AUC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt’s Ministry of Education and Technical Education to promote the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Scholars Activity program in schools.
The USAID Scholars Activity, implemented and managed by AUC, is offering scholarships to 140 Egyptian public school students in the 2020-2021 academic year to study at AUC and Egyptian public and private universities. AUC’s partner universities in the program are Ain Shams University, Alexandria University, Cairo University, Assiut University, Mansoura University and Zewail City of Science and Technology.
“We are happy with the opportunities that the USAID Scholars Activity program provides to thanawiya amma high school students and proud of the 140 students who received the scholarships this academic year,” said Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawki. “The ministry spares no effort to develop the skills of our students by providing them with all the available excellent educational opportunities.”
The $36 million USAID Scholars Activity targets 700 students from Egypt’s 27 governorates over 10 years. The students are identified by high academic excellence, leadership potential and financial need. For the first cohort, the program’s majors are agriculture, energy, water, computer science, environmental engineering, journalism, data science, business and economics.
“We look forward to our collaboration with the Ministry of Education,” said AUC Provost Ehab Abdel-Rahman. “Such collaboration will ensure that talented students in public schools will have an opportunity to apply to the USAID Scholars Activity program and get a chance to excel in their chosen fields of study.”
The USAID Scholars Activity will cover five consecutive cohorts, and the selection process commits to gender balance and overall accessibility. This year, 65 female and 75 male students, including 13 students with disabilities, joined the cohort to advance diversity and higher education inclusion.
AUC has welcomed 25 students this year. Assiut, Mansoura and Ain Shams universities have each welcomed 23 students, while 22 students have joined Alexandria University, 17 have joined Cairo University and seven have joined Zewail City of Science and Technology. This year, 24% of students chose an engineering major as their top major of choice, followed by agriculture.
This collaboration between USAID and AUC contributes to Egypt’s 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy by instilling the pillars of knowledge, innovation and scientific research, economic development and environmental responsibility in the activity’s core infrastructure.
