Top 5 Best Universities in Cairo

Top 5 Best Universities in Cairo

By Roland Unger -Wikimedia

Cairo is Egypt’s expansive capital set by the Nile River. At the center of the city are the famous Tahrir Square and the vast Egyptian Museum that is home to a trove of antiquities including royal mummies and gilded King Tutankhamen artifacts.

Near the city is Giza, the site of the iconic pyramids and Great Sphinx, dating to the 26th century BC.

This city is also the 19th largest in the world, and among the world’s most highly populated cities.

Cairo is famous for its history, preserved in the tremendous prehistoric Islamic city and Coptic sites in Old Cairo.

Cairo city is home to booming film and music industries that are part of the largest and oldest trades in the Arab world.

The city also has a broad night-time life to walk around, including bars, nightclubs, late-night cafés, and Western-style venues.

That said it is important to note that the city is an educational hub and has one of the oldest universities in the world.

Living in Cairo needs proper planning, it is not the cheapest city to live in however one can manage the cost of living by adapting to the city’s way of life, haggling, especially at the market and on the streets.

English is the most commonly used foreign language in the city. It is also the main language of training at the American University in Cairo. Here are the top 5 best universities in Cairo.

1. The American University in Cairo (AUC)

By Ahmad El-Nemr – Wikimedia

AUC was founded in 1919 and is a non-profit private university located in the urban area of the big town of New Cairo in Cairo.

The university is accredited by the Middle States Commission of Higher Education.

It has a small population of students, the enrollment ranges between 5,000-5,999 students. AUC is a Coeducational institution of higher learning.

The programs offered include pre-bachelor degrees like certificates, diplomas, associate or foundation degrees, bachelor degrees, master degrees, and doctorate degrees in several areas of study.

The university has been around for 101 years as a higher-education institution with a selective admission policy that is based on entrance examinations and students’ past academic records and grades. It is open for International students too.

The University takes insight from Cairo, using it as a site for learning and integrating it into the curriculum.

Drawing on Cairo as an extension of the classroom means AUC students are actively engaged in the society and world around them.

The university further prides itself on innovative research such as making Pharaoh discoveries, innovating exceptional tools for persons with autism, using nanotechnology to convert solar energy to electricity, making good use of robotics for reliable low cost of diagnosing hepatitis C among many other plausible innovations.

The University’s modern, 260-acre New Cairo campus comprises of a futurist outlay in the future of Cairo.

There is a state-of-the-art facility for advanced research, innovative teaching, lifelong learning, and civic engagement.

2. Cairo University

By Manar gad – Wikimedia

Cairo University was also known as the Egyptian University between 1908 and 1940. It changed to King Fuad I University between 1940 and 1952; it is Egypt’s first public university.

The main campus is in Giza, right across the Nile from Cairo.

This university has succeeded in taking up the mission to deliver education, research, and other cultural duties for years.

It is regarded as the university that set the foundation for other universities that were established in later years in Egypt.

It offers its programs and research facilities to local students, foreign students, and scientists. This has made this university well known all over the world.

The university uses interactive learning and information technologies that prepare its graduates to join the workforce equipped with the skills needed to succeed in the global marketplaces.

3. Ain Shams University

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Ain Shams University is a public institution of higher learning in Cairo, Egypt.

This university was founded in 1950; it offers programs from undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels.

It used to be known as Ibrahim Pasha’s University before changing to its current name.

It was the third institution of higher learning to be opened in Egypt. The campus is built on a site that used to be a royal palace.

Today, this university has grown and has seven campuses located in the Greater Cairo area. It has 15 faculties together with several research centers.

There are hostels for students that have been provided on campus as well as sports and recreational facilities.

The faculties of Arts, Law, Science, and the administration block are located on the main campus in Cairo.

The other faculties, like Commerce, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture, Education, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Computers, and Information Sciences, Education, and Nursing, are located on other campuses.

Ain Sham University invests in its students by encouraging exchange programs for the students through partnerships with other international institutions.

Some of the institutions that it has partnered with are; the University of Birmingham and Imperial College London in the UK, Monash University in Australia, and McGill University in Canada.

Famous alumni of Ain Shams include Egyptian Prime Ministers Abdi El Aziz Muhammad Hegazi and Serif Ismail, as well as the American philosopher Charles Butterworth.

The emblem of this university depicts a connection with an ancient university that existed more than 50 centuries ago. The ‘O’n’ University was the best in astronomy, engineering, and medicine.

4. Al-Azhar University

By Daniel Mayer – Wikimedia

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif was founded in Cairo, Egypt in 970 AD, and despite not gaining university status until 1961; it is said to be among the world’s oldest universities.

It has been in existence for over a thousand years and is most revered as a center for Islamic studies.

This university started as a madrasa, teaching students Islamic laws from primary to tertiary level.

It was named after the mosque in Cairo’s prehistoric quarter that was founded by the Shi’ite Fatimid Dynasty in 970 AD and was formally organized by 988 AD.

The university has seen its fair share of political instability in the 12^th century when anew dynasty reigned and destroyed more than 100,000 books.

Later in the late 19th century, the university put in place admission requirements, examinations and introduced several modern subjects.

After it became a public university in the 60s, Al-Azhar was reshuffled and the faculties of medicine, business, economics, science, agriculture, and engineering were added. Female students were admitted too in 1962.

Its library is considered to be the second most important in Egypt, after the Egyptian National Library and Archives.

5. German University in Cairo (GUC)

This is a most recent University that was founded in October 2003 in Cairo, Egypt.

The University an independent non-profit private institution and is managed by a conglomerate of Germans and Egyptians.

The university envisions building a leading center of excellence through teaching and research that will successfully add to the general welfare nationally and internationally.

It endeavors to provide scientific, technical, economic, and cultural cooperation between Egypt and Germany.

It offers German-European style learning programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels, along with a continuing education program.