The war between rival generals in Sudan that has killed more than 1,800 people since mid-April is posing unprecedented challenges for higher education, as universities that have suffered a series of disruptions since 2018 have been forced to close again.
Previous shutdowns have already delayed graduation for many students and left others in limbo. Now, with university courses halted for an indefinite period, students and staff members are worried that the fighting will “further complicate academic conditions,” Mohamed Adam, a researcher at Sudan’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, told Al-Fanar Media.
Sudanese universities have faced numerous shutdowns since December 2018, when the protests that eventually ousted former President Omar al-Bashir began. The unrest, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic and devastating floods that caused a nationwide emergency in 2020, meant that many university students had been unable to complete their studies.
The current fighting between the regular army, led by Sudan’s de facto ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, a rival of Burhan’s, has raged for more than seven weeks. Many foreign students have evacuated Khartoum and other cities, which are threatened not only by military clashes but also by widespread looting, power outages, and disruptions of other services.
“Several universities were looted and damaged, including the University of Khartoum, Al Neelain University, the Sudan University of Science and Technology, and the Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman.”
Mohamed Adam, a researcher at Sudan’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
Adam added that several universities had been looted and damaged, including the University of Khartoum, Al Neelain University, the Sudan University of Science and Technology, in Khartoum, and the Ahfad University for Women in nearby Omdurman.
University Funding Problems
Atika Mohammed, a lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Khartoum, said Sudanese universities had been facing a funding crisis before the war broke out, but the fighting had increased the problem and people’s suffering in general.
“War’s catastrophic impact is much greater than its impact on higher education alone,” she told Al-Fanar Media. “People have been killed and terrorised, their property looted, hospitals destroyed, and banks robbed.”
“All these matters do not help any development plan in higher education or other sectors. Sudanese public universities were facing crises before the outbreak of the war, including funding. Many colleges have launched campaigns to try to get former graduates to donate.”
She said the School of Administrative Sciences at the University of Khartoum was a successful example that had managed to set up advanced computer laboratories from graduates’ donations.
Another major crisis, Mohammed thinks, is the rising cost of higher education for students. A number of universities increased tuition fees last year despite student protests, she said.
Sudan has a strong legacy in higher education. Some of its universities, such as the Universities of Khartoum and Omdurman, are over a hundred years old. But Mohammed said that even before the war Sudan faced a brain drain in higher education.
“The future is unknown. I do not know if I will continue my education. It seems there is no hope, as the military took over my university’s headquarters.”
Hatoon Abdullah, a student at Bayan University, in Khartoum.
“Many of the best university professors chose to emigrate to Europe, the United States, or other Arab countries because of the country’s deteriorating economic conditions,” she said. “To counter this problem, universities hired master’s degree holders when they had to.”
She also criticised reduced government spending on higher education, which, at about 2 percent of gross domestic product, is far less than its generous spending on the security services and the army.
No Hope of Continuing Studies
Hatoon Abdullah, a first-year business student at Bayan University, in Khartoum, told Al-Fanar Media she felt sad about her country’s situation. She said she used to study diligently at university so she could travel and live abroad, but the outbreak of war threatened her education and hopes of continuing at a foreign university.
Abdullah described how she had followed the war’s first clashes from her home close to the university, in an area that was one of the war’s original battlegrounds. She remembered hearing unusual sounds in the streets one night and realising that those were the sounds of armed exchanges between the warring parties.
She worried about her studies but then found out that the war had stopped higher education until further notice. “The future is unknown. I do not know if I will continue my education,” she said. “It seems there is no hope, as the military took over my university’s headquarters.”
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