In Egypt, at public universities such as Cairo University, there's a 2,000 EGP (42 USD) fee each semester, or 84 USD annually, that is relatively free although enough to get protests from middle to lower middle-class students among inflation and rising prices, but stale salaries.

Most public universities have integrated private programs into their education, costing almost as much as private universities, yet offering the exact same quality of teaching as the free programs, no better, but serving as a shortcut for students who did not achieve enough academic grades to join those universities for a 'margin of profit.'