Egypt to open Alexandria university branch in Tonj by April next year – Changson

JUBA – South Sudan’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Gabriel Changson Lew Chang has said that he and his Egyptian counterpart have agreed, during a meeting in Cairo on Saturday, to open the long-awaited Alexandria University branch in Tonj next year.

More than ten years ago, then Government of Southern Sudan and Egypt agreed to open a branch of the Alexandria University in Tonj of South Sudan’s Warrap state.

The plan has since remained without implementation owing to logistical issues.

Speaking to Sudans Post during an exclusive interview in Cairo on Saturday, Changson said he and his Egyptian counterpart have agreed on several areas whose implementation, he said, will begin with formation of a six-member committee from both sides to work out the matrix of implementation.

“The implementation we have also included in the memorandum of understanding that a six-person committee will be formed. Three from each side to follow up the implementation of this agreement,” he said.

“We will, as soon as we go back, work out a plan for the implementation including the matrix of implementation,” he added.

Changson also revealed that the Egyptian government has agreed to open a branch of Alexandria University in Tonj next year which he said will help many students enroll in their home-state of Warrap.

“We also agreed on teh opening of Tonj Branch of Alexandria University in April and this university or this plan has been in book for more than ten years and now we want to activate it and that university will also enroll a number of South Sudanese students,” he said.

The senior government official also revealed that the Egyptian government has agreed to increase the volume of scholarship vacancies that it annually offers to South Sudanese students.

“The purpose of our visit is to review the agreement between our two ministries in term of increasing the size of scholarship which we did from 300, no it will be 400 scholarship,” he said.

“Out of 400, 300 will be undergraduates and 100 will be post graduate. That is MA, Masters’ Degrees and PhDs. Then we also agreed to improve the conditions of students that are studying here in Egypt in terms of providing accommodations for them, health insurances providing two-way tickets each year and also we agreed those who are studying on their own should have a waiver of tuition fees of all the expenses pertaining to their studies to teh turn of 90% and they will only be paying for 10%,” he further added.