Following nationwide protests by thousands of professors, the heads of the country's universities resigned, Reem Leila reports In the wake of recent protests to force university presidents and faculty deans to step down, electoral colleges of most universities which will elect university presidents opened on 10 October. Nominations for the posts were held on 27-28 September. Elections will take place at eight universities whose presidents have retired -- Mansoura, Beni Sweif, Zagazig, Damanhour, Suez Canal, Menoufiya and Kafr Al-Sheikh. Nine university presidents recently resigned. This week presidents of Alexandria, Ain Shams, Assiut and Sohag universities quit their post. They were preceded by university presidents of Cairo, Port Said, Helwan, Al-Wadi Al-Gadid and Fayoum. Elections for most universities took place on 12 October, after which final results are due to be announced today, Thursday. Elections at the universities whose presidents have recently resigned will begin later. Walid Abdel-Ghaffar, professor of engineering at Alexandria University, told Al-Ahram Weekly elections for the president will start in three weeks. "Professors must finish elections to choose new deans of 14 faculties who must be elected first. This will take at least three weeks, after which the university will begin staging elections to choose the new president," Abdel-Ghaffar said. The protests and sit-ins, which began following the January Revolution, were organised in coordination with student unions. Professors and students have been calling for fair and transparent elections. Hend Hanafi, president of Alexandria University, officially resigned her post along with the university's 14 deans on 9 October. Hanafi, who was appointed on June 2009, was Egypt's first female university president. According to Abdel-Ghaffar, students ended their sit-in which began on 4 October. They had demanded Hanafi's removal, who was appointed during the time of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. University professors and students celebrated the news on 10 October. "Study at university faculties resumed on 11 October. On the same day the process of electing the new deans began," Abdel-Ghaffar said. University professors have been critical of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf for not discharging all university leaders in August as he promised. They had been protesting throughout the past several weeks demanding the dismissal of university leaders and the need for free elections. "Hanafi can run for the post once again. We as professors do not have anything personal against her. We just wanted to make a rule: all university leaders must be elected and not appointed," Abdel-Ghaffar said. Since the beginning of the new academic year on 1 October, more than 2,500 students at Ain Shams University joined professors in their strike to force its president Maged El-Deeb to resign and hold elections to replace him because, again, he was appointed under the Mubarak regime. El-Deeb's resignation came on 5 October after professors and students prevented him from entering the university premises. The situation is better at Cairo, Assiut and Minya universities. Elections are already planned for selecting the new president of Cairo University after the resignation of its president Hossam Kamel. The resignation was approved by Egypt's ruling military council. Kamel is running in the elections, along with Salaheddin Ezz and Talaat El-Hadidi, professors at the Faculty of Engineering, and Ahmed Abdel-Hadi, a professor at the Faculty of Science. Mustafa Kamal, president of Assiut University, became a candidate for president along with three other faculty deans. Minya University announced on 10 October the start of nominations for its president. The elections will take place next week. University elections in the country's 18 public universities are the first to be held in the past 30 years. During the former regime, university presidents were appointed, not elected. Cairo University's website announced that live debates had been conducted before the electoral college among the four candidates running for the post. The debate took place at the university's biggest hall, under the dome. University professor Awatef Abdel-Rahman said professors and teaching staff who can vote attended the debate and asked the candidates questions regarding their future plans for improving the university's education system. "Voting for electing a new president began today," said Abdel-Rahman. Nominees running for Banha University president began their live debates to present their programmes. Elections for the same post at Kafr Al-Sheikh University began on 10 October. Nine nominees are competing for the post. The committee supervising the electoral process in Zagazig University announced the final names of candidates running for the university's presidency. Results will be announced on 15 October.
