Despite the fact that several ministers of higher education have been changed, universities are still the same because the main strategy of controlling universities through a centralized authority is still in place, said Dr. Nasr Hāmid Abu Zayd, the banished Egyptian professor, who is now a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands, in an interview [Dr. Abu Zayd has been visiting professor of Islamic Studies at Leiden University since 1995. He is since 2002 the holder of the Ibn Rushd chair for Islam and Humanism at the University of Humanistics, Utrecht, http://www.uvh.nl/defaultuvh.asp?oooUrl=/AlgInfo.asp?framesInsetting=non.... Dr. Abu Zayd received on November 25, 2005, the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought].
Abu Zayd stated that if there are serious intentions about developing the education system in Egypt, then the minister’s powers over the universities should be trimmed. In European universities, all departments, and their budgets, are totally independent.
Leiden, and any other European university, has an excellent library, while the huge library at Cairo University has not been developed or restocked with books for 50 years now.
Abu Zayd argued that universities are not exclusively for education, but also include research and extracurricular activities. If any professor in Egypt wants to convene a conference, then he can ask for a budget from the university council, but, if his request is approved, he will only receive a maximum of 5,000 pounds, an insufficient sum of money.
He added that Egyptian universities do not offer their professors the opportunity to attend international conferences unless the conference organizers provide flights and accommodation.
Abu Zayd states that scientific research has been in decline since the late 1960s, and now it has become a quagmire, with the exception of a few researchers.
He was not shocked that no Egyptian universities were listed among the top 500 world universities considering the decline since the 1960s, when the security authorities tightened their grip on universities. At that time, security agencies approved the convening of meetings and the appointment of associate professors. Powers then moved to the National Democratic Party and then on to the NDP’s policies secretariat. University rectors and even mayors are members of the ruling party, leading Abu Zayd to say "We no longer have a university”.
[Editor: The website of the university, founded in 1991, mentions about Dr. Abu Zayd:
"At the University for Humanistics, Professor Abu Zayd studies modern Islamic thought by critically approaching classical and contemporary Islamic discourse in the field of theology, philosophy, law, politics and humanism. The aim of his research is to suggest a theory of hermeneutics that might enable Muslims to build a bridge between their own tradition and the modern world of freedom, equality, human rights, democracy and globalisation. He also participates in a research project on Jewish and Islamic Hermeneutics as Cultural Critique, in the Working Group on Islam and Modernity at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). Professor Abu Zayd supervises MA and Ph.D students in the field of Islamic Studies at the University of Leiden as well.”
[http://www.uvh.nl/defaultuvh.asp?oooUrl=/AlgInfo.asp?framesInsetting=nonexxxxxxxxxxxoId=99xxxxxxxxxxxoChapter=98xxxxxxxxxxxhId=subh12
For Dr. Abu Zayd’s resume see: http://www.ibn-rushd.org/English/CV.Abu-Zaid-E.htm]
