Ahmad Bazama is originally from Kufra—far southeast Libya— and is graduating this year from the University of Benghazi, which is the closest university to his city even though it is more than 1,000 miles away.
Ahmad was forced to travel this distance back and forth throughout his period of study and was also obliged to accept what he referred to as “ill-treatment” and a delay in the disbursement of scholarship money.
Horizontal expansion
Ahmad Bazama is originally from Kufra—far southeast Libya— and is graduating this year from the University of Benghazi, which is the closest university to his city even though it is more than 1,000 miles away.
Ahmad was forced to travel this distance back and forth throughout his period of study and was also obliged to accept what he referred to as “ill-treatment” and a delay in the disbursement of scholarship money.
Horizontal expansion
Kufara is one Libya’s largest cities with more than 60,000 residents. There is a branch of the Arts and Sciences College, the University of Benghazi, for students coming from the city and neighboring areas. More than 1,000 students study outside the city because they want to specialize in areas not offered here— like engineering.
“We were hoping to get an approval to open a branch of the engineering college in the city, but we were shocked when we were told that our request was rejected under the pretext of not wanting to expand horizontally in some cities,” said Bazama. “This has led students to organize a demonstration protesting the unconvincing decision of the congress.”
Many college students in Libya, living in remote cities and areas, suffer from the absence of higher education facilities in their cities and in nearby towns. They are forced to move away from their families and bear the housing and study expenses, which student scholarships do not cover.
The roads are not good
Muhammad Abu Sadina, the head of the local council of the Kufra city, said that he and Saad al-Manfi, the dean of the Kufra University, have written to the dean of the Benghazi University regarding the opening of a branch of the engineering college in the city. The main reason for this demand is that the road connecting the cities of Kufra and Benghazi is not usable. “This road is falling apart, it’s risky and it prevents students from freely and safely moving between the two cities.”
The dean of the Benghazi University – according to Sadina – wrote to the head of the Higher Education Committee of the National Congress, which rejected the request due reluctance of horizontal expansion in some cities, including al-Kufra city.
Professor Bu al-Nakra, a faculty member at the Benghazi University, Kufra branch, said that opening a college of engineering is a major demand of the Kufra city students. “It is not impossible but it will be difficult to achieve,” al-Nakra said.
The faculty member noted that the dormitory allocated to students at the University of Benghazi is now being occupied by people displaced after the February 17 revolution.
An independent university
“We requested the opening of several colleges, notably the college of engineering, and we hope that the members of the congress of higher education justify their stance rejecting our demand,” al-Nakra said, insisting that Kufra had all the necessary requirements qualifying it to have a college and host an independent university.
Abu al-Nakra said that Benghazi University in Kufra lacked many disciplines including media, engineering and kindergartens and thus could not be an integrated university that meets the demands of the people in the city, which is witnessing increased numbers of graduates from one year to the next because of the increase in its population numbers.
The problem of the engineering faculty, according to the faculty member, is the most urgent one. The students who graduated from the engineering sciences in high school have only two choices: either to stop studying or to study in Benghazi and travel great distances under deteriorating security conditions and lacking infrastructure.
He called on the Minister of Higher Education and the National Congress’s Higher Education Commission to review its decision and to visit the college to see it and to open a faculty of engineering section similar to the faculties of arts and law in the city.
Female students
“They can’t travel and live far away from their families because there is no dormitory and because of the deteriorating security conditions in Benghazi. The people of Kufra are conservative and they respect norms and traditions. This makes it very difficult for girls to go to the city and study engineering,” said one parent from the city.
The city’s dignitaries, following a meeting they held to discuss the issue, will send a delegation to meet with the government and the Ministry of Higher Education to deal with limitations faced by students in al-Kafra.
Graduate students and holders of higher degrees recently organized a protest to demand their appointment as faculty members and to open other colleges that do not exist in the Kufra University to provide employment opportunities to qualified graduates.
Students of engineering in secondary schools protested peacefully in front of the local council of the city, demanding the opening of a branch of the engineering college. They blamed the two members representing their city in the national congress for the rejection because they are present in the congress yet have not managed to bring about changes that would benefit nearly 400 students forced to study elsewhere.
