Ain Shams University

History

Ain Shams University was founded in July 1950, the third-oldest non-sectarian native public Egyptian university (ancient Islamic universities such as Al-Azhar and private institutions such as the American University in Cairo are older), under the name of Ibrahim Pasha's University. Its site used to be a former royal palace, called the Zafarana Palace. The two earlier universities of this kind are Cairo University (Fuad I university formerly) and Alexandria University (Farouk I university formerly). When it was first established, Ain Shams University had a number of faculties and academic institutes, which were later developed into a university. The university's academic structure includes 21 faculties, and 1 high institute plus 12 centers and special units.

Faculties and institutes

Currently, Ain Shams University offers degrees from 21 different faculties:

Campuses

Ain Shams University has eight campuses. Two of them are next to each other, separated by a main road named El-Khalifa El-Maamoun; all of them are in Greater Cairo.

The main campus is in Abbassia, Cairo and houses the Administration and Management at the Saffron Palace, Science Education Development Center, Central Library, Child Hood Center and the University City (students hostel), in addition to the faculties of Computer Science, Science, Law and Art. The opposite Campus houses the faculty of Commerce, Alsun, pharmaceutical Science and Dentistry.

The Women's College has its own campus. Faculty of Specific Education, Faculty of Education, and Faculty of Agriculture are each on separate campuses in Abassia, Heliopolis, and Shubra El Kheima, respectively.

Popular culture

In 2012, Misr International films was producing a television series based on the novel Zaat by Sonallah Ibrahim. Filming of scenes set at Ain Shams University was scheduled to occur that year, but Muslim Brotherhood student members and some teachers at the school protested, stating that the 1970s era clothing worn by the actresses was indecent and would not allow filming unless the clothing was changed. Gaby Khoury, the head of the film company, stated that engineering department head Sherif Hammad "insisted that the filming should stop and that we would be reimbursed, explaining that he was not able to guarantee the protection of the materials or the artists."

Rankings

Ain Shams University is considered among the universities that are present in all international classifications, which makes it one of the best 3% of the world's universities.

People

Notable faculty

Mervat Seif el-Din (born 1954), classical archaeologist and former director of the Graeco-Roman Museum

Abd El Aziz Muhammad Hegazi (1923–2014), Prime Minister of Egypt during the presidency of Anwar Sadat

Abdel Rahman Badawi (1917–2002), professor of philosophy and poet

Aisha Abd al-Rahman (1913–1998), Egyptian author and professor of literature (pen name: Bint al-Shati)

Notable alumni

Rashad al-Alimi (born 1954), Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen

Hani Azer (born 1948), civil engineer

Jamal Badawi, preacher and speaker on Islam

Farouk El-Baz (born 1938), space scientist

Charles Butterworth (born 1938), American philosopher

Farouk El-Fishawy (1952–2019), actor

Mauro Hamza (born 1965 or 1966), fencing coach

Sherif Ismail (born 1955), Prime minister of Egypt

Fathulla Jameel (1942–2012), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives

Rashad Khalifa (born 1935), biochemist, Founder of the United Submitters International

Youssef Maaty (born 1963), playwright

Abdel Latif Moubarak (born 1964), poet

Huda El-Mufti (born 1994), actress

Ebrahim Nafae (1934–2018), journalist and newspaper editor

Aida Seif el-Dawla (born 1954), human rights activist

Fathy El Shazly (born 1943), Ambassador of Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Turkey

Sameh Shoukry (born 1952), Ambassador of Egypt to the United States