Professors are not happy with a state plan to raise their income. Mona El-Nahhas reports on an increase with conditions Next Sunday morning at the campus of Cairo University, professors teaching in state-owned universities and institutes are to stage a peaceful protest aimed at rejecting conditions set by the government to increase their monthly pay. The call for staging the protest was adopted by the 9 March Movement for the Independence of Universities. Members of the movement are now urging their colleagues to attend next week's demonstration and to announce their refusal of the government plan in meetings of faculty departments. In a statement issued by the movement, the suggested system was severely criticised for "harming the dignity of university professors and inciting an endless struggle among members of the teaching staff." Professors have been calling for a 100 per cent increase in basic rates of pay for all members of the teaching staff. In March, a symbolic work stoppage was staged at several Egyptian universities to press for salary demands. Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Hani Helal has repeatedly made it clear that basic salaries will not be raised. Instead, his ministry has suggested the application of a bonus system. To get bonuses -- which range from LE1,200 to LE2,000 according to the degree held by the teaching staff member -- professors are to be assigned by the university administration to perform certain tasks that will help upgrade university education. But professors complain that such tasks will not be available for all teaching staff members. The extra tasks, as defined by the ministry, include the participation in the activities of the student union, laying down strategic plans for faculties, and helping in drafting specific projects. Professors assigned to do such extra jobs will be asked to work for 28 hours a week, otherwise they will not get the conditional bonus. Working hours will be monitored by the university administration. Members of the three ministerial committees who outlined the new system argued that its regulations will put an end to the state of chaos now prevailing at state-owned universities. As university professors themselves admit, a large percentage of professors do not usually show up "but were obliged to do so after failing to find a well-equipped place that would help them accomplish their job," Hani El-Husseini professor of chemistry at Cairo University and member of the 9 March Movement, told Al-Ahram Weekly. El-Husseini added that finding it much more profitable to work for private universities, the majority of professors decided not to exert too much effort at state-owned universities where they receive comparatively lower salaries. According to El-Husseini, the new regulations will not be the ideal solution to the current problem. "On the contrary, the new system will make it worse, for it will open the door to all kinds of abuse," El-Husseini said, noting that not all professors will be assigned additional tasks required for getting bonuses. "Such assignments will be limited to those who are on good terms with the university administration and who meet certain security criteria," he said. Mansoura University professor Tareq El-Desouki agreed with El-Husseini, adding that the real problem laid in a corrupt administration that usually leaves professors who do not do their work properly to go unpunished, "due to certain considerations. Such professors are in most cases the ones assigned to leading administrative posts," El-Desouki told the Weekly. "If they are really serious in developing university education, then they should improve the financial situation of professors and apply the law to everyone without exception," El-Desouki said, adding that Law 49/ 1972 governing universities imposes harsh penalties on negligent professors. For months, regulations being set by the ministry to link any pay increase with professors' performance has been leaked. At conferences held at the universities' teaching staff clubs, only the broadlines of the ministry's plan were made public. Professors have nothing concrete to go by. Last week, the ministry referred the plan to faculty councils and asked them to give their opinion on it. "We did not imagine that the regulations included in the plan would be humiliating to such an extent," Yehia El-Qazzaz, another member of the 9 March Movement, said, adding that the real aim behind the scheme was to tighten the grip of the university administration on professors. "University professors, by means of the new regulations, will be left under the mercy of an administration that should not be trusted in assessing professors' performance," El-Qazzaz added.
