Arabic version: جامعة الخرطوم تواجه أزمة عودة بعد أضرار الحرب

According to Allafrica, 71% of University of Khartoum academics remain outside Sudan as war damage to facilities and the absence of students threaten plans to restore full face-to-face teaching. The university administration had asked academic staff to return by 1 August 2026, with teaching for all levels due to resume in September.

A survey of 381 staff members found that 29% were inside Sudan. The Academic Staff Association’s Committee to Ensure the Continuity of the Educational Process said the institution has lost more than half of its staff housing and the operational capacity of lecture halls, laboratories and hospitals. More than 90% of information and communications technology infrastructure has been damaged.

Staff attendance varied across campuses and faculties. At one Central Campus faculty, the average number of returning staff in departments was about 20%, while the average in the three best-performing departments at a Shambat Campus faculty was about 50%. Attendance reached 68% at the Education Campus by 15 August, compared with 35% at the Faculty of Arts by 23 August.

The report said student displacement and financial constraints could also undermine a return. More than half of 1,351 engineering students covered by the data were refugees or displaced outside Sudan, and 77.8% were not in Khartoum. The report warned that closing external examination centres could stop more than 80% of students from taking exams. At the Faculty of Science, about 12 laboratories have been lost, including around seven completely destroyed.

The committee proposed a one-year transition using full return, hybrid participation and remote online work for academics. It also recommended keeping external centres open, using blended learning and creating committees for blended learning and reconstruction. Despite the destruction, the university continued online teaching, held six examination sessions and graduated about 8,000 students during the war.