Sudanese higher education in crisis

Since war broke out in 2023, institutions of higher education in Sudan have faced existential threats. In this blog we describe how faculty and students have persevered through them and what the academic community in the Global North should do in solidarity.

Last year, we published a report with the Rift Valley Institute on the state of Sudanese higher education since the outbreak of war in April 2023. In it, we outlined the long history and rich capabilities of Sudanese higher education, the devastation the war has wrought, and the remarkable and heroic efforts of Sudanese lecturers and administrators to continue providing education in the face of extreme challenges. We also highlighted the needs of Sudanese students and academics in neighbouring countries.

Since then, these challenges have continued. The war has forcibly displaced over twelve million people, 4 million outside of Sudan and another 8 million inside. Despite these challenges, students and faculty have persevered, finding ways to continue and assuring education for those who can access it. Regional universities in areas not reached by the conflict have played an essential role for many students. Yet many have been denied access to education or institutional support. This blog outlines the situation in higher education and what has changed since we published our report.  We end by sharing our ideas for how academic communities in the Global North can support Sudanese colleagues and their students in an essential display of academic solidarity.

Facing devastating challenges
Sudanese higher education has played a central role in politics, knowledge creation, and the training of future leaders. Beginning in the 1990s, the sector expanded, introducing private universities alongside public institutions. This created a system that included 39 public and 125 private universities, with at least 700,000 students enrolled in university and over 14,000 university lecturers, of which over 8,000 were PhD holders prior to the outbreak of war in 2023. Addressing the needs of students and lecturers both in and outside of Sudan will be essential to preserving this system for the future, especially as this war continues.

Sudanese higher education has played a central role in politics, knowledge creation, and the training of future leaders.

The war has had a devastating impact on university campuses across the country, with fighting concentrated in urban areas like Khartoum and state capitals where most universities are located. Many university campuses have faced significant damage due to ongoing combat as well as looting and destruction that has accompanied it.

Displacement has affected every part of the academic community. University faculty has in large part moved in pursuit of professional opportunities since their displacement, with women academics sometimes following the professional opportunities of their husbands. Students more often follow their families, either in or outside of Sudan depending on their families’ resources and decisions. Having fled to neighbouring countries, students and faculty encounter a wide range of challenges related to legal regulations and visa requirements that affect their ability to enrol in academic programs or find work.

Continuing education in wartime
With destroyed facilities and a large share of the university community having been displaced, Sudan’s higher education institutions face enormous obstacles attempting to maintain continuity.

Yet, administrators and faculty have worked heroically to continue operations. Government universities resumed activities soon after the war, with coordination from the Ministry of Higher Education, which was able to provide backups of diplomas and records of registration for students. At the University of Khartoum and later other government universities, colleges and departments started teaching online through a variety of platforms including Google Meets, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Other universities in combat areas or RSF controlled areas have struggled, sometimes maintaining online courses but with many students finding it hard to participate due to poor security conditions and limited network access. Faculty have gone to great lengths to provide these services despite receiving only 60% of their devalued salary, often paid late, for the first two years following the war. Exams for public universities have taken place in multiple locations in Sudan, including in Atbara, Port Sudan, and Kassala, as well as at satellite sites in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with students sitting for a full year’s worth of exams at a time, often two exams a day.

Faculty have gone to great lengths to provide these services despite receiving only 60% of their devalued salary, often paid late, for the first two years following the war.

Access to academic records has been a persistent challenge for Sudanese students, whether currently residing in other countries or internally displaced. While the Ministry of Higher Education has provided backups of diplomas and records of registration, individual universities have set up offices for provision of transcripts, diplomas, or other records, mostly in Port Sudan. Accessing these records has proven difficult and expensive for students and former students, requiring payment of high fees and repeated visits to key offices. This has meant that many students in displacement have been unable to gain access to their records, limiting their prospects for further education and professional opportunities. 

New developments
Since the report was published, new challenges have emerged. Private and community-financed ahlia universities have been slower to reopen, though some got going in the wider region, including in Egypt, Rwanda, and Tanzania. These universities have now expanded their reach and activities, with many operating largely online. These institutions are operating while charging students increased university fees to access their online platforms–sometimes up to roughly $100 USD–in addition to fees for examinations and other requirements. The funds involved often go towards paying the lecturers teaching the courses directly in order to sustain operations in the face of low enrolments (caused by the students’ financial hardship and poor internet access) as well as the lack of other financial backing.

Moreover, changing geographies of the war have created new government priorities. Since the Sudanese Armed Forces retook Khartoum in March 2025, it has issued orders demanding that Sudanese higher education as well as the civil services return to Khartoum. Yet, returning is fraught with danger. Khartoum faces hunger, widespread damage to home and state facilities, and ongoing attacks by the RSF. Across Sudan, high prices and insecurity prevent students and faculty from resuming their work. Higher education institutions have begun to comply, with some university campuses reopening amidst cleanup campaigns by students. Still, enrolments are limited both due to the poor conditions in Khartoum as well as the more limited number of students available to enrol. After several rounds of exams, some students have now managed to finish their degrees while others remain in difficult circumstances, unable to reenrol, and are stuck in limbo.

Basic and secondary education
The long-term survival of the education system and its infrastructure is further threatened by the heavy blow to Sudan’s basic and secondary education. Before the war, the basic and secondary education system was already in disarray. With the outbreak of war, it has been entirely frozen, with only an estimated 3 million of 17 million school age children currently enrolled in school. While the Ministry of Education has now held national secondary school certificate exams for students meant to graduate in 2023 and 2024, these exams were limited, only allowing access for students located in SAF controlled areas and in centres outside of Sudan, with exam results marred by serious irregularities in reporting. An intake of new university students has not yet occurred, but given the low number of students able to sit for national secondary school certificates as well as the dire conditions across Sudan, it is  clear that very few students will be able to move on to university studies.

Solidarity with Sudanese higher education
In light of these issues, the need to support Sudanese higher education is immense and systemic. In our report, we note how institutions like the UN and developmental organizations must look to ways to support higher education in Sudan to assure the future of the country. But those in higher education should also play a part in supporting Sudanese colleagues and students as a form of critical solidarity. Some means of doing so include:

Collaborate with institutions of higher education in the region, particularly in Egypt and Uganda, in order to support academics and students in those countries as well as displaced colleagues. This can be done by facilitating universities and libraries in countries with displaced Sudanese populations providing the means to give academics and graduate students affiliation, library access, and other key support mechanisms that would help graduate students finish their studies and allow lecturers to continue their work. It can also be done by institutional grants that provide opportunities for students and faculty from receiving countries alongside Sudanese students and academics.

Create micro grants for research for Sudanese researchers and graduate students and grant digital affiliation to allow them to continue their research and writing. Many academics and graduate students have had their lives disrupted by the war and are in states of economic precarity, making it difficult for them to refocus on their work or apply for academic jobs or programs. Small-scale grants for graduate students and researchers in neighbouring countries and institutional agreements supporting Sudanese institutions of higher education give needed funds that would allow students and researchers to refocus and return to their work, better equipping them to publish, apply for academic positions and programs, and complete their existing academic programs. Universities can also grant digital affiliation to academics and graduate students from Sudan just as some are doing for academics from Gaza.

Implement admissions policies and scholarships that prioritize Sudanese students in the Global North and provide material support for scholarship programs for universities in receiving countries. These policies are essential for providing avenues for further study for students displaced by the war, who face long waiting times for the completion of their study.

As this war drags on and even more students and academics face displacement, difficult living conditions and uncertain futures, academic solidarity is essential to assure the future of Sudan’s higher education and the students and lecturers who have worked within it.

This Sudanese Perspectives blog post is written by Muna Elgadal and Dr. Rebecca Glade. Muna Elgadal is a PhD student at EHESS, France, specialising in the history of contemporary Sudan. She is also a lecturer at Omdurman Ahlia University and a Research Fellow at CEDEJ Khartoum. Rebecca Glade is a historian of post-independence Sudan. She is Visiting Researcher at Makerere University and the Managing Editor of the Makerere Historical Journal.

The views expressed in this post are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the SNAC project or CMI.