Workers at Egyptian universities threatened civil disobedience at the beginning of the academic year after their demands were ignored by the minister of higher education. In a statement issued on Saturday, the Alliance of Employees of Egyptian Universities complained that their demands continue to be ignored, while officials are heeding the demands of teaching staff. Addressing the prime minister and minister of higher education, the statement said university workers are not given adequate attention in the media; they have therefore decided to draw attention to their problems through civil disobedience. The Faculty of Engineering's students union at Alexandria University rejected what it described as attempts to ignore a decision to dismiss the entire university leadership. In a statement, the union threatened escalation in coordination with other student unions across Egypt. The statement added that the union will begin an open ended sit-in after the meeting between the executive bureau of the Union of Egyptian Students and the Minister of Higher Education which will discuss a bill that calls for dismissing all university leaders. The sit-in pressure officials to satisfy the demands of university students, the statement said. Students who belong to the Muslim brotherhood expressed solidarity with student unions and described existing university leadership as corrupt for having served the dissolved State Security Investigations Service. Meanwhile, the Coalition of University Professors announced today that they will continue their plan to boycott the coming academic year in light of recent comments by the current Higher Education Minister, Motaz Khorshed. Khorshed had said at a panel discussion at Ain Shams University that university heads will only be removed in accordance with due process and would not be forced to leave. The statement comes following weeks of speculation as to whether the Ministry of Higher Education would implement a cabinet decree to dismiss most of the university heads. “Faculty members are shocked by the minister for higher education's statements... and consider his statements an effort to circumvent the dismissals, which is a revolutionary demand and a right of Egyptian universities that seek independence,” read a statement by the coalition released Friday afternoon. Many high-ranking university officials have accepted the cabinet decree and stepped down, but others have refused.
