Zagazig University on Sunday fired former president Mohamed Morsi from its engineering faculty, Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

It said Morsi's recent 20-year jail sentence "contradicts the university's customs."

Morsi was the head of the university’s materials engineering department.

He was sentenced in April for inciting violence during protests against his rule in 2012.

University president Ashraf El-Sheehy headed a committee of three law professors formed to decide whether Morsi had the legal right to continue in his position or not.

The committee received a copy of the criminal court's verdict before taking its decision.

The decision to fire him was also based on his absence from the university for over six months

The universities law says any faculty member who is absent for six months without consent will be fired, according to Mostafa Kamal El-Sayed, political science professor at Cairo University and member of March 8 Movement for the Independence of Universities.

"The law was strictly applied without taking into consideration that Morsi was detained and was unable even to contact his family," El-Sayed told Ahram Online.

He explained that if a faculty member successfully appeals their sacking for absence they can come back to the university within six months.