The American University in Cairo (AUC; ) is a private research university in New Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs at undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels, along with a continuing education program. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in the United States and Egypt's National Authority for Quality Assurance and Assessment of Education.
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.
In 1978, the university established the Desert Development Center to promote sustainable development in Egypt's reclaimed desert areas. The Desert Development Center's legacy is being carried forward by the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment.
Faculty voted "no confidence" in university president Francis J. Ricciardone in February 2019. 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.
On February 11, 2019, the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo reaffirmed its continued confidence and unqualified support for President Francis J. Ricciardone. In May 2019, it extended his tenure to June 2024. Ricciardone retired June 2021.
The board of trustees announced their appointment of Ahmad S. Dallal as the university's 13th president on June 22, 2021.
On March 1, 2025, the United States' Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced the termination of over $171 million in research grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the American University in Cairo. DOGE stated they saved the U.S. federal government $101,396,775 from wasteful spending by the American University in Cairo.
Campus
Tahrir Square campus
thumb|left|200px|[[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. 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. 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.
Sandstone for the walls of campus buildings was provided by a single quarry in Kom Ombo, 50 kilometers north of Aswan. The stone arrived by truck in giant multi-ton blocks, which were cut and shaped for walls, arches and other uses at a stone-cutting plant built on the site. The walls were constructed according to energy management systems which reduce campus air conditioning and heating energy use by at least 50 percent as compared to conventional construction methods. More than 75 percent of the stone in the Alumni Wall that circles the campus was recycled from stone that would otherwise have been discarded as waste after cutting.
A 1.6-kilometer service tunnel that runs beneath the central avenue along the spine of AUC's campus is a key element to making its overall pedestrian nature possible. Services accessible via the tunnel include all deliveries and pickups from campus buildings, fiber optic and technology-related wiring, major electrical conduits and plumbing for hot water, domestic water and chilled water for air conditioning. All other pipes for sewage, natural gas, irrigation and fire fighting are buried on the campus, outside the tunnel, around buildings as needed for their purposes. In her remarks, Scobey said,