Sudanese Students in Egypt Are Pinched between War at Home and Rising Costs in Egypt
As clashes between Sudan’s national army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces continue to rage, Sudanese students in Egypt face numerous challenges to complete their university education, including disruptions of payments from their home country and a cost-of-living crisis in Egypt.
Several Sudanese students in Egypt told Al-Fanar Media that money transfers from their families or government scholarship payments have been disrupted since mid-April, when the fighting in Sudan broke out. Meanwhile, the value of the Egyptian pound has plummeted and the Central Bank has limited how much money foreign students can withdraw each month.
Salah Mohammed, a fourth-year Sudanese pharmacy student at Helwan University, said Sudanese students in Egyptian universities have enjoyed a comparative advantage because of a 2004 agreement that allows them to pay 10 percent of the tuition fees for international students in Egypt.
Mohammed pays $650 per year to study at the Faculty of Pharmacy, instead of $6,500, under the pact, called the “Four Freedoms Agreement”. Now, he worries about a possible “change in this percentage, in light of the current circumstances.”
“I have not received any money transfers for three months. I do not know how I will manage to pay my tuition fees for the next academic year.”
Wali El-Din Adam, a medical student at Helwan University, in Egypt.
A requirement for foreign students to pay in dollars poses an additional burden, he said.
Mohammed said international students apply for Egyptian universities via Study in Egypt, an online platform, paying an application fee of $170 (about 5,250 Egyptian pounds at the official exchange rate). Each student is entitled to apply to ten universities, depending on their qualifications. He said that once the applicant is accepted, a registration fee of $1,500 must be paid, with no possibility of paying in the local currency.
“Not accepting payment in Egyptian pounds increases our burdens, as we cannot obtain hard currency from official banks,” he said. “So we tend to get the money through other channels, from the parallel market, at an exchange rate that is 25 to 30 percent higher than the official rate.”
The official exchange rate has been about 30.9 Egyptian pounds to the dollar for the past several months, while the rate on the parallel market has ranged from 36 to 39 pounds to the dollar, according to news reports.
One Student’s Tragic Loss
Wali al-Din Adam, also from Sudan, studies medicine at Helwan University. Amid the ongoing violence in Sudan, his brother was killed and his clothing store was burned.
The tragedy cut off the money transfers Adam’s brother used to send to help him complete his medical studies in Egypt.
Like Mohammed, Adam had been paying $650 a year in tuition fees under the “Four Freedoms Agreement”. But now, he is considering shifting his studies to a discipline with lower tuition.
“I have not received any money transfers for three months,” he said. “I do not know how I will be able to pay my tuition fees for the next academic year.”
“My brother’s tragic death, and the high dollar exchange rate in Egypt’s parallel market are all obstacles that threaten my academic future,” Adam said. “I may have to postpone my studies, or change my educational path by enrolling in a college that accepts international students with lower tuition fees.”
Diplomatic Discussions
An official at the Sudanese Embassy in Cairo said the embassy has been “in constant contact with Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, to explore all concerns and obstacles facing Sudanese students in Egypt and work to resolve them as soon as possible.”
“We are working to support Sudanese students to study in various Egyptian universities, and to facilitate their enrollment in various majors, in order to preserve their future, in accordance with the specified rules and regulations.”
Sherif Saleh, acting head of the Central Administration for International Student Affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al-Fanar Media that the Sudanese chargé d’affaires in Cairo, Ambassador Al-Sadiq Abdullah, and Egypt’s minister of higher education, Ayman Ashour, had met recently to discuss the challenges facing Sudanese students in Egypt.
For his part, Sherif Saleh, acting head of the Central Administration for International Student Affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education, told Al-Fanar Media that the tuition fees for the next academic year will be announced before the start of the next academic year, and that “no final decisions have been taken yet.”
Saleh said that the Egyptian side is “working to support Sudanese students to study in various Egyptian universities, and to facilitate their enrollment in various majors, in order to preserve their future, in accordance with the specified rules and regulations.”
In previous statements, Ashraf Al-Azazy, head of the Cultural Affairs and Missions sector at the Ministry of Higher Education, said that Egyptian universities have 21,000 international undergraduate students and more than 5,000 postgraduate students. More than 7,000 of the international undergraduates are Sudanese.
Related Reading
- Violence Shuts Sudan’s Universities Again; Countries Consider Evacuating Students
- Sudan’s War Disrupts Universities, Leaving More Students in Limbo
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