Analysis: How Sisi’s real-estate salesmen are luring UK universities to Egypt

In this analysis article from Middle East Solidarity magazine, issue 9, Anne Alexander investigates how Egypt’s military dictatorship is hoping to entice UK universities to invest in its grandiose building projects. Meanwhile academics are challenging university managers’ bid to cosy up to a regime which systematically represses human rights and academic freedoms, reports Leon Rocha…

Tear gas and mass arrests greet returning students in Egypt

Video: Security forces attack students at the Faculty of Engineering in Alexandria (published 14 October 2014) Egyptian and international human rights organisations condemned a violent crackdown by the authorities on Egyptian campuses this week. According to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), nearly 130 students have been arrested in recent days, in…

Briefing: Egyptian universities on the frontline of protest

A new briefing by Egypt Solidarity exposes the scale of the crackdown on Egyptian university campuses over the past academic year. Author Nicola Pratt, Reader of International Politics of the Middle East at the University of Warwick, documents an extensive catalogue of abuses by the security forces including shooting protesting students, arbitrary mass arrests and…

Egyptian students declare week of action

Egyptian student groups have announced a week of campaigning against repression on campus. “Black Week for Universities”, from 4 to 8 May, will be marked by protests against violation of rights at universities and by calls on the government to ensure that detained students are able to take their exams on time. Student bodies including…

Court backs police return to campuses

Egypt’s Court for Urgent Matters has ruled (24 February) that police officers can be redeployed permanently on all university campuses. In 2010 police were banned from campuses by the High Administrative Court. In November 2013, the interim government issued a law allowing security forces to enter campuses to maintain the peace without permission from university…