The anger vented by university professors is threatening to explode, reports Reem Leila "University professors want to bring down university leaders". Thus chanted the professors at their protest march on Sunday in front of the Cabinet's headquarters. The professors have threatened to go on strike at the beginning of the academic year scheduled for 1 October if their demands, which include the dismissal of all university leaders who were appointed during the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, are not met. More than 4,000 university professors representing 12 of Egypt's public universities were present at "The General Conference of Egyptian Universities" on 11 September at Cairo University's Teaching Staff Members Club. The conference discussed demands of university professors regarding the dismissal of all university leaders who were appointed during the defunct regime. The professors abruptly ended the conference earlier than scheduled to start their march from the club located in Manial to the Cabinet's headquarters downtown. They intended to meet Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Moataz Khorshid and Minister of Finance Hazem El-Beblawi in addition to members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Professors who chanted against Khorshid and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf demanded they step down for what they described as their weak stand regarding what university professors want. The SCAF is effectively ruling the country after Mubarak was ousted. University professors also accused Sharaf and Khorshid of not fulfilling their promise to dismiss all university leaders by 1 August. "This is the last chance conference. If they do not meet our requests we will continue escalating the situation," said university professor Ahmed Enab, who is also head of the Menoufiya University Teaching Staff Members Club. University professor Adel Abdel-Gawad, former head of Cairo University's Teaching Staff Members Club, said the strike will be organised. "We do not want to risk the future of our university students, however, all options are possible. Professors will be striking alternately. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, along with the government, pushed us to this. They left us no other choice. There is still more to come," Abdel-Gawad warned. Dismissing all university leaders; independence of universities; increasing the scientific research budget; amending the law organising universities affairs; providing a decent life for staff members; and rejecting minister's guardianship of the syndicate of teaching staff members were the demands of the professors made at the conference. "We want to deliver a message to the SCAF and government. We all hope they understand that we should be an independent entity and that no one should impose his will on us," argued Abdel-Gawad. University professors will start running to fill 140 posts varying between university presidents and faculty deans. This would be 40 per cent of the overall number of university leaders who have finished their term. The elections will not include the remaining 60 per cent because they did not finish their term. Among vacant posts are eight university presidents in Mansoura, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Menoufiya, Banha, Suez, Beni Sweif, Zagazig and Damanhour. This is in addition to 122 deans for faculties. Until now, presidents of Cairo, Helwan, Fayoum, and Port Said universities have resigned before the end of their term. However, seven others have refused to leave, while the remaining eight stepped down because their term ended. Two left their posts because they became governors. Professors are also upset because the SCAF has refused to accept the resignation of those who resigned and are willing to voluntarily leave their posts. In late August, Khorshid announced new regulations in which elections to choose new university leaders will be held. "The regulations will be applied to only 140 leaders out of almost 4,000 throughout the nation's public universities. We want all of them to be dismissed, then conduct transparent elections. It will be impossible to deal with two different types of leaders: those who were appointed by the previous regime, and those newly elected," argued Enab. Wages of public university professors have been heatedly debated for years. Since 2007, university professors have been asking for an overhaul of their salaries and to equate them with their peers, court judges. University professor Nabil Abdel-Badie says their pay is inappropriate with their qualifications. "Since February the government has been very evasive with us. Their promises turned out to be void and we are still suffering from a flawed financial status," Abdel-Badie stated. Salaries of university professors should rise, according to Abdel-Badie, to LE8,000 from LE1,500 for lecturers, LE13,000 for assistant professors instead of LE2,000 and LE16,000 for tenured professors instead of the current LE3,000. The budget allocated for scientific research was discussed at the conference; university professors described it as "peanuts". Thoraya Abdel-Gawad, professor at the Faculty of Arts in Menoufiya University, pointed out that 10 years ago money allocated to security was three-fold the amount designated for scientific research. "Three years ago, the security budget increased 10 times that of scientific research. To politicians, security is considered their safety valve, however, science and education is the entire country's safety valve," Abdel-Gawad said. Scientific research budget, according to Abdel-Gawad, should be increased throughout the next three years. "There is a suggested plan presented to the Cabinet in which the current budget is LE3 billion. In the first year it will be increased to LE6 billion, in the second year LE9 billion, then LE13 billion the final year. This will account for only 2.5 per cent of the country's general budget," said Abdel-Gawad. Khorshid earlier announced in a press statement that academic elections will be scheduled on 24 September. On 11 September, nominations for vacant posts of heads of departments and faculty deans began. In a related incident, on 13 September Student Union councils at all universities organised sit- ins in collaboration with university professors.
