Higher education outfit Taaleem could potentially acquire an unnamed local education provider, Managing Director Mohamed El Rashidi reportedly told Al Mal. While Taaleem is currently exploring a local acquisition, a decision on whether to move forward with any transaction has yet to be made, he added. Taaleem was looking to invest EGP 1 bn in new and ongoing projects over the next three years, El Rashidi had told the press on the eve of the company’s blockbuster IPO back in April.

Separately, Taaleem will be signing education partnership agreements with two foreign universities to help develop the curriculum for its subsidiaries Badya and Nahda universities, El Rashidi says. Taaleem will sign this month an MoU with Northern Kentucky University that would see the latter help develop a curriculum for new academic programs the university plans to offer. An MoU with an unnamed European university is in the works for Badya University, which is expected to begin offering classes during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Background: Since last year, the government began enforcing a policy that new universities seeking licenses in Egypt must form academic partnerships with foreign universities. The Egyptian university must offer at least some of the degrees and curricula of the partner university, provisions must be made for a study-abroad program for Egyptian students, and partnerships can only be formed with universities ranked higher in global indices than the highest-ranked Egyptian university. Existing institutions wanting to launch new faculties and departments are also bound by the regulations.

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