UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1952-11-07_Page-016

President's Report 1951-52 — Page 3 Dr. Boktor describes this as marked by "many contradictory decisions, in-congruities and changing policies — the root of the trouble lies in lack of clear aims and objectives, the interference of politics and the pre-dominance of personal interest over public good." The rapid expansion of free education during the past two years has overcrowded schools and lower-ed academic standards, and constant student demonstrations have weakened even this insufficient study. Coming to A.U.C. the student both brings with him the attitudes and weaknesses developed in secondary school and finds a radically different atmosphere and process of education, to which he mast adjust. This calls for a larger remedial program and more effort in counseling and testing services. It is not enough merely to teach the student, his intellectual and character interests must be deliberately re-shaped. Another aspect of the academic work is the struggle to keep it personal by limiting the size of the student body. This has been most successfully accomplished in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, though even here some of the classes are becoming unwieldy. In the Division of Exten-sion and the Faculty of Education, popularity of the evening courses and Shortage of regular staff threaten to lead to undesirably large classes. Both of these departments combine their last two years of teaching into a single class with an alternating program of study. This permits a substan-tial enrollment with a modest teaching budget, but is now producing classes of too large size. As soon as staff and budget permit, the three years must be separated and the class units reduced to not more than twenty—five or thirty students in each section. Such individualized instruction is costly*. The Bursar's annual re-port shows that an A.U.C. student on the average pays only 40 of the cost of his education, leaving 6a10 for the institution to bear. Educational practices such as the Senior Project with its faculty advisers and oral examiners, the Library examination at the end of the sophomore year, and the seminar rather than lecture—room type of instruction cannot be main-tained cheaply, yet it is precisely these features of the University's work that give it unique value in the Egyptian university system. There is little prospect that the cost of our education can be reduced; what is needed is even more care in avoiding anything that appears to be mass edu-- cation. The need and pressure for a program of graduate work continues. With the help of the Visiting Fulbright Professors, the Faculty of Education drew up a proposed program for a Master's Degree in Education. While it is not suggested that this can be instituted during the coming year, it should be put into effect shortly, both to provide an opportunity for continued study by our graduates and to support and enhance the institution's reputa-tion as a university. It is a pleasure to record the excellent record being made by our graduates in study abroad. One Palestinian student has received a generou