File Photo: Central Security forces surrounds Zuwail City in 6 of October, to disperse Nile University's student sit in by force in September 2012 (Photo: Dr. Mahmoud Allam)
Egypt's administrative court upheld Saturday an earlier decision that restores land and facilities to Nile University (NU) instead of Zuwail City for Science and Technology (ZCST) after a dispute between them on ownership.
Following the Egyptian revolution in 2011, the government gave all NU land to ZCST, named after prominent Egyptian chemist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zuwail. As a result of the move, NU students were banned from the campus.
On 24 April 2013, the administrative court granted the land to its original owner — NU. However, NU students were not able to access campus as an appeal was filed against the decision.
Students of the private non-profit NU protested regularly in front of the university. They also held classes in makeshift tents in front of campus.
NU was originally established in 2006 as a private not-for-profit university. Only in 2009 was a law passed allowing the establishment of so-called "civil universities."
Such universities are neither private nor state owned, but are rather "owned by the people" via donations and contributions.
In January 2010, the law was approved by Egypt's Supreme Council of Civil and Private Universities. But before it could be formally approved by longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, the 2011 Tahrir Square uprising broke out, throwing the university's fate into uncertainty.
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