On April 12, University of Khartoum announced its decision to resume operations at its campuses in Khartoum State and to hold examinations in person across its academic complexes. The decision also cancelled all examination and training centres previously operating outside Sudan.
The university’s Secretariat of Academic Affairs stated that the move was based on recommendations issued during the Council of Deans meeting in February 2026, describing the measures as steps that would “contribute to the stability of the educational process and the stability of the university itself.” However, observers view the decision as part of the Port Sudan government’s efforts to project a return to normal life in the capital.
Students from second year through to sixth year across various faculties have already begun sitting examinations, which are scheduled to continue until mid-year. Yet many students interviewed by Atar correspondents described the decision — issued with little notice — as one that imposes enormous logistical and financial burdens on both them and their families.
Following the announcement, social media pages affiliated with University of Khartoum student associations erupted with demands that the administration reverse the decision. Several associations regrouped under the previously established Student Associations Council — an umbrella body representing faculty associations — and attempted to submit an urgent memorandum to the university director. Their request, however , was rejected.
Examinations for the Faculty of Medicine began last Sunday inside the Faculty of Engineering buildings. Despite this, dormitories at the university’s central complex have not yet resumed operations, according to a statement made by the Deanship of Student Affairs to the Student Associations Council. A proposal to house students in the Education Complex dormitories in Omdurman was reportedly rejected as well.
The University of Khartoum has faced persistent administrative crises since Sudan’s December 2018 Revolution, leading to prolonged closures that created a severe backlog of student cohorts while admissions continued uninterrupted. Following the outbreak of war, the university held its first post-war examination cycle at the end of 2023 through centres established across Gulf countries and within several Sudanese cities, reflecting the geographic dispersal of students and faculty members alike.
Students are being forced to stay in dormitories whose conditions and capacity remain unclear.
Member of the executive committee of the Engineering Students' Association
At the time, students unable to attend because of war conditions or displacement were granted the option to defer examinations. The university also altered its semester system, postponing examinations until the end of the academic year while simultaneously implementing provisional registration for students advancing to new academic levels even before supplementary examination results had been released.
A student from the Faculty of Engineering — and member of the executive committee of the Engineering Students’ Association — who requested anonymity told Atar that the current examination cycle for the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy, now taking place inside the Engineering Complex, will effectively force students to stay in the central dormitories despite the absence of any clear assessment of whether those facilities are adequately rehabilitated or capable of accommodating them.
The student suggested that the dormitories had likely lost a substantial portion of their capacity as a result of the war and said the association possesses no reliable data regarding either accommodation capacity or current conditions.
The examination crisis is inseparable from a broader debate over the resumption of full in-person teaching, which the university says will begin at the start of the next academic year in the final third of this year. Coinciding with the launch of examinations in April, the National Fund for Welfare published a Facebook video announcing the rehabilitation of Abu Dijana Dormitory — historically known as Tirhaqa Dormitory — traditionally designated for engineering students at the University of Khartoum.
The cost of returning to Khartoum now exceeds $1,000 per student, compared with roughly $150 previously required to sit examinations in Gulf examination centres.
University of Khartoum students residing in Gulf countries
The university had already resumed limited in-person instruction at the beginning of the previous academic year for first-year students only, across all faculties, at the Education Complex in Omdurman — a move widely viewed as an experimental step toward restoring full campus-based learning.
According to Atar correspondents’ observations, accommodation fees for students admitted through the general admissions track stand at 200,000 Sudanese pounds per academic year, while private-admission students pay 150,000 pounds monthly for dormitory housing. First-year students currently reside in the Education Complex dormitories.
Atar also spoke with several University of Khartoum students residing in Gulf countries, who explained that the cost of returning to Khartoum now exceeds $1,000 per student — compared with roughly $150 previously required to sit examinations in Gulf examination centres. Some students have only one or two examinations remaining before graduation and therefore regard the compulsory recall as an arbitrary financial burden imposed by the university.
Students in Saudi Arabia in particular expressed concern that they may struggle to return after examinations because the travel period coincides with the Hajj season.
Beyond expensive airfare, students highlighted the soaring costs of accommodation and transportation in Khartoum and Omdurman, especially amid sharp increases in rental prices. They also described the exhausting bureaucratic and logistical demands now confronting students who should instead be devoting their full attention to academic preparation. Security concerns, they added, have intensified psychological pressure on both students and their families, potentially affecting academic performance during examinations.
74.7 percent reported having nowhere to stay after examinations concluded.
Findings from a March survey conducted by the Engineering Students' Association
Last March, the Engineering Students’ Association conducted a survey involving 1,135 engineering students at the University of Khartoum. The findings revealed that 51.1 percent of students were currently outside Sudan, while only 8 percent believed they would be able to attend the next examination session scheduled for June.
When asked about travel costs, 31.7 percent said they could only afford them with extreme difficulty, while 26.2 percent stated they were entirely unable to cover the expenses. Another 26.7 percent were located outside Khartoum State.
Regarding accommodation within Khartoum itself, 74.7 percent reported having nowhere to stay after examinations concluded. The association estimates that at least one-third of engineering students are effectively unable to return to Khartoum at all. Their circumstances include expired residency permits abroad that could be jeopardized by travelling to Sudan, homes destroyed during the conflict, and the punishing costs of transportation and living expenses during examination periods.
Students interviewed by Atar also warned that Khartoum’s transportation crisis is likely to worsen conditions further once examinations begin in earnest. Most public transport routes linking the central university complex have either stopped operating or been significantly rerouted, potentially forcing students to walk long distances along roads now largely deserted.
The university’s main campus — known simply as “the Centre” — remains eerily devoid of life following the end of fighting in central Khartoum. Although the electricity has returned to parts of the campus and plumbing issues appear manageable, shops, bookstores and cafeterias remain shuttered. Maintenance workers at the central complex, along with employees from the Ministry of Health opposite the Faculty of Engineering, now purchase food from street vendors along Othman Digna Street.
Students from several faculties have also protested the suspension of online instruction, including those from the Faculty of Geographical Sciences. They had previously been informed that they would resume studies in person only after several months — a decision they describe as arbitrary, even if intended to unify the academic calendar across faculties.
