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University professors consider strike action over academic elections crisis

The political significance of Egypt's public universities' premises was a well-known factor for consideration during Mubarak's regime.
11.09.11 | Source: Ahram Online

Public universities in Egypt were never considered mere educational institutions. The political significance of their premises was a well-known factor for consideration during Mubarak's regime, with police units and State Security agents implanted within campuses.

Another fact is that during the rule of the former regime an appointment policy was applied for university administration positions, rather than an elections process. In post-Mubarak Egypt, efforts to combat university corruption are surfacing. Weeding out ex-regime members from the universities administration and replacing the appointment policy with an elections system are priorities among those who call for higher education reform in Egypt.

Shortly after the latest cabinet reshuffle, the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education issued a decision to dismiss all current public university heads, as a step prior to the new elections system through which they will be replaced. However, as a sovereign decision it needed ratification from the ruling military council.

“Upon the ministry’s decision, members of the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) conducted a meeting with the current university heads, and up until now the SCAF has not yet ratified the dismissal decision. Current university heads — many of them members of the former National Democratic Party (NDP) and closely linked to the old regime — are seeking to hinder the ratification, and it appears as though they are succeeding so far. What kind of leverage could they be possessing over the military council so they would affect their decision making?” wonders Yahia Al-Qazaz, professor of geology in Helwan University and a member of 9 March Movement for Independence of Universities.

The new policy decreed by the Supreme Council of Universities dictates that only university heads who have submitted their resignations or whose term has ended will be replaced through elections. This subjects only 40 per cent of university leadership seats to the election process. Also, the resignations of the heads of Cairo and Helwan universities have not yet been approved by SCAF.

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