UCAD reopens for contact courses after nine months’ closure

After nine months’ closure following unrest and serious damage caused by violent demonstrations, Senegal’s leading university, Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), in Dakar has reopened for in-person courses, although students’ accommodation and social facilities remain closed.

Students and teachers have returned to the lecture halls and classrooms following the decision of the university’s academic council to reopen the campus, reported the Agence de Presse Sénégalaise, or APS.

The council had “decided to lift the measure suspending in-person courses from 26 February 2024”, after having “taken account of the conclusions of the security committee”, reported APS.

“At present, there are students doing their exams in the lecture halls, proving the decision is being applied properly,” APS quoted Alla Kane, president of the faculty of humanities and human sciences students’ association, as saying.

But the council’s decision did not concern reopening student accommodation and social facilities, which the students are demanding. “We shall continue our battle to open the social campus,” APS reported Kane as saying: “It must be available for the students.”

UCAD was closed in June 2023, when student demonstrations and violent confrontation with armed forces seriously disrupted higher education institutions throughout the country, linked to the imprisonment of popular politician Ousmane Sonko.

UCAD was damaged severely and remained shut when other universities had reopened, and a planned reopening in January was cancelled, despite demands of academics and students to resume in-person education.

Bara Ndiaye, the dean of the faculty of medicine, welcomed the UCAD academic council’s decision to reopen the university, even though not all students would be able to attend because their residences remained closed for the time being, reported Radio France International, or RFI.

“The resumption was decided by the academic council following information given by the university director concerning security in the area,” RFI quoted Ndiaye as saying.

“The university Cheikh Anta Diop has educated more than 100,000 students, and it has been closed for nearly 10 months, most certainly with many consequences, especially on the social and educational levels, with many risks of demotivation, abandonment and dropping out for many students,” he said.

Meanwhile, the academic council of the University Gaston-Berger (UGB) in Saint-Louis announced the university would close for a week following the death on 21 February of Clédor Prosper Senghor, the second UGB student to die from injuries sustained in violent confrontation between students and armed forces on 9 February during student protests against President Macky Sall’s attempted postponement of elections, reported APS. The university reopened on 29 February. — Compiled by Jane Marshall.

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.