Achievements
1- Network Infrastructure

• Establishing the unified network of higher education and scientific research that links all universities, research centers, Mubarak City for Science and Technology, and Alexandria Library.
• Increasing the efficiency of the Egyptian university network infrastructure and supplying it with devices for processing, storing and protecting data.
• Increasing the efficiency of university intra-networks to link all faculties to the university information network, increase the network nodes, and enhance the processing and storage capacities.
• Establishing televised and video conference network in the Egyptian universities.

1. Providing two 155 Mbps Internet Bandwidth
   which helped raise the speed of universities’ internet from 55 Mbps to 310 Mbps, in addition to connecting to the international network “Internet 2” at a speed of  34 Mbps and to EUMEDCONNECT at a speed of 34 Mbps.

2- Management Information System (MIS)

Accomplishments at the university level

1. Establishing a center to support and activate MIS within each university participating in the project (14 universities) as units equipped with the required furnishing, equipment, and air conditioners. They were set up in distinctive locations and supplied with the main servers, data storage units, devices, and trained technical cadres that are capable of monitoring the system operation. The centers were also supplied with software, such as operating systems, databases, protection systems, and user licenses. The MIS centers are supervised by a staff member assisted by two other staff members.
2. Developing unified software and applications for the sections of education and student affairs, post-graduate and research, staff and teaching assistants’ affairs, teaching schedules, exam and control work at 14 universities, and linking them to electronic student placement and SCU.
3. Developing software and applications for the post-graduate sector, including research, cultural affairs, conferences, and projects, and applying it in Cairo University on an experimental basis, while retaining the right to circulate and activate it in the rest of the universities.
4. Operating the MIS in 185 faculties.
5. Uploading all bylaws and student data, in addition to providing computers, various multi usage printers, and scanners needed for work in faculties and central university management for the departments of education and student affairs, graduate affairs, post graduate and research affairs, and staff member affairs. Moreover, the capacities of workers and data entry personnel have been raised through training on ICT and MIS applications.
6. Integrating SCU database systems with universities database systems.
7. Uploading all applications on the internet whether on the websites of the MIS centers or university websites.
8. Collecting students and exam control data and turning them into electronic format in the universities participating in the project.
9. Uploading electronic student placement data to MIS.

Accomplishments at the SCU level

1. Establishing an MIS and DSS centre at SCU.
2. Creating an electronic information portal for SCU.
3. Developing and applying information system for the equivalence management department, general secretariat of the council, and statistics department at SCU. Currently, the development and application of the information systems for the rest of SCU departments are being finalized.
4. Connecting with MIS in universities to exchange information electronically among systems.
5. Preparing and processing data related to the decisions of the equivalence committee and the council’s meeting minutes.
6. Developing an integrated infrastructure for SCU and providing them with computers, equipment, networks, and software.
7. Upgrading trained human resource capacities to use MIS and DSS.
8. Establishing MIS and DSS at SCU.
9. Establishing a complete database capable of supporting SCU management system.
10. Establishing a data reservoir and an electronic template database for DSS at SCU.
11. Establishing an SCU information portal capable of providing all its services U electronically to all stakeholders inside and outside Egypt.

3- E-Learning

• Establishing a National Centre for e-Learning (NeLC) at SCU (www.nelc.edu.eg).
• Establishing 17 centers in the Egyptian universities for producing electronic courses.

1. Developing an Instructional Design System for e-courses (IDS).
2. Developing e-courses generator system (ECG).
3. Developing e-courses evaluation and monitoring system (ECEM).
4. Developing the Egyptian Virtual Labs Portal (EVLP).
5. Producing and publishing 102 e-courses and 26 more are currently under production.
6. Applying 31 e-courses in universities during the first semester of the academic year 2009/2010.

4- Digital Libraries

• Establishing a digital library containing more than 200,000 sources of electronic information, among which are 40,000 periodicals, 15,000 e-books, in addition to over 2.4 million complete theses and dissertations. All these resources are available through a unified electronic search portal (www.eul.edu.eg).
• Creating a unified index of all university library holdings, containing more than two million records of books, periodicals, and dissertations available on the shelves in university libraries (www.eul.edu.eg).
• Building a database for the dissertations approved by Egyptian universities, containing more than 200,000 abstracts of university dissertations.
• Developing the future library system which now includes around 80% of the job requirements of library management systems.

5- ICT Training

• Establishing a fully equipped and staffed a central unit to prepare and monitor training on ICT at SCU secretariat.
• Establishing 17 fully equipped and staffed sub-training centers at universities.
• Preparing complete training material (for both trainer and trainee) and a matrix that allows for specialized training for all university personnel in management, education, and research.
• Training more than 22,000 career track trainees during the three training stages. The project has also supervised more than 3,000 program trainees in the training offered by Microsoft on “e-learning” and “digital literacy” within the framework of the Egyptian education initiative.
• Implementing specialized training for other projects such as FOEP and university MIS project.
• Training a group of competent trainers to work at the university training centers.
• Establishing a trainee and trainer database during the period of the project in all universities.
• Establishing an electronic infrastructure that allows for holding central  exams as well as the automation of the training management and monitoring sub-centers.