Arts , Humanities & Social Science

Abstract

This story tells the preparations for the foundation phase, the opening, and operation of the German University in Cairo (GUC), a private enterprise looking back on a success story of about twenty years. Early 2001 the decision was made to establish the GUC under the patronage of the two German public universities Stuttgart and Ulm, with full support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Arts (MWK), BadenWurttemberg, Germany. GUC was opened on 5. October 2003 for the first 900 students, through an Egyptian German state inauguration ceremony, by the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Five years after the opening GUC became already the leading private university in Egypt. Actually, about 13,000 students are enrolled and more than 2,000 graduates (Bachelors, Masters and PhDs) have been educated by GUC and got excellent positions in Egypt and other countries – for the pleasure of themselves, their families and finally GUC. The GUC is the biggest and most successful project of transnational education of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – in 2015 about 42% of all students in German Transnational Education Projects were enrolled in GUC.