The American University in Cairo

History

The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919 by the American Mission in Egypt, a Protestant mission sponsored by the United Presbyterian Church of North America, as an English-language university and preparatory school. University founder Charles A. Watson wanted to establish a western institution for higher education.

The preparatory school opened to 142 students on October 5, 1920, in Khairy Pasha Palace, which was built in the 1860s. The first diplomas issued were junior college-level certificates given to 20 students in 1923.

There were disputes between Watson, who was interested in building the university's academic reputation, and United Presbyterian leaders in the United States who sought to return the university to its Christian roots. Four years later, Watson decided that the university could not afford to maintain its original religious ties and that its best hope was the promotion of good moral and ethical behavior.

Originally limited to male students, the university enrolled its first female student in 1928. That same year, the university graduated its first class, with two Bachelor of Arts and one Bachelor of Sciences degrees awarded.

In 1950, AUC added its first graduate programs to its ongoing Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Sciences, graduate diploma, and continuing education programs, and in 1951, phased out the preparatory school program. During the Six-Day War, AUC was seized by the Egyptian government and was placed under control by Egyptian administrators for the next seven years; most of its American faculty were forced to leave the country. Egypt stopped short of nationalizing the university, which was supported by money owed as repayment of loans made by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The government returned control to American administrators on June 12, 1974, coinciding with a visit to Cairo by U.S. president Richard Nixon. By the mid-1970s, the university offered a broad range of liberal arts and sciences programs. In the following years, the university added bachelors, masters, and diploma programs in engineering, management, computer science, journalism and mass communication and sciences programs, as well as establishing a number of research centers in strategic areas, including business, the social sciences, philanthropy and civic engagement, and science and technology. In the 1950s, the university also changed its name from The American University at Cairo, replacing "at" with "in."

Campus

Tahrir Square campus

AUC was originally established in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. The 7.8-acre Tahrir Square campus was developed around the Khairy Pasha Palace. Built in the neo-Mamluk style, the palace inspired an architectural style that has been replicated throughout Cairo. Ewart Hall was established in 1928, named for William Dana Ewart, the father of an American visitor to the campus, who made a gift of $100,000 towards the cost of construction on the condition that she remain anonymous. The structure was designed by A. St. John Diament, abutting the south side of the Palace. The central portion of the building houses an auditorium large enough to seat 1,200, as well as classrooms, offices and exhibition galleries. The school's continued growth required additional space, and in 1932, a new building was dedicated to house the School of Oriental Studies. East of Ewart Hall, the building featured Oriental Hall, an auditorium and reception room built and decorated in an adaptation of traditional styles, yet responsive to the architectural style of its own time.

Over time AUC added more buildings to what has become known as The GrEEK Campus, for a total of five buildings and 250,000 square feet in downtown Cairo. Sadat Metro was developed with access to the campus, and its main lines intersect near there. Also nearby is the Ramses Railway Station. The campus wall on Mohamed Mahmoud Street still has revolutionary graffiti put up. The American University in Cairo made an initiative and tried to preserve the wall graffiti. Many admirers published and even documented these graffiti by collecting images/photos of the mural taken by visitors, who were present during this historic period.

New Cairo campus

In the fall of 2008, AUC left the Greek Campus and officially inaugurated AUC New Cairo, a new 260-acre suburban campus in New Cairo, a satellite city about 20 miles (and 45 minutes) from the downtown campus. New Cairo is a governmental development comprising 46,000 acres of land with a projected population of 2.5 million people. AUC New Cairo provides advanced facilities for research and learning, as well as all the modern resources needed to support campus life. In its master plan for the new campus, the university mandated that the campus express the university's values as a liberal arts institution, in what is essentially a non-Western context with deep traditional roots and high aspirations. The new campus is intended to serve as a case study for how architectural harmony and diversity can coexist creatively and how tradition and modernity can appeal to the senses. Campus spaces serve as virtual laboratories for the study of desert development, biological sciences, and the symbiotic relationship between environment and community. The two campuses together host 36 undergraduate programs and 46 graduate programs. The New Cairo campus offers six schools and ten research centers.

The Research Centers Building houses the AUC Forum, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Center for American Studies, the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, and the Yousef Jameel Science and Technology Research Center.

The Dr. Hamza AlKholi Information Center houses AUC's offices for enrollment, admissions, student financial affairs and student services. The Howard Theatre is located at The Hatem and Janet Mostafa Core Academic Center, along with the Mansour Group Lecture Hall, the Academic Advising Center and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies.

The AUC Center for the Arts includes two theaters: the Malak Gabr Arts and the Gerhart, as well as the Sharjah Art Gallery and offices for the Department of Performing and Visual Arts.

The university's Campus Center provides students with a communal area to eat, congregate, organize trips, and attend campus-wide events. Inside the building are a bookstore, gift shop, bank, travel office and the main dining room. There is also a daycare center, a faculty lounge and the Office of Student Services, the Travel Office and the AUC Press campus shop.

Governance and administration

The American University in Cairo is an independent educational institution governed by a board of trustees. In addition, a panel of trustees emeriti functions as an advisory board. The Board has its own by-laws and elects a chairperson for an annual term. There are no students on the Board.

Francis Ricciardone was the president of AUC from 2016 until 2021. In February 2019, both the faculty and the student senate of the American University overwhelmingly voted that they had "no confidence" in Ricciardone's leadership. In a letter to the president, the faculty cited "low morale, complaints about his management style, grievances over contracts and accusations of illegal discrimination" with tensions further increasing when Ricciardone invited U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to give a speech at the university.

The 13th president of AUC, Ahmad S. Dallal, graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from AUB. He obtained advanced degrees from and taught at several renown universities in the United States prior to taking on administrative positions at American University of Beirut from 2009 to 2015 and Georgetown University in Qatar from 2017 to 2021.

University presidents

Ahmad Dallal (2021-)

Ehab Abdel-Rahman (July–October 2021; acting president)

Francis J. Ricciardone (2016–2021)

Thomas E. Thomason (2015–2016; interim president)

Lisa Anderson (2011–2015)

David C. Arnold (2003–2011)

John D. Gerhart (1998–2003)

Donald McDonald (1990–1997)

Richard F. Pedersen (1977–1990)

Cecil K. Byrd (1974–1977)

Christopher Thoron (1969–1974)

Thomas A. Bartlett (1963–1969)

Raymond F. McLain (1954–1963)

John S. Badeau (1944–1953)

Charles Watson (1919–1944)

Academics

AUC offers 37 bachelor's degrees, 44 master's degrees, and 2 doctoral degrees in applied sciences and engineering in addition to a wide range of graduate diplomas in five schools: business, global affairs and public policy, humanities and social sciences, and the school of sciences and engineering.

AUC holds institutional accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the United States. AUC's engineering programs are accredited by ABET (formerly Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) and the business programs are accredited by the Association to Advance College Schools of Business (AACSB). In Egypt, AUC operates within the framework of the 1975 protocol with the Egyptian government, which is based on the 1962 Cultural Relations Agreement between the U.S. and Egyptian governments. In the United States, AUC is licensed to grant degrees and is incorporated by the State of Delaware. In addition, many of AUC's academic programs have received specialized accreditation.

Enrollment in academic programs includes over 5,474 undergraduates with an additional 979 graduate students during the 2017-2018 academic year. Simultaneously, adult education has also expanded and now serves more than 22,000 students each year in non-credit courses and contracted training programs offered through the School of Continuing Education. 94% of AUC students are Egyptian, with the remaining 6% from around the world.

Rankings

AUC is ranked 411th university globally and 9th in the "Arab Region" by QS World University Rankings in their 2021 rankings

Ten AUC graduate programs were ranked among the top in Africa and best 200 worldwide in Eduniversal's Best Master's Rankings for 2015 - 2016

AUC placed 81st out of 407 institutions worldwide in the Universitas Indonesia (UI) GreenMetric World University Ranking for 2015 - 2016.

Student life

Student activities

AUC has 70 student organizations. Most of the student activities at AUC are organized by students in areas of community service, student government, culture and special interests, academics, and student conferences.

Organizations include, but are not limited to:

Delta Phi Epsilon (professional), professional foreign service fraternity (Independent Chapter).

Help Club

The Student Union

Developers Inc.

Cairo International Model United Nations

Astronomy Club

AUC Times Magazine

Khatwa

TEDxAUC: AUC's platform for Ideas Worth Spreading

Egyptology Association

Philosophy Club

Volunteers in Action

ICGE club

Dormitories and student housing

Dormitories and student housing are located on AUC's New Cairo campus. Housing is organized by the AUC's Office of Residential Life, helping students transition to living independently and adjusting to university life as well as organizing social events. The residence is composed of 12 units, divided into five male and seven female cottages.

Notable alumni

Aida el Ayoubi, singer, songwriter and guitarist

Amr Waked, actor

Anne Aly, Australian political scholar, academic and counter-terrorism expert

Anne Zaki, Egyptian theologian

Anthony Shadid, foreign correspondent for The New York Times

Asser Yassin, Egyptian actor

Ben Wedeman, senior international correspondent, CNN

Dan Stoenescu, Romanian minister, diplomat, political scientist and journalist

David M. Malone, Canadian diplomat

Devin J. Stewart, professor at Emory University

Haifa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker

Hassan Abdalla, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt

Hisham Abbas, singer

Nadeen Ashraf, feminist activist

Jaweed al-Ghussein, Palestinian educationist and philanthropist

John O. Brennan, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Juan Cole, American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. Currently Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Notable faculty

Galal Amin (1935–2018), economist and commentator

Aliaa Bassiouny, professor and chair of the finance department

Emma Bonino (1948–2026), Italian former Commissioner of the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO)

Manar El-Shorbagy, professor of political science and member of the 2012 Constituent Assembly

Shems Friedlander, American emeritus professor and Sufi master

Graham Harman (born 1968), American contemporary philosopher of metaphysics

Fayza Haikal, emerita professor of Egyptology

Salima Ikram, Egyptologist and expert on animal mummies

Heba Kotb (born 1967), sex therapist and host of The Big Talk, a sexual advice show

Jehane Ragai, chemist

Kent R. Weeks (born 1941), American Egyptologist, launched the Theban Mapping Project, which discovered the identity and vast dimensions of KV5, the tomb of the sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings

Lawrence Wright (born 1947), American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author

Moustafa Youssef, computer science and engineering professor, first and only ACM Fellow in the Middle East and Africa

Steven Salaita, American scholar and chair of the English and Comparative Literature department