Khartoum -

In a move that coincided with the calls of the Sudanese Professionals Association for civil disobedience, following the measures taken by the army chief, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the administrations of many Sudanese universities suspended studies and decided to postpone exams indefinitely, and justified their decisions by "maintaining the security and safety of students."

Universities that closed their doors supported the order by calling for the release of detainees and the abolition of the state of emergency in solidarity with the Sudanese Professionals Association.

The management union of the University of Khartoum was the first to announce the decision to suspend the study, claiming that its students and professors had been attacked by security forces in the university housing.

A number of government universities in Khartoum and cities in other states of Sudan joined the decision to suspend studies. After the University of Khartoum, the Sudan University of Science and Technology announced the suspension of studies for an indefinite period, before it was joined by Al-Neelain University and then Al-Zaeem Al-Azhari University.

The universities of the Red Sea, Al-Jazira, "Bakht Al-Ruda", Al-Imam Al-Hadi and other universities took a similar decision.

Maryam (a student at the University of Khartoum) told Al Jazeera Net earlier that a group wearing a military uniform stormed the student residences near the General Command of the Sudanese army after the protest marches carried out by the resistance committees, in rejection of Al-Burhan's decisions.

Sudanese universities have been known throughout their history as platforms for political activity, and played an important role in all the popular revolutions that overthrew what the Sudanese call the “three dictatorships” that they say ruled Sudan after independence, in reference to the regimes (General Ibrahim Abboud, Jaafar al-Numeiri, and Omar al-Bashir).


student safety

For his part, Dr. Mahdi Abbas, Deputy Director of the Sudan University of Science and Technology, told Al Jazeera Net that studying at the university cannot continue under the current circumstances.

Abbas pointed out that young people - including university students - are at the fore in resisting what he described as the military coup, and added: We do not guarantee their safety, especially since most of them are from the provinces outside the capital.

He revealed that the National Student Support Fund (government) had stopped all forms of support it provides to students benefiting from university housing, forcing the University's Deans Council to take a decision to postpone exams and allow students to return to their areas.

In turn, the Director of the General Department of Planning and Policies at the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Nashwa Issa, considered the decision to suspend studies in universities as justified.

She told Al Jazeera Net that universities are independent bodies, adding that the higher administrative authority at the university is entrusted with making such a decision, and that the most important reasons for this step is to ensure the safety of students.

It is noteworthy that the deans’ councils in universities are considered an official body within the university’s administrative structure concerned with the executive and administrative aspects, and it consists of the university’s president, his deputy, the secretary of scientific affairs, the dean of student affairs and the deans of faculties.

In Sudan, there are about 30 public universities, as well as more than 100 private universities, institutes and colleges, which are under the administration of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.


Universities lagged behind in disobedience

For his part, the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Union of Higher Education Workers, Dr. Farah Saleh, told Al Jazeera Net that the decision to suspend studies in universities came in response to the call for civil disobedience and the demand for the abolition of the state of emergency and the procedures that followed.

Saleh revealed that some public universities did not suspend studies, "because they were originally closed before Al-Burhan's decisions for various reasons."

He added that the councils of the deans of many universities were unable to hold meetings to take a decision, pointing out that the interruption of the Internet and the inability of communications prevented their ability to meet, expecting them to join the civil disobedience during the next two days.

As for the private universities sector, universities have refrained from declaring solidarity with the calls for civil disobedience launched by the Sudanese Professionals Association.

However, university professor Dr. Hindi Awad said that professors and students bypassed departments in many universities and implemented calls for civil disobedience by not attending lecture halls or sitting for exams.

Awad added to Al Jazeera Net that the current conditions and road closures are sufficient reasons for students and professors to be unable to attend many universities.


Academic drop

The entry of universities comes on the line of what academic leaders describe as “rejecting the military coup”, in light of the suffering of universities in Sudan from the decline in the academic level and the quality of education, as Sudan ranked 143 among countries in terms of academic level, and ranked 101 in terms of the number of academic educational institutions And no Sudanese university has been named among the top 500 universities in the world for many years.

In this context, Dr. Nashwa tells Al Jazeera Net that the Ministry of Higher Education has developed during the last period a strategy to be implemented within 5 years to restructure higher education in Sudan, noting that it is a comprehensive strategy concerned with educational policies, the quality and distribution of education.

As for Dr. Hindi Awad, he classified the situation in private universities in Sudan into 3 levels, and told Al Jazeera Net that there are few private universities that adhere to international standards in their establishment, staff appointment, and student acceptance criteria.

He added that other universities are more interested in accepting large numbers of students without adhering to scientific standards.

For his part, Dr. Mahdi Abbas told Al-Jazeera Net that higher education inherited a number of problems since the pre-revolution era, and accused the Bashir regime of neglecting everything that helps university education to develop and progress.

He added that there are serious attempts to improve the educational environment, and that the Sudan University of Science and Technology has taken steps towards introducing e-learning, but he warned that what happened after last October 25 could return the educational situation in universities to what he described as a "disastrous square."