Draft bill to regulate political activity at Azhar University

In a continuation of measures by Egyptian universities at the start of the new academic year, the Cabinet agreed on a draft bill to organize the affairs of Al-Azhar University.

The draft mandates the suspension of university staff found guilty of inciting violence, participating in campus protests, belonging to extremist organizations, or facilitating the entrance of weapons to campus. The new measures will also include university employees and students involved in these activities.

The amendment to the existing regulations are an effort to target an increasing number of staff and students belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose confrontation with security forces has elevated security concerns on campus in recent months.

Several other universities have implemented similar measures.

Protests in Cairo University student dormitories will be completely banned during the upcoming academic year, scheduled to start on October 11, the President of Cairo University Gaber Nassar told privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday.

Nassar said that university dorms are not a suitable place for protests and partisan conflicts, adding that any student caught violating these orders would be immediately suspended from the dorms without investigation. Nassar said that such protests pose a serious threat to the lives of students.

The decision was made by the university’s board of deans, who also determined that students wishing to stay in the dorms would be asked to present a criminal background check, Nassar said.

He added that medical examinations would also be conducted to prevent drug use in the dormitories.

The deans agreed that civilian university guards would be provided with batons and shields to defend themselves in violent situations.

Nassar decided two weeks ago to ban any politically affiliated student activity, in order not to disrupt the educational process.

Other universities threatened to suspend any students who offend or incite against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi or any other “symbols of the state.” Ain Shams and Beni Suef Universities have already instituted this rule, while Cairo University says it is still considering the measure.

The Beni Suef University Council declared that students who commit actions or circulate speech that is considered offensive to Sisi would face expulsion, banning all protests on university grounds.

The Ain Shams University Council said that students suspected of such acts would immediately be referred for investigation, the results of which would determine whether or not to suspend them.

University campuses have been the scene of bloody confrontations between police forces and various student groups — many belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood organization — since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

In the last academic year, at least 13 students were killed, dozens injured and hundreds arrested in Egypt’s worst crackdown on academic freedoms in the last 70 years, according to the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression.