CAIRO - University academics are pushing for the right to elect their senior administrators, a demand apparently inspired by revolutionary changes in the country. However, their demand that college deans and university presidents should be freely elected has been met with an implicit refusal from the Government, which insists on keeping the appointment of academic leaders in its hands. “Most university professors have rejected the Minister of Higher Education Amr Ezzat Salama's suggestion for the selection of university presidents and deans,” said professor Mohamed Abul Ghar, the godfather of the March 9 movement that calls for universities' independence. Abul Ghar, a noted professor of gynaecology and obstetrics, explained: “The Minister's suggestion is that professors choose some 12 members from a university and civil society to suggest three names for the position, from whom the minister would make his selection. This is an impractical and non-academic way of choosing the right person.” He added in press remarks that it was better to choose a dean through a free direct election and not through a neutral academic committee as was done in many countries, because in Egypt, in his opinion, “no one is impartial”. Until 1994, Egypt followed free direct elections to choose the deans of different colleges. But the State decided to intervene by selecting the professors most loyal to it to head colleges and universities so that it can control the academic education including its different activities, especially that of politics, say critics. Dr Kamal Naguib from Alexandria University strongly supports the free election of university presidents, as it guarantees the selection of the best academic representatives to be approved by the majority of the lecturers. “Unfortunately, this system was suspended by Minister Hussein Kamel Bahaa Eddin for political reasons with the excuse given of the (then banned) Muslim Brotherhood's possible domination of universities,” he said. Dr Naguib added: “We need a new minister to renounce all the ideas and strategies of the old regime and to restore the rule of the university as an enlightening institution in society. We need a minister who offers youth their right to have free and high quality education and restores the dignity of the university professors, who were insulted by the former regime and its security agency.” In common with many other academics, Ahmed Derag of Beni Sueif University in Upper Egypt opposes the current Minister of Higher Education's perceived attempt to retain the same old system of appointing the university presidents and deans. Minister Amr Ezzat Salama even wishes to keep the same old persons who were chosen by the influential Policies Committee of the dissolved National Democratic Party. Derag criticises Salama for his alleged insistence on following the policy of the Mubarak regime, remarking that he had previously occupied this same post under the Mubarak rule. “Salama seems content with the same old police strategy of governing the universities, which caused the spread of corruption and the domination of mediation and bribery in appointing certain persons in elite positions.” Derag, meanwhile, opposes the idea of participation of civil society in selecting deans and presidents, noting that civil society does not enjoy unity in Egypt. “Furthermore, this suggestion was one of the requests made by the World Bank at the Conference of Developing Education held in 2000. Its aim is to form a trustee council from civil society and the business world to run and finance the universities. It also included demands to reduce the numbers of university students.” In recent remarks to Al-Ahali Arabic leftist newspaper, Derag said: “It has become clear that Minister Salama does not have any new vision for the development of education. He is just enforcing the agenda of former governments that intended to undermine Egyptian education and brains.” “We want all the university leaders at these educational institutions to be replaced and this is our differences with the Minister, who continues defending those persons that are being rejected by lecturers and students alike,” said Madeha Douse, a professor of art at Cairo University. Douse expressed belief that senior State officials are insisting on preserving the old university leaders. Like her colleagues, she rejects all “special education programmes”, that create an unhealthy climate of discrimination between rich and poor students at the same State-run university. “How can we treat graduates of a certain discipline on an equal footing, when some enrolled in public universities, having scored 95 per cent in their final secondary school exams, while others enrolled in private universities, having scared only 50 per cent?” he said. “This system gives the impression that tin Egypt, students pay for their degrees.”
