The widespread destruction of universities in Gaza and Ukraine during the wars with Israel and Russia respectively have been widely discussed in global higher education circles. Yet the equally dire fate of Sudan’s universities, as its catastrophic but under-reported civil war rages on, has received much less attention.

That is all the more unfortunate because, amid the blood and tears, there are some remarkable stories of resilience to be found.

When the first explosions shook Khartoum on the morning of 15 April 2023, thousands of students were on their usual commute to university. Within hours, the city descended into chaos. We had to abandon our lecture halls and laboratories, evacuate our buildings and rush home for safety.

As the fighting spread across the capital, it became clear that this was not a temporary disruption. The war had arrived at the very heart of Sudan’s higher education system, and our students and staff were suddenly scattered and displaced. It seemed as if higher education in Sudan had stopped, and we were uncertain whether learning could ever resume. But at Mashreq University, we refused to surrender learning to war.

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As a university lecturer, I witnessed both fear and determination among our 10,000 students, who study various programmes in applied and social sciences. The challenges were immense. Within a few days of the conflict, much of our university infrastructure was destroyed – lecture halls, offices and laboratories were burned down or rendered inaccessible. Electricity, internet and even water became unreliable luxuries. Our main campus was eventually occupied by the Rapid Support Forces, making any return impossible.

In those early weeks, the question that haunted us was simple yet overwhelming: how could we continue to provide education to our displaced students? Since the Covid-19 lockdown, we had been working hard to strengthen our learning management system and teaching strategies to ensure that education could continue during any disruption. When the war began, those early investments became our foundation for survival.

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Our first step was to understand where our community had gone. A rapid online survey revealed a student and staff body scattered across cities, towns and even neighbouring countries – yet united by a shared determination to continue learning.

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Mashreq University website

One of Mashreq University's shattered buildings

E-learning alone could not fully replace the practical training and laboratory work essential to applied sciences, yet abandoning those courses would have meant losing an entire generation of professionals. Hence, using our staff and student location data, we designed a flexible blended-learning model.

Social, theoretical and basic science courses were delivered through our learning management system, allowing displaced students to study online wherever they were. Meanwhile, applied and specialised courses that required hands-on training were arranged locally at partner institutions. Laboratory sessions were hosted in the facilities of friendly universities and professional institutes, while practical training continued in nearby hospitals and factories. This model allowed us to keep teaching, training and assessing our students wherever they had found refuge.

Implementing this new system was far from simple, however. Our main challenges were how to maintain quality and how to find qualified staff to teach advanced courses at each location. For the online component, our e-learning department produced clear guidelines on how to design and publish courses, covering accessibility, exclusivity and copyright.

Basic and theoretical modules were pre-recorded and uploaded to our learning management system, supported by online office hours and continuous assessment. Final examinations were held online using university-issued tablets but invigilated on campus at partner institutions to ensure fairness and integrity.

For the in-person component, the university rented premises in safer areas – two inside Sudan and three in neighbouring countries – which we called teaching centres. Each centre was managed by a senior academic, supported by a small administrative team handling admissions, payroll and HR. All reported to their parent department head through a connected central management network.

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Every course was assigned a lead lecturer and local lecturers. The latter were responsible for preparing teaching materials and coordinating delivery across all centres to maintain consistency. Local lecturers were put in charge of delivery of courses locally, including ensuring that students received essential laboratory sessions and professional training at nearby hospitals, factories or host institutions.

All course lecturers jointly prepared and administered the same examinations under identical conditions. This approach allowed every student, regardless of their location, to receive a sustained and equitable standard of education.

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Mashreq University website

A shattered lab at Mashreq University

Our experience challenges the global higher education community to rethink what access, resilience and continuity truly mean. The crisis forced us to strip education down to its essentials – people, knowledge and communication – and rebuild them in new forms.

Universities in peaceful countries often invest in technology for convenience or innovation. Our experience taught us that in conflict zones, technology is not a luxury – it is a lifeline. Yet the lessons are universal. Every institution, regardless of context, should ask whether its systems could withstand a prolonged shutdown, political unrest or natural disaster.

But resilient education is not fundamentally about expensive tools. It is about designing flexible, compassionate and inclusive systems that can adapt when everything else fails. Our academic staff became counsellors and administrators as much as instructors, supporting students academically and emotionally through extraordinary circumstances.

The new system even offered unexpected benefits. Students gained more practical experience by training under real working conditions, facing real-life problems rather than simulated exercises. Above all, our students reminded us that learning can survive anywhere when given the chance and the right support.

Sudan’s war continues, but education has not stopped. As we rebuild, we hope our blended learning model can inspire others facing crisis – proving that even in war, knowledge remains the most powerful act of resistance.

Gihad Ibrahim is director of strategic initiatives and assistant professor at Mashreq University, Khartoum, Sudan.

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