Abdel Aziz Hegazy, chairman of the Nile University Board of Trustees, on Thursday said that the ministerial committee recently formed to solve the land dispute between Nile University and Zewail City for Science and Technology has failed.
Hegazy said he would ask President Mohamed Morsy to intervene directly in the matter.
Prime Minister Hesham Qandil’s Cabinet formed the committee at the end of August to find a resolution to the conflict between the two universities.
According to the state-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar, in 2006 former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif gave a plot of land over to Nile University that had had been designated for the Zewail City of Science and Technology project in 2000.
After the 25 January revolution, however, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf granted the land back to Zewail City and moved Nile University over to Smart Village, despite the fact that the Nile University campus was already built and ready for use.
Nile University students stormed the contested campus in late August and held a sit-in, demanding to be allowed to use the facilities and labs. The protesters attracting the support of the student unions of the American, British and German universities in Cairo.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
