Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met on Tuesday with senior figures in several Egyptian universities in an attempt to resolve the ongoing crisis surrounding demands that education administrators to be sacked before the start of the new academic year.
A number of protests calling for the resignation of senior administrators took place last week. Sixteen educational groups organized a protest outside the Ministry of Education to demand the resignation of Education Minister Ahmed Gamal al-Din Moussa and all of the senior ministry figures from the Mubarak era.
Last month, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) canceled the cabinet's decision to remove university heads from their posts at the start of August.
Minister of Higher Education Moataz Khorshid told reporters on Tuesday that Sharaf’s meeting was in response to "the university presidents’ sense that he was behind the cabinet’s decision to dismiss them."
Khorshid said that Sharaf “personally tried with the heads of universities to put an end to the problem before the start of the new academic year.” He added that Sharaf explained to them that it was “better for them to resign, since they could nominate themselves for the positions again."
The minister said that six university heads declined the proposal. However, five said they were prepared to submit their resignations, including Cairo University President Hossam Kamel, Ganoob al-Wadi University President Abbas Mansour, Fayoum University President Ahmed al-Gohary, and Helwan University President Mahmoud al-Tayeb.
Khorshid explained that elections are scheduled to take place in 138 universities immediately after the Eid al-Fitr holiday. He pointed out that the elections will only involve the selection of university presidents and deans; the university presidents will choose their deputies and the deans will choose their vice deans.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
