Yesterday a meeting took place by the Conference of the Heads of faculty club members, held at the faculty club at Al-Azhar University, to discuss salary increases. This meeting saw the divisions between some university professors on the remarks made by Dr. Abdullah Surur, a professor at the University of Alexandria. The decision-maker of the National Committee for the Defense of the University described Dr. Hany Helal, Minister of Higher Education, as "physically and intellectually bankrupt."
Professors and heads of clubs agreed to form a committee to interview Hilal and explain their point of view of the attack. They will stress to him that he is described as "physically and intellectually bankrupt" with the focus being related to his job and not toward him as a person, they clarified. For his part, Dr. Abdullah Surur "stood by" his remarks against the minister, adding that he would not allow Hilal to draw professors for sideline skirmishes. He added, "My offensive remarks against the Minister of Higher Education were focused only on his job with no mention of him as a person and I confirm, for the second time, that the minister is financially and intellectually bankrupt. He is financially bankrupt as he does not have the finances for the project to increase the salaries of university professors, which he himself admitted, and he is intellectually bankrupt because he does not think of leading the development of the university." He added, "It is very clear to everyone that all the real problems of teachers and university students were not dealt with by the Minister of Higher Education. Instead he is going around them and did not intervene to ensure the absolute independence of universities and faculty clubs, student life and their families from the grip of security and administration." Surur described the education minister as showing weak leadership. Surur went over many of the statements which confirm that a bill for raising the salaries of faculty members had "died and is not coming back to life again," he said, adding, "The Minister has a number of advisers who excel at finding obstacles and impediments to the implementation of the salary increase." In turn, Dr. Meghawri Diab, President of the Teaching Club University of Monoufia, called for the need to let go of those who want to ignite "sedition" between Hilal and university professors, pointing to the formation of a committee to have a discussion with the Minister in order to clear the air. Meanwhile, Dr. Mohamed Hassan Aweidah, president of the Al-Azhar University and Egyptian universities, stressed the need to distribute the third and fourth installments of increasing the income of university professors and faculty members. The increase should also include part-time professors.
