Government slated over delays to new semester start

The decision by Egyptian authorities to postpone the start of the new academic year by two weeks has drawn sustained criticism from lecturers and students. Minister of Higher Education Sayed Abdel Khaleq said universities would open their gates on 11 October instead of 27 September as scheduled.

The minister attributed the postponement to what he said was the unpreparedness of university dormitories to accommodate students. But his explanation triggered criticism and raised doubts.

“According to the Universities’ Law, the academic year should begin in the third week of September. If the minister is unable to comply with the law, he should leave his post immediately,” said Hani el-Husseini, a professor at state-run Cairo University.

“If any university president cannot secure the start of studies on schedule, he should then turn to the university board to discuss whether to put off studies or not. This is what law states," added el-Husseini, a member of the pro-university independence March 9 Group.

In the last academic year, several universities and their student dormitories were hit by violent protests in response to the army’s overthrow of the country’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of students were detained, allegedly for inciting and involvement in violence on campus and a dozen were killed in clashes with riot police.

On 1 September, Daily News Egypt reported that politically affiliated student groups and activities would be banned from the Cairo University campus from the start of the new academic year.

“The last academic year was awful,” said Hesham Ashraf, the head of Cairo University’s student union. “Students were the victims of the repeated disruptions and delays during that year. This should not happen again,” he said.

To Ashraf, the reason officially cited for putting off the new semester is “unconvincing”.

Agreeing, a colleague at the university, Abdullah Anwar, slated what he called “officials’ contradictions”.

“It was the Supreme Council of Universities which first announced that the new academic year will start on 27 September,” he said, referring to the state-appointed agency in charge of academic policy and institutions in Egypt.

“Days later, the government came out to say that studies in universities will begin on 11 October. This is contradictory and confusing.”

The real reasons?

A key reason for the postponement is government concerns about an angry backlash from students if long-time autocrat president Hosni Mubarak is acquitted when a final verdict is delivered on 27 September, in a high-profile case related to the killing of protesters in a 2011 uprising that ousted him, local media said.

Mubarak and his interior minister, a co-defendant in the case, have denied any complicity in the deaths that included several students.

Another reason for the delay, according to media, is to allow universities more time to beef up security on campus in anticipation of new protests by Islamist students.

Al-Azhar University, a stronghold of Islamists, was one of the public universities hard hit by student protests in the past year. Several facilities of the seminary were heavily damaged in unrest blamed by its administrators on pro-Morsi students.

“The state authorities are unable to confront us,” a pro-Morsi group calling itself ‘Students against the Coup’ said in a recent statement.

“The state thinks it is easier to postpone the academic year than face the flood of peaceful demonstrations when universities open.”

The upcoming semester will be the country’s first since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, an ex-army chief who led Morsi’s ouster, took office as Egypt’s president in June.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its followers have repeatedly accused el-Sisi of staging a coup and vowed to continue protests until the deposed president is reinstated. Morsi, an engineering professor, is in detention, facing multiple criminal charges.