Student outrage as education minister bars Student Union from elections

Minister of Higher Education Ashraf al-Shihy announced that upcoming student union elections would not include theEgyptian Student Union (ESU), which has been a source of contention between elected student leaders and the ministry over the past year.

The ESU is the umbrella union that consists of representatives of individual universities’ student unions, and was dissolved early last year. Student union elections typically take place annually in October.

Shihy made the announcement at a press conference at Ain Shams University on Saturday to mark the start of the new academic year. He said last year’s elections were held according to student bylaws amended in 2007, which did not stipulate the ESU’s formation. He added that the upcoming elections would only elect heads of individual universities’ student unions, and said he hopes to meet with the student body to formulate new bylaws.

Students, however, said the elections were held according to new student bylaws passed in 2013, which do stipulate the formation of the ESU.

The ESU existed in the 1960s, but was abolished through new bylaws in the 1970s as part of a clamp-down on student activism during Anwar Sadat’s rule. Some amendments were introduced to the 1977 bylaws in 2007, but these were largely cosmetic and did not include the ESU, which only re-emerged when new bylaws were formulated in 2013.

Amr al-Helw, Tanta University student union head and former vice president of the dissolved ESU, told Mada Masr that the minister’s decision comes after his failure to engineer the victory of ministry-supported student leaders last October.

“The minister believes the ESU is the only entity that connects elected student leaders across the country, which is not true,” Helw said. “With the ESU or without it, students will continue coordinating among themselves and won’t pay attention to what the minister says or plans for.”

Shihy had said in a statement on Thursday that last year’s elections were held according to 2007 bylaws, but in the same statement he appeared to contradict himself by explaining that they were held according to 2013 bylaws purely because he personally wished for the ESU to exist.

Last year’s student union elections led to triumphs for revolutionary student leaders who oppose the ministry’s line and support university independence, following recent ministry interventions that restricted campus freedoms over the past three years. Several students said at the time that the ministry intervened by endorsing various student leaders, and their subsequent failure to get elected was behind the decision to cancel the ESU elections.

Helw said that despite the fact that the ministry is yet to announce the schedule for this year’s elections, usually taking place in October, he is confident in students’ ability to confront the ministry’s attempts to limit the student movement and take it fully under the ministry’s control.

“The student movement will continue," he said, "and the absence of the ESU won’t affect us at all.”

Helw welcomed the minister’s call for discussion about new bylaws, but doubts its seriousness: “If the ministry is keen on real dialogue, it would have done that a long time ago.”

Away from the ongoing battle over the ESU’s fate, student union leaders and students working in campus activities decried increased restrictions on their activities, and referred to security interventions to cancel many events and activities held by student unions and other groups on campus.