Students kicked out of state universities can’t enroll in private schools, rules council

Students suspended from government universities will not be permitted to enroll in private universities, Cairo University President Gaber Nassar told the privately owned news outlet Youm7 following a meeting with the High Council of Universities (HCU) on Monday.

Any private university that violates this stipulation will be dealt with accordingly, due to “the amount of violence and vandalism these students caused inside the universities they belonged to,” Nassar added.

Since 2013, hundreds of university students across Egypt have been suspended for their alleged role in on-campus violence and protests, according to Mohamed Nagui, a researcher in the academic freedoms unit at the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE).

It has been very difficult to identify the exact number of suspended students, because these statistics are distributed across faculties in almost each and every university in Egypt, Nagui said, adding that the authorities haven’t released any official numbers.

“It is part of the general atmosphere of limiting academic freedoms. The regime is working on punishing these students due to their political stances. The government is putting their future on the brink to send a terrifying message that showing any political dissent is going to be met with suspension,” he argued.

There have been only a few isolated incidents in which suspended students were allowed to re-enroll in their government faculties, especially in Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science, “because the faculty’s dean was cooperative enough not to jeopardize the future of her students,” according to Nagui.

Other students attempted to apply to private universities, but were rejected even before Monday’s decision was officially announced by the HCU, Nagui said.

Since the academic year began on October 11, one student has been killed in on-campus violence. Omar Sherif was allegedly shot to death by police forces during clashes with protesting students at Alexandria University.

University violence across the country has escalated since Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated students expanded their protest activities following former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster last year.

Sherif, a second-year student at the Faculty of Engineering, died days after he was hit in the face by birdshot during clashes between security forces and students. According to the privately owned media outlet Aswat Masriya, three other students were injured in those clashes and 30 more were arrested.

The 2014-15 academic year kicked off with a series of confrontations between police and students at several universities nationwide. Despite the government’s attempt to outsource campus security to a private company, the clashes grew beyond the company’s scope and police returned to the forefront of the confrontation.

Around 13 students were killed in on-campus clashes in the 2013-14 academic year, with hundreds of students imprisoned and suspended. AFTE said 2013 was the worst year in terms of academic freedoms in the last 70 years.