Despite the wide expansion of Egypt's education in general and higher education in particular, Egypt has today developed widespread shortages of skilled labor with a surplus manpower of college graduates concentrated in the public sector. There has not been any formal relationship between educational planning and manpower planning, so that matching between education and employment has been an unknown exercise until very recently.
The broad purpose of the study was to investigate, through an analytical-descriptive method, Egypt's post-secondary education planning with respect to human resource development. Derived from this purpose is the identification and suggestion of ways and means by which Egypt's higher education system can contribute more effectively to the achievement of overall national goals through a strategic plan.
The following conclusions are based on the findings of the study, which are: (1) Rapid expansion in higher education has resulted in unbalanced growth in different disciplines, both quantitatively and qualitatively; (2) there is a discrepancy betwen higher education supply and manpower demand. This is evidenced in the fact that the national economy is not absorbing students after their graduation; (3) to date, there has been little planning in the field of higher education and little coordination of educational planning with overall developmental programs in the country; and (4) there is an absence of appropriate criteria for making a judgment as to whether there is a surplus or shortage of graduates in certain professions.
It was recommended that Egypt is in need of an approach for decision making that will be translated into a strategic plan in order to link her higher education system with the socioeconomic development projects of the country. This suggested approach should be able to take into account the three factors that affected the development and expansion of Egypt's higher education system: (1) demographic change; (2) social demands; and (3) manpower requirements for social and economic programs. Therefore, the synthetic approach for decision making for Egypt's postsecondary education planning is the geo-socio-demograhic approach. This suggested approach will be beneficial to Egypt's higher education system since this method will articulate the economic and cultural needs of the Egyptian society.
