CAIRO - Like all institutions in Egypt, universities have reached boiling point. Who will take over in the governmental universities in the post-Mubarak era is the big bone of academic contention. The Sharaf Government thought it had defused the row. But it seems that the problem is still far from being resolved. Early this month, the Government announced that it would replace the current heads of universities by August. The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from the heads of these institutions, who slam it as unfair and insulting. "The university leaderships see this decision as humiliating," says Moustafa Kamal, the Chancellor of the Government-run University of Assiut in Upper Egypt. "How come incumbent heads of universities are dismissed, allegedly because they belonged to the regime of Hosni Mubarak? There are officials, who served in the Mubarak era still working in other State institutions," he adds. Following Mubarak's ousting, the State-run universities were gripped by protests demanding the dismissal of their leaders, with the protesters arguing they had been selected for the job on the basis of their loyalty to Mubarak. A draft law, already approved by the Government, has been referred to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been in control of Egypt since Mubarak's toppling. Heads of several governmental universities have sent protest letters to the military rulers asking them not to endorse the draft law, according to local media. "This law constitutes an insult to the university leaders, who did their best to protect these institutions from outlaws, during and after the revolution," they were quoted as saying in their letters. Egypt has been suffering from a lack of security since Mubarak was overthrown, after a sudden collapse of the police establishment. "We confirmed in our letters that most of us were not engaged in politics or had any links with the [formerly ruling] National Democratic Party under Mubarak," adds Kamal, the Chancellor of Assiut University. "None of us has been found to have been involved in irregularities." For their part, while welcoming the governmental move, academics have vowed to continue their protests until the military rulers approve the relevant law and meet other demands. "Our demands are that university leaders should be elected and that higher education institutions should be independent. “We also want the budget for universities and scientific research centres to be increased to 2.5 per cent of the overall national income," says Adel Abdel-Gawad, a co-founder of Academics for Reform, a non-governmental Islamist group. "In addition, we demand that the financial status of teaching staff be drastically improved, as is the case in neighbouring countries. Steps should also be taken to provide adequate health and social care, as well as protection for assistant professors from arbitrary measures [imposed by their superiors]," he adds. According to Abdel-Gawad, a campaign is underway to collect signatures from academics across Egypt, in a bid to prod the military rulers to expedite the replacement of the incumbent university leaders with elected ones. For decades, the heads of governmental universities were appointed by the head of the state, after being approved by the security agencies. "We are waiting for the new law to be issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which will entail new regulations on the basis of which university leaders will be chosen," Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Ezzat Salama told the semi-official Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper in a recent interview, shortly before he resigned on Sunday. He added that their selection would be either through direct balloting or by a jury of experts.
