Egypt’s Ministry of Education announced on Sunday the Thanaweya Amma grades required for admission to each the elite faculties at the country's public universities for the upcoming academic year (2019/2020).

Every year, nearly 600,000 high school students students take highly competitive exams in a number of subjects in order to graduate.

Scores in the nationwide exams determine which university and faculty students can attend if any.

Admission to public universities is divided into four stages, the first of which is reserved for top scoring students seeking admission into elite faculties.

For the first stage, the ministry announced that the minimum grade required for admission to faculties of medicine is 98.4 percent; dentistry is 98.3; pharmacy is 97.8 percent; and physical therapy is 97.9 percent.

The minimum grade required for admission at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University is 98 percent.

Some 143,000 high school graduates qualify for the first stage this year.

The ministry has also announced the minimum grades required for admission to second stage faculties, though it has not yet announced the grades required for each faculty.

The Office for the Coordination of Admission to Universities announced on Sunday that the minimum score required for admission in the second stage to science faculties is 78.05 percent, while admission to literature faculties requires a grade of 68.05 percent.

The third and fourth stage requirement have not yet been announced.

The number of applicants to public universities for the academic year 2019/2020 has reached 130,000 since 6 July, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced last week.