The American University in Cairo (AUC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Egyptian Ministry of Education and Technical Education to promote the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Scholars Activity programme in schools.

The USAID Scholars Activity programme, implemented and managed by AUC, is offering scholarships to 140 Egyptian public school students in the academic year 2020/2021 to study at the AUC and Egyptian public and private universities.

The AUC's partner universities in the programme are Ain Shams, Alexandria, Cairo, Assiut, and Al-Mansoura universities, as well as Zewail City of Science and Technology.

“We are happy with the opportunities that the USAID Scholars Activity programme provides to Thanaweya Amma high school students and proud of the 140 students who received the scholarships this academic year,” said Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawky. “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 programme targets 700 students from Egypt's 27 governorates over 10 years. The targeted students are identified by academic excellence, leadership potential, and financial need. The programme's majors for the first cohort are agriculture, energy, water, computer science, environmental engineering, journalism, data science, business, and economics.

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 provost Ehab Abdel-Rahman said, “We look forward to our collaboration with the Ministry of Education. Such collaboration will ensure that talented students in public schools will have an opportunity to apply to the USAID Scholars Activity programme and get a chance to excel in their chosen field of study.”

Twenty-five students have joined the AUC, 23 students have joined Assiut, Al-Mansoura, and Ain Shams universities, and 22 students have joined Alexandria University. Seventeen students have joined Cairo University, and seven have joined Zewail City of Science and Technology.

This year, 24 percent of students chose an engineering major as the top major of choice, followed by agriculture.

The collaboration between USAID and AUC contributes to Egypt's 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) by instilling the pillars of knowledge, innovation and scientific research, economic development, and environmental responsibility in the activity's core infrastructure.