CAIRO — Anger is increasing inside a number of Egyptian universities in Cairo and across the country’s governorates over security policies and the storming of college campuses by police. The unrest led to the death of an engineering student Nov. 28; the government insists that the school year be completed and the educational process be controlled through security measures to quell student protests.
The university riots were at the top of the cabinet’s priorities last week, following the disruption of studies on a number of campuses. Students announced open-ended sit-ins that would continue until their demands, including the prosecution of all individuals whose actions resulted in the death of the engineering student, are met. This would entail the ouster of the interior minister and the dismissal of Minister for Higher Education Hussam Issa for his role in allowing security forces to enter the university campus. The students also demand that the security forces vacate the perimeter of campuses, the detained students be released and all wounded students be treated with state funds.
Prime Minister Hazem el-Biblawi met with members of the Supreme Council of Universities on Dec. 4 and subsequently issued a strongly worded statement — a copy of which was obtained by Al-Monitor — that read: “The government will not allow the disruption of studies. University campuses are places of learning. Political action must remain bound by the regulations that safeguard the educational process. The state will not hesitate to adopt punitive measures going all the way to the dismissal from university of any students in violation.”
A source at the Supreme Council of Universities told Al-Monitor, “The council’s consultations with the government are very complex. This is in light of the insistence of a number of university chancellors that they act independently of the state, in order to appease students, while refraining from provoking them by preventing security forces from entering campuses again. The government, on the other hand, insists on adopting deterrent measures that would put an end to the ongoing protests in universities, which would further complicate, instead of pacify, matters in the foreseeable future.
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