Ocean County College Halting Egyptian University Partnership

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Ocean County College is halting an international program that coordinated with Egyptian universities because the program is not economically viable, the college has announced.

"During the Board of Trustees meeting today, the Board made the decision to discontinue the development of an international program with Egyptian universities," Ocean County College President Pamela Monaco said. "The Egyptian Universities are not able to guarantee the necessary enrollment numbers to sustain an economically viable program."

The program, which was instituted at OCC in 2015, has connected Egyptian students with Ocean County College programs in partnerships with Egyptian colleges, according to the Ocean County College website.

One program with IMI Management and Training Institute provides language training for a call center company, and has been partnered since 2015.

Three colleges in Cairo, Egypt — Ain Shams University, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, and Ahram Canadian University — have been in three-way partnerships with Ocean County College and Kean University since 2016, allowing the students to receive degrees from Kean, OCC and their Egyptian college in a variety of courses.

Former president Jon Larson touted the program at the beginning of the 2016 fall semester as part of an innovative way to embrace the growing global economy, and said the college had a "responsibility to be effective global citizens."

While OCC is shutting down the program, the statement said it will "fulfill its obligation to teach out all students who may remain from earlier cohorts, and we will share the decision with our international program partners."

The program's costs and revenue were not immediately available.

The cancellation of the Egypt program is the first major change Monaco has made since starting her tenure as Ocean County College's president in July. Her hiring to succeed Larson was announced in January.

Larson initially was supposed to stay on as a part-time consultant for two years, according to the hiring announcement, but he resigned from the $150,000 position in August, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Ocean County College received an accreditation status warning letter from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, saying it found deficiencies in the college's leadership structure under Larson. The letter was sent to OCC just days before Monaco took over.

The letter says OCC gave "insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with Standard VII (Governance, Leadership, and Administration)." The warning letter, signed by Heather F. Perfetti, president of the Middle States Commission, says Ocean County College will remain accredited under the warning and has until Jan. 16, 2024, to submit an updated report to show it is in compliance.