Students resist Sudan university fee increase

Students from the University of Khartoum closed El Jami’a Street (University Street) on Monday, to protest the refusal of the university administration and the Ministry of Higher Education to back down from the tuition fee increase.

University administration reportedly issued a decision to investigate four students for their involvement in the demonstration against the recent tuition price hike.

The street closure comes a week after the failed joint meeting called for by student representatives, which was meant to include the Ministry of Higher Education and various administrations from the Universities of Khartoum and Sudan.

According to the displeased students, the meeting was held between the university administrations and the ministry, in isolation from the students.

The government officials present at the meeting reportedly repeated the same excuses in the same manner.

Sudan lecturers

The Sudanese University of Science and Technology Lecturers Association announced its categorical rejection of the decision to increase university fees.

In a statement on Wednesday, the assembly called on the university administration to sit with the students and listen to their “legitimate demands and strive to solve them, instead of creating bigger problems that might lead to stopping the teaching process at the university for an unknown period”.

The Sudanese University Lecturers Committee gave the government until next Monday to approve the entire salary structure and raise the pension age, as was mentioned in the terms of service demands.

The committee threatened to resume the comprehensive and open strike, starting next Tuesday, if the demands were not implemented.

In a press conference in Khartoum on Wednesday, Yasir Abdelrahman, a member of the committee, accused the Ministry of Finance of being “intransigent and refusing to adopt the salary structure derived from the list of conditions of service for faculty members in the 2023 budget”.

The committee said that the strike excludes exams that were scheduled before the date of publication of their statement.