Following the dismissal of state security guards from its campus, Cairo University began on Thursday to deploy security personnel unaffiliated with Egypt's Interior Ministry.
Other Egyptian universities are also in the process of forming civil security units in preparation for the second academic semester.
Male and female security personnel have taken up positions along Cairo University's corridors and gates. They are expected to be issued with official uniforms next week.
The Ministry of Higher Education has promised that the state security apparatus would no longer have any involvement with the university, stressing also that there would be no associations between university heads and the state security apparatus.
On Sunday, former minister of education Ahmed Gamal Eddin Moussa expressed a willingness to implement previous court orders to expel state security personnel from Egyptian universities and allow veiled students to attend exams and reside in university dormitories.
An Egyptian court had earlier ruled to remove security guards from the nation's universities, opining that these guards endangered university independence. Courts had also overturned a decision by former higher education minister Hani Helal to ban veiled students from sitting for exams.
These rulings, however, were never implemented due to the total control of the security apparatus over university campuses and activities.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
