Egypt’s health authority has supported Saudi Arabia’s decision not to recognize the master’s degrees of 800 Egyptian doctors.

Khairy Abdul Daiem, head of the Egyptian Doctors’ Syndicate, said that the decision was taken following an examination of their credit hours for a program related to family medicine from the Suez Canal University, according to a media report.

“There was a committee formed to review the master’s degree programs of 800 Egyptian doctors who are working in the Kingdom. The committee determined their degrees were illegal,” Daiem said.

“The Egyptian doctors were trained in the Kingdom during their studies, but the program requires them to complete a number of hours at their training institutions to be awarded master’s degrees,” he said.

Daiem said the Egyptian Doctors’ Syndicate would intensify its efforts to find a solution to the crisis, starting with a series of meetings with Saudi health agencies and the Saudi embassy in Cairo.

According to sources, the decision to reject the degrees was due to noncompliance with guidelines set for Arab universities. Doctors must finish the full period of their training program before receiving their degrees.

There are 50,000 Egyptian doctors in Gulf countries, mostly in Saudi Arabia, where they work in public and private hospitals and make up the biggest grouping of expatriate medical staff in the country.

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