Exams postponed at Sudan’s Red Sea University after boycott

The Red Sea University administration has decided to postpone the examinations, which began last week, until 10 January, following an extensive boycott by students.

The boycott, which began last week, https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/students-injured-as-police-raid-port-sudan-boycott-action resulted in police storming the campus with sticks and tear gas. Dozens of students were arrested and the university administration banned 21 students from entering the campus.

The action is in protest against the deterioration of the academic environment, and the loss of personal belongings such as computers and mobile phones during a police raid on the boarding house of the Seaports Corporation last month.

The students told Radio Dabanga that they would only sit for the examinations once their demands are met. These include the cancellation of the complaints filed against the students of the Seaports boarding house, compensating the students for the property they lost during the police storming of their boarding house, improving the boarding house environment, the dismissal of the director of student support fund, and the abolition of the decisions issued by the university administration to ban 21 students from the campus, in preparation for bringing them to investigation council.

Admin response

The university administration said the decision to postpone the exams came in response to a number of initiatives, including an initiative by General Union of Sudanese Students.

Professor Ahmed Mohammed Ali, the Dean of Students Affairs of the University of the Red Sea explained in an interview with Radio Dabanga that the exam postponement period is sufficient for the students to prepare for the exams themselves.

He criticised what he described as “sabotaging the examinations and the use of methods of incitement and intimidation of students”.

He justified the administration’s use of the police to stop what he called “destroying of the exam papers and preserving the lives of the students”.

National Students Fund

Prof Ali denied that the university administration was slow in resolving the recent crisis related to the National Students Fund.

He said that the relationship between the university administration and fund is based on coordination, but the university administration sometimes intervenes to complete some aspects of the service deficiencies without being obligated to do so.

He announced the university administration's suspension of the decision of banning 21 students from entering the university so that they can sit for the exams.

He stressed that the university has received the demands of the students and submitted them to the National Students Fund.

Sennar University

On Monday the Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Sennar issued a decision suspending political activity at the university indefinitely after the university has seen violence during last week.

The statement pointed that the purpose of exercise of political activity within the university is to build the student's personality; it has become unwise by causing violence and destabilisation of the university life.

The statement also prohibited the exercise of political activity through cultural associations and organisations and warned to suspend them in case they do so inside the campus.