Problems on hold

Barakat Mahmoud al-Gaber is a doctoral degree candidate at Minya University’s Dar al-Oloum (literally, House of Knowledge) College which specialises in the science of Arabic language. Mr Gaber completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of professor of linguistic sciences and head of the Grammar Department Mamdouh al-Rimali, who wrote a report praising Mr Gaber’s dedication and his meticulously researched work. Praise also came from Mahmoud Suleiman Yaqout, head of the Faculty of Arts’ Arabic Department at Tanta University and head of the jury which was to preside over Mr Gaber’s defence of his thesis, who reported that Mr Gaber had presented a serious, exceptional research. Consequently, the Arabic Language Department council set a date for defending the thesis on 16 July 2007. But instead of defending his thesis and earning the doctoral degree he so aspired to, Mr Gaber found himself in the midst of a predicament that was none of his making.
The third member of the jury was Muhammad Abdel-Rahman al-Rihani who is dean of higher studies at the college. What Mr Gaber did not know was that relations between Dr Rihani and Dr Rimali were, to say the least, tense, since the latter had refused to appoint as teacher in his department the brother of the former. Dr Rihani used Mr Gaber’s thesis as a negotiation chip to pressure Dr Rimali; the outcome was that the defence of the thesis was postponed to 13 August then again to 19 August 2007, with no end in sight.
Finding himself in an insoluble situation, Mr Gaber filed an official memorandum to the university president, requesting to defend his thesis. According to the notorious bureaucratic practice common in Egypt, the university president referred the memo to the person against whom the complaint was filed. Consequently Dr Rihani called Mr Gaber, reprimanded him, and threatened that his thesis would never be defended nor would he ever obtain a doctoral degree if he dared complain again.
Mr Gaber found it hard to grasp that a personal dispute between two faculty members could actually deprive him of a degree he had worked so hard for. He could not see how the university president would condone his being used as a scapegoat in a struggle that had nothing whatsoever to do with him. He tried to meet the university president and discuss the matter with him in person but was refused audience. As though the utmost the president could do was to refer the complaint to the person it was directed against.
Defenceless, Mr Gaber filed an official report of the incident to the solicitor-general of Minya and the director of Minya prosecution. This initiated an investigation into the matter but, regrettably, Dr Rihani piled up a host of false accusations against Mr Gaber, and succeeded in recruiting false witnesses against him. Worse, he publicly circulated that Mr Gaber’s thesis would never be defended, and that he would be made a public example for whoever dared complain against a faculty member.
It appeared that Mr Gaber, who had been declared a model student and exceptional researcher, had suddenly become the black sheep of the university. With countless allegations against him, he was questioned by the legal department and, in December 2007, suspended for one year. Mr Gaber met the university president and enquired about the fate of his thesis, to which the president said: “You have crossed all the red lines by taking your problem outside the university, so just be quiet.” When he contacted the minister of higher education he was told: “Go solve your problem with the university president. Apologise first.”
I hope Mr Gaber’s dilemma comes to a just end in court. Regrettably, it is not the first nor will it be the last of its kind. Universities abound with similar problems and, until they are purged of such flagrant inequity and injustice, there can be no reform of our higher education system, no promotion of creativity, innovation, or valuable research. One researcher once said: “We are treated as slaves by our superiors and professors.”

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