{"id":25100,"date":"2026-10-31T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T07:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=25100"},"modified":"2026-10-31T10:21:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:21:51","slug":"kayan-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/kayan-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Headed by the Defense Minister, Who Appoints Its President and Deans: This Is Kayan University"},"content":{"rendered":"

The House of Representatives gave final approval, on Monday, October 12, 2026, to the law establishing \u201cKayan University of the Armed Forces for Applied Sciences,\u201d after deleting Article 25, which had granted its military students a lieutenant\u2019s salary, in response to an objection from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the fourth presidential objection to a law in the history of the Egyptian parliament.<\/p>\n

One article was deleted and fifty remained. The law, which takes effect in the 2026\/2027 academic year, establishes a university that accepts civilian and military students, whose Supreme Council is headed by the Defense Minister, who appoints its president and the deans of its faculties, determines the categories of its students and their activity fees, and applies the Military Academy\u2019s disciplinary rules to its military division. The university receives funds from the general budget, while the number of its students, the cost of establishing it, and its official tuition fees have not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

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Objection to a Single Article<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The House approved the draft law for the first time on July 22, 2026, and sent it to the Presidency on August 3. On October 1, the House Speaker, Counselor Hisham Badawi, read out the President\u2019s letter<\/a> objecting to Article 25, based on Article 123 of the Constitution, which grants him the right to refer the draft law back to parliament within thirty days.<\/p>\n

The article had granted military division students \u201ca monthly bonus equivalent to the starting salary of the rank of lieutenant and the legally prescribed allowances,\u201d effective from the date that rank was granted to their peers graduating from the Military College, alongside an annual bonus for top-performing students determined by each faculty\u2019s internal bylaws. The President wrote that the university accepts students in both divisions, and that boarding is mandatory for all of them, and therefore he saw fit to \u201cabolish the provision in Article 25 granting the monthly and annual bonus, in further consolidation of the constitutional principle of equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

On October 5, the House approved its General Committee\u2019s report accepting the objection, and formed a special committee headed by Dr. Assem El-Gazzar, First Deputy Speaker of the House, which concluded unanimously on October 7 that the article should be deleted in full. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that keeping the article would have created disparity between students of the two divisions, and between them and students of other universities, \u201cin a manner that contradicts the principles of equality and equal opportunity,\u201d according to Asharq<\/a> Al-Awsat.<\/p>\n

The committee discussed two approaches: the first, put forward by Counselor Hany Hanna, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, holds that students of both divisions share a single legal standing because the university is \u201ca public body of a scientific character enjoying independent legal personality,\u201d so they may not be financially differentiated; the second compares military students to their counterparts in other military colleges regardless of the existence of a civilian division. The committee adopted the first approach, and said in its report that the deletion \u201creflects an explicit legislative retreat from establishing those bonuses, whether directly or through internal bylaws,\u201d according to Masrawy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the fourth presidential objection to a draft law in the history of Egyptian parliamentary life, after President Anwar El Sadat\u2019s objection to the tax justice law in 1978, and President El Sisi\u2019s objection to the clinical medical research law in 2018 and to eight articles of the Criminal Procedure Law in 2025, according to the General Committee\u2019s report as cited by Sada<\/a> El Balad.<\/p>\n

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What the Defense Minister Holds<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Article One stipulates that the university is established as a \u201cpublic body\u201d headed by the Defense Minister, headquartered in Cairo, with branches established by a decision of the President of the Republic based on the Minister\u2019s proposal. The Minister heads the university\u2019s Supreme Council, which includes the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, the heads of its bodies and departments, the university\u2019s president, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Universities, and only four professors from Egyptian universities nominated by the Supreme Council of Universities, according to the text of the law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By his own decisions, the Minister appoints the university\u2019s president and determines the term of the position (Article 15), its Secretary-General (Article 18), and the deans of faculties and directors of research centers (Article 19), and forms the university council (Article 11). He determines the categories of students in each faculty (Article 4), decides on the establishment of research centers or the annexation of military centers to the university (Article 5), exempts whomever he wishes among civilian division students from the mandatory boarding system (Article 6), and sets the monetary fee for student activities at no more than 10% of tuition (Article 24). The internal bylaws determine which decisions of the Supreme Council and the university council must be submitted to him for approval (Article 14). That is, the law grants the Defense Minister eleven direct powers over the university, by Zawia3\u2019s count.<\/p>\n

Article 23 permits students of both divisions to study courses \u201cof a shared nature\u201d together, and Article 26 permits transferring civilian division students to equivalent civilian faculties. Articles 27 through 35 subject military division students to the disciplinary rules of the Military Academy Law, and allow the university council to dismiss them and determine the cases in which a dismissed student may complete his studies in the civilian division, while regulating a separate disciplinary council for civilians. Articles 36 through 39 regulate mandatory training and the Minister\u2019s authority to determine its location, and the appointment of military division graduates at the rank of their counterparts from the Military College.<\/p>\n

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A Copy of the Military Academy Law<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The government says Kayan is an independent civilian university, and El-Gazzar said during the discussions that the special committee rejected invoking the Military Academy\u2019s system and applying it to its students. But comparing the law to Egyptian Military Academy<\/a> Law No. 149 of 2022 reveals a match in structure and powers: Article One in both laws makes the entity subordinate to the Defense Minister and permits the establishment of branches by a presidential decision based on his proposal, and the Supreme Council in both cases includes professors from civilian universities, five in the Academy and four in Kayan. The cap on student activity fees at 10% of tuition is identical in both laws.<\/p>\n

The deleted article itself has its origin in Article 40 of the Academy Law, which permits the Defense Minister to decide financial or in-kind bonuses and incentives for its students \u201cnot exceeding the starting salary\u201d of the rank that graduates receive. The fundamental difference runs in the opposite direction: Article 27 of the Academy Law stipulates that the state bears the costs of students\u2019 education, training, clothing, food, medical treatment, housing, and transportation, while a Kayan student bears the costs of study and boarding if he does not complete it at any stage.<\/p>\n

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Who Pays?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Rifaat Fayad, editor-in-chief of \u201cAkhbar El Youm\u201d and an education expert, believes that Kayan is neither governmental, private, nor a private non-profit university, and that it finances itself from its own revenues \u201cand nothing is drawn from the state budget,\u201d citing Harvard University, whose budget approaches the budgets of some countries, as an example. But Article 20 of the law lists the first source of the university\u2019s funding as \u201cthe amounts allocated to it within the state\u2019s general budget,\u201d then payment for its services to others, loans, donations, gifts, and grants, and Article 21 stipulates that it shall have a special budget \u201cfollowing the pattern of the state\u2019s public service bodies,\u201d according to Veto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kayan comes amid a governmental expansion in non-free universities. The number of private non-profit universities has reached 32, compared to 28 government, 37 private, and 12 technological universities, according to the Ministry of Higher Education, as cited by El Youm<\/a> El Sabea. Fayad says the state has, over the past eight years, borne the cost of establishing these universities instead of relying on civil society donations, and last June the government signed a protocol<\/a> settling the financing of the establishment of 11 private non-profit universities worth 48.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about $863 million) over three years.<\/p>\n

Neither the university nor the Ministry of Higher Education has officially announced its tuition fees. News websites<\/a> are circulating figures that are not attributed to any official source: from 150,000 to 165,000 Egyptian pounds for human medicine (about $2,670 to $2,940), from 120,000 to 145,000 pounds ($2,152.85 to $2,601.36) for dentistry, from 80,000 to 110,000 pounds ($1,435.24 to $1,973.29) for physical therapy and pharmacy, from 65,000 to 80,000 pounds ($1,166.15 to $1,435.24) for engineering, and from 55,000 to 80,000 pounds ($986.72 to $1,435.24) for computers and artificial intelligence, at an exchange rate of about 56.2 pounds to the dollar in late October. Zawia3 contacted Adel Abdel Ghaffar, spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, to verify these figures, but he did not respond.<\/p>\n

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Mohamed Kamal, assistant professor at Cairo University, tells Zawia3 that Kayan resembles private universities whose tuition has exceeded 400,000 pounds ($7,176.18), and criticizes the absence of disclosure about universities\u2019 revenues and expenditures: \u201cThere is no complete and transparent announcement about universities, their sources of funding, and their expenditures in detail, and transparency is needed in all universities, whether government, private, or private non-profit, so that we know whether the financial loss is offset by another gain.\u201d He considers the bonuses granted by the Universities Organization Law to top-performing students, between 80 and 120 pounds ($1.44 to $2.15) annually, \u201cshameful\u201d since the law was issued, and demands they be raised by one thousand percent: \u201cIt is not right for an outstanding student to be rewarded with eighty pounds.\u201d As for what Military Academy students actually receive in bonuses, this has not been officially announced.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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What Does the University Offer?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The university was established, according to what has been announced about it, based on presidential directives to prepare personnel \u201cwith the latest advances in science,\u201d with an educational system \u201crivaling world universities.\u201d Kayan includes faculties of human medicine, dentistry, physical therapy, pharmacy, engineering, and computers and artificial intelligence, and requires that applicants hold a general or Azhari secondary certificate or its equivalent in the scientific track, be no older than 21, be Egyptian from Egyptian parents and grandparents who hold no other nationality, and be medically, physically, and psychologically fit, according to the admission announcement<\/a>. The minimum admission threshold starts at 90% for medicine, 89% for dentistry, 88% for physical therapy, 87% for pharmacy, 85% for engineering, and 80% for computers, and study in engineering and computers lasts four years under the credit-hour system. The university announces that it includes \u201cthe largest medical simulation center in the Middle East,\u201d and early clinical training in teaching hospitals.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Kamal believes that the university\u2019s focus on medicine, engineering, and computers is an extension of the experience of the Armed Forces College of Medicine, which was established by Law No. 74 of 2013 and relied on professors seconded from Cairo and Ain Shams Universities. The new law transfers that college\u2019s affiliation to Kayan with all its assets, teaching staff, and workers, and repeals its law, while its current students retain their legal and financial standing, including their monthly bonuses, according to El Youm<\/a> El Sabea. That is, current military students retain the bonus of which those who will join after them have been deprived.<\/p>\n

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During the October 12 session, MP Atef Maghawry demanded changing the university\u2019s name \u201cbecause of its association with the name of an entity hostile to Egypt,\u201d to which Major General Khaled Shehdy, Assistant Defense Minister for Legal Affairs, responded by insisting on keeping the name, saying: \u201cWe object to linking the name Kayan to any other connotations,\u201d and that the name is taken from \u201cKayan\u201d city in the New Administrative Capital, where the university is located, and that it \u201ccombines the authenticity of the Arabic language with the modernity of contemporary education,\u201d according to Masrawy<\/a>. The name remained unchanged.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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From the Economy to the University<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In a study published by the Carnegie Middle East<\/a> Center in 2022 titled \u201cRetain, Restructure, or Divest: Policy Options for Egypt\u2019s Military Economy,\u201d researchers observed a \u201cdramatic\u201d expansion of the military since July 2013 into housing, infrastructure, industrial zones, capital goods, media, and agriculture, its control over vast areas of land, and its participation in directing policy in sectors including telecommunications, digital transformation, and automotive manufacturing.<\/p>\n

This expansion extended into education, as Assafir<\/a> Al-Arabi observed in 2022: the National Service Projects Organization oversaw the supply of school meals and the kitchens of Cairo University\u2019s student housing, and the Engineering Authority built the Japanese schools, 257 model schools in 18 governorates in 2016, 225 schools including 98 in Upper Egypt, and 100 schools in 17 governorates with Emirati funding, alongside the military-owned Badr Language Schools at a cost of 90 million pounds ($1,614,639.40) on 30 feddans, the buildings of Zewail University in 2018 at a cost of 966 million pounds ($17,330,462.86), and the Applied Technology School affiliated with the Ministry of Military Production in 2019. Then came the Military Academy Law in 2022, then military colleges teaching civilian specializations in 2026, then Kayan.<\/p>\n

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There is no official figure for the size of this economy. But Zawia3 reported<\/a> in 2023 what President El Sisi said in December 2016, that the military\u2019s activity represents between 1.5% and 2% of GDP, adding \u201cI wish\u201d in response to those who estimate it at twenty or fifty percent, while external estimates range between 10% and 40%. Yezid Sayigh, a researcher at the Carnegie Center, believes that the official figures measure only the goods and services produced by military bodies, not the military\u2019s role as a general contractor, a distributor of state contracts, and an owner of land. The Armed Forces budget is entered as a single figure in the general budget under Article 203 of the Constitution, so neither parliament nor the Central Auditing Organization knows its details. The National Service Projects Organization alone controls 32 companies, a third of which were established after 2015, according to the Financial Times. In January 2023, the government pledged to the International Monetary Fund to subject military companies to the state ownership policy, raise their tax exemptions, and publish their semi-annual accounts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another Zawia3 investigation<\/a> in 2025 revealed this expansion\u2019s impact on the private sector: military companies are exempt from taxes and customs, operate with conscripts, and obtain projects through direct assignment. A contractor, speaking under a pseudonym, says the Engineering Authority executes about 90% of projects, and another contractor estimates that about 500 out of a thousand contracting companies have stopped operating. In a research article<\/a> published by the journal \u201cCurrent History,\u201d the author held that Egyptian universities were affected by the return of military rule after 2011, and that the expansion of for-profit higher education calls into question the traditional model of the government university whose enrollment the state guarantees.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Rifaat Fayad believes the university is the fruit of \u201cacademic cooperation\u201d between the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Higher Education, teaching the usual government curricula with a focus on the applied side, and that its affiliation with the Armed Forces resembles, in principle, other universities\u2019 affiliation with the Ministry of Higher Education, and that it may relieve the state of part of the burden of establishing universities. Mohamed Kamal agrees with him that the state wants to repeat the experience of the Military College of Medicine, which he says graduated officer-physicians \u201cat the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law takes effect in the 2026\/2027 academic year. As of the publication of this report, neither the university, the Ministry of Defense, nor the Ministry of Higher Education has announced the targeted number of students, the cost of establishing the university and its funding sources, or its official tuition fees.<\/p>\n

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