A Cairo court this week ordered the return of police guards to Egypt's university campuses in the wake of the disorder seen since the beginning of the academic year last September and the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi in July. Judge Tamer Riad ordered the return of police guards to the campuses, where they will be deployed to monitor those entering and leaving the universities. Former interim prime minister Hazem Al-Beblawi, who resigned with the cabinet on 24 February, said that the police had the right to act when protests threatened to get out of control. Some professors have expressed their disappointment regarding the court's ruling, stating that it is an attempt to restrict the students' and professors' freedom. They said the decision could increase tensions at the universities, but other observers said the decision was the correct one and the only way to restore order to university premises. Dahlia Hegazi, a university professor, said that professors had been campaigning for years to have police banned from university campuses. “Now we are back to square one. We risk witnessing the same thing that happened under former president Hosni Mubarak, when the police used brutality against the students,” she commented. It was in 1981 that the government officially affiliated university guards to the interior ministry. Three decades later, the courts issued a ruling banning the police from university premises in 2010. The ruling came after strikes against the presence of police on university campuses, leading to a group of academics filing a lawsuit condemning the police presence. A court ruling subsequently ruled “affirming the independence of the universities and reinforcing their freedom”. Hegazi said that the government was redeploying the police on campuses so that they could better control students and professors. “The police had previously never openly used abuse on university campuses throughout my career, but this has changed recently. Armoured vehicles have now been used on university campuses, and students have been arrested and even shot at inside the campus,” she said. Some analysts believe the ruling is illegal since it goes beyond the court's jurisdiction. Emad Mubarak, head of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), said that “the ruling violates the 2010 ruling issued by the Supreme Administrative Court, the only legal authority concerned with this matter. Only the administrative courts can appeal the 2010 ruling.” Meanwhile, other professors like Ahmed Zayed, former dean of the faculty of arts at Cairo University, have welcomed the court ruling. In Zayed's view, the ruling was necessary in order to preserve order inside the university. However, he said that there should be no interference in the appointment of staff and promotions as there had been in the past. Some weeks ago, interim President Adli Mansour amended a law allowing university presidents to expel student protesters. “Students should be expelled for jeopardising the university's educational mission, damaging its facilities, interfering with exams, attacking people and public or private property on campus, or inciting or participating in violence,” Mansour said. During the first semester of the present academic year, turmoil prevailed on many university campuses following the ousting of Morsi and the interim government's crackdown on Brotherhood supporters in street protests. Protests by Morsi supporters among students condemning the police crackdown led to deadly clashes, especially at Al-Azhar and Cairo Universities. Several students have been killed on campuses nationwide and hundreds of others arrested. Dozens have been arrested for staging what the authorities consider to be illegal protests under a new law that bans demonstrations that have not received prior permission from the police. Students have also expressed their condemnation of the new court ruling. According to Ahmed Haggag, a student at Ain Shams University in Cairo, the ruling harms student freedom. “Students won't be able to express their opinions freely. They will be afraid of being arrested. The university is the only place where we can get involved in politics. Where else can we do it,” he asked. Hoda Ismail, a faculty of law student, echoed Haggag's opinion by saying that although she studied law and justice, the latter was in short supply. “The police are brutal, even more aggressive than they were before. This court ruling should be appealed against,” she said. However, other students defended the ruling. According to Fouda Mohamed, a student at the faculty of commerce, “a university is a place of study and not a place for riots and demonstrations. Students who want to protest can go anywhere else other than the university.”
