The study aimed to identify the level of applying rational governance in higher education institutions in Sharkia governorate and its principles: Administrative organization, financial management, transparency, legal accountability, participation, empowerment, decision-making rationality, integrity, effectiveness of the institution, and competitiveness separately, testing the significance of differences in the level of applying rational governance in higher education institutions in Sharkia governorate and its principles individually from the point of view of academics and administrators, and identifying the most important problems that limit the application of rational governance principles in higher education institutions in Sharkia governorate from the point of view of the respondents. The study was conducted at Zagazig University in Sharkia governorate, and the Faculty of Commerce (literary college) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (practical college) were chosen by simple random sample, an inventory was made of the number of employees according to the staff (academics, administrators) of each faculty. The respondents were selected by 20% of the total employees of each staff in the two colleges together, where the number of academics 117 respondents, while the number of administrators reached 132 respondents and the data were collected by a questionnaire, starting from October until the end of November 2018. Statistical analysis of these data was used as follows: percentages, frequencies, arithmetic average, Alpha-Cronbach stability coefficient, and Independent-Samples T test. The study reached the most important results: The level of applying rational governance in higher education institutions in Sharkia governorate was average from the point of view of the majority of academic respondents by 44.4%, while it was low from the point of view of the majority of administrators respondents by 47%. It also showed that there are significant differences at the level of 0.05 in the level of applying rational governance from the point of view of academics and administrators, and these differences in favor of the category of academics with the highest average of 256.44.