PhDs without research, scholarship without sovereignty, instruction without intellectual inquiry - Fatemah Farag listens in as a group of academics revitalise an old cry: no knowledge without freedom In 1932, commenting on the establishment of the Fouad I University -- now Cairo University -- eminent Egyptian physicist Dr Ali Musharafa wrote, "The university is not a place from which to graduate technicians but a place to bring life to scientific spirit and scientific research." It was just such a vision that forced the first president of the university, Ahmed Lutfi El-Sayed, to resign his post on 9 March the same year, in protest at government intervention in university affairs through ordering the transfer of Taha Hussein, doyen of modern Arabic literature and then dean of the Faculty of Arts, as punishment for publishing Al- Shi'r Al-Jahiliy (Pre-Islamic Poetry) which the religious establishment deemed blasphemous. "This action [the transfer of Hussein] does away with the serenity and sense of security necessary to conduct scientific research which without a doubt makes it impossible for me to fulfil the most honourable purpose I have undertaken in the service of the university," wrote El-Sayed in his letter of resignation. Eighty-one years later, some two hundred academics gathered at Cairo University on Tuesday 9 March to celebrate this spirit of academic freedom and lament its loss amid the confines of today's campuses. "The Independence of Universities," was a three-hour session organised by a group of professors at Cairo University after much haggling with a reluctant administration. Addressing the participants, historian Raouf Abbas lamented: "The university has been transformed into a government authority; another office ... of the Ministry of Education." Thus, a system capable of producing 150,000 academicians, most of whom hold PhDs but few of whom are engaged in academic research; a system where 2,360 staff doctors at the Kasr El-Aini Educational Hospital produce an average of 11 original research studies a year, at a rate of one paper per 215 doctors. Addressing the gathering, Dr Mohamed Abul-Ghar, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Kasr El-Aini, cited among the reasons for the decline of academic research in Egypt, "attacks against academic freedom; appointing unqualified persons to manage universities and research centres; [governmental] control and extreme centralisation, putting scientific research capabilities, in most cases, in the hands of a political manager whose main concern is political ascension rather than scientific enhancement; the collapse of scholarly values among a number of university staff as a result of low standards of living and the absence of scientific competition." According to professor of political science and head of the Centre for the Study of Developing Countries at Cairo University, Mustapha Kamel El-Sayed, the loss of academic freedom manifests itself in different ways. For example, faculties present to the Higher Council for Universities the maximum number of students they have the ability to teach, which the council then ignores pushing an increasingly unmanageable number of students on the universities. "Then there is the relationship to the ruling party... Membership of the National Democratic Party (NDP) should not influence position and status within the academic structure. It is no coincidence that all presidents of the university become members of the NDP after their promotion," said El-Sayed. Both Abul-Ghar and El-Sayed compared the status of academic freedom within Egyptian universities to that of the American University in Cairo (AUC). "A look at their [AUC's] cultural agenda shows lectures by Essam El-Eryan and Magdy Hussein [prominent Islamists] and we are deprived by the administration of this university and the security bodies from inviting these same people, who are an important component of political life in Egypt... It is shameful," exclaimed El-Sayed. But the decline of academia is not just about governmental constraints. "We must admit that society no longer believes in scientific research. Seventy five per cent of what Egyptians read is about religion," said El-Sayed. He went on to cite the example of prominent Islamic studies scholar Dr Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid, whose work was judged blasphemous by an Egyptian court and which went on to order his separation from his wife. Cairo University, the same university that had taken the decision to promote Dr Abu Zeid on grounds of the merit of his research, had later removed his books from its library shelves, said El-Sayed. "I was astounded to discover [this] lately." The loss of freedom is no academic matter. As stated in the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) for 2003, "Non-democratic political systems... which suppress freedom and ultimately let individuals lose their ability to act and take initiatives, are weak hosts to creative ideas and knowledge production." In addition to government and societal pressures, limited spending on academic and scientific research was highlighted as a major constraint. Abul-Ghar quoted figures published by UNESCO indicating that in Egypt a mere 0.48 to 0.02 per cent of GDP is spent on scientific research. And El-Sayed went on to highlight that, "While the government does not spend one piastre on academic research within the university, the Ministry of Finance has the audacity to ask for five per cent of the total revenue on [foreign] grants received for research.." The AHDR 2003 sets the bottom line: "[A] new Arab renaissance requires a new policy environment that liberates human capabilities in the sciences and arts by actively promoting freedom, creativity and innovation. Without that prerequisite, the Arab knowledge society will remain an elusive dream."
