Criticism greets new higher education minister

Within days of being named as Egypt's new higher education minister – the fifth in 15 months – Mohamed al-Nashar had been slammed by academics for both his political past and his present views.

Critics said al-Nashar, a former president of the state-owned Helwan University, was a member of the now-disbanded party of former president Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in a popular revolt in February last year.

“The revolution is in decline,” said Yehia al-Qazzaz, a member of the March 9 Movement, which espouses university independence. “Al-Nashar's appointment as higher education minister shows that Mubarak's policy is still in force despite his overthrow.”

The controversial appointment was part of a minor reshuffle earlier this month in the army-backed government of Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, which was formed in December.

The reshuffle was seen as an attempt by the military rulers, who have been governing Egypt since Mubarak's toppling, to defuse tensions with an Islamist-oriented parliament that has called for sacking al-Ganzouri's government allegedly for being inefficient.

Al-Nashar, a former dean of Helwan University's engineering school, has also been criticised for previously suggesting the reinstatement of police guards from the Interior Ministry to keep order on the campus, in violation of a court ruling passed in October 2010.

Opponents of the police’s reappearance on campus believe that the guards were used by Mubarak's security agencies to quell dissidents and keep a close watch on political activism in universities. Security in Egypt's universities is now maintained by civilian employees.

Although al-Nashar did not repeat his suggestion, critics say he is in favour of an oppressive police state.

Al-Nashar also recently infuriated professors with a statement attributed to him, in which he reportedly accused university lecturers of "no longer undertaking their mission as educators and of being too lazy".

Although the minister said the reported statement was inaccurate and taken out of context, several university groups were planning last week to stage a protest outside parliament on Sunday 20 May to show their anger.

They planned to carry a symbolic coffin denoting the ‘death’ of the Higher Education Ministry. They have also threatened to begin an open-ended strike against what they describe as university professors' dire financial status.

“It is high time everyone realised that higher education in Egypt is in danger, especially after the new minister's statements," said a pro-strike committee in a statement.

"The next revolution in Egypt will take place in universities against the Higher Education Ministry's policy and its failure to respond to teaching staff demands for a real increase in salaries."

Meanwhile, al-Nashar appealed to academics to abandon the idea of the open-ended strike, promising that his ministry would soon finish a draft bill that would increase their salaries.

"Egypt is experiencing hard circumstances and it is necessary to avoid strikes that coincide with the year-end examination time [in universities],” he said in a statement.

"The minister's statement is merely a sedative that seeks to placate academics without taking a real step to respond to their demands," said Mohamed Kamel, spokesperson for the campus protest group April 16.

He added that another escalatory action planned by professors is to refrain from overseeing and correcting exams.

Some professors in public universities in southern Egypt are already on strike to push for better wages.