Shahd Alhamdan Saudi Gazette Egypt has long been the preferred destination for higher education not only for students from the Kingdom but all over the Middle East. The country's private and public universities have long boasted of impressive international student enrollment but the reputation of The American University in Cairo (AUC) has made it a favorite destination for Saudi students who want a quality American-style education. AUC was established in 1919 by Americans who invested their time and efforts in establishing education in the Middle East. Charles A. Watson was the founding president of the university and he remained in the post for 27 years. Watson's vision was to create an English-language university that has a high standard of education and helps shape the future leaders of Egypt and the Arab world. At its inception, AUC was a male-only institution but it started to accept female students nearly a decade later in 1928. In 1950, the university launched its graduate studies program and between 2010 and 2011, two doctorate majors were opened. “I was sponsored by Saudi Aramco to pursue my higher education in the US but after the attacks of Sept. 11, I felt unsafe and decided to transfer to another university. There were many choices but I chose AUC because it is one of the top five universities in the Middle East. One the main factors in choosing a school was the presence of an American-style education and AUC offers that and so much more,” said Adnan Bahamdein, an accounting major at AUC. For many Saudis, going to AUC as legacy students means continuing a family tradition of attending a leading liberal university. “AUC has a reputation and a ranking of being the best among liberal education universities in the Arab region and I did not want to travel outside the region for my undergraduate studies. Many of my family members had studied at AUC and all I heard were good comments,” said Ali Rafic Al-Banawi an alumni with an undergraduate degree in marketing. Abdulaziz Turki, who has a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance from AUC, is currently pursuing a graduate degree in public administration. Turki listed close proximity to family and an excellent standard of education as his main reasons for attending the university. “I studied at AUC because my mother, brother and sister live in Egypt. It is also one of the best schools in the region. AUC is by far the best accredited school in Egypt,” he said. Unfortunately, a large number of AUC students have a negative perception of Saudis and other students from Gulf countries. “I would have to say the Saudi students there were very mixed and not easy to generalize. Nonetheless, stereotypes seemed like the norm however different the students may have been. And what made them more difficult is that they seemed more like strong convictions rather than flexible assumptions; there was little room to discuss let alone change them. That does not mean that people were not nice; on the contrary AUCians were very friendly. Now Saudi's probably also have strong convictions about the different nationalities attending AUC; so the rigid stereotyping went both ways,” said Al-Banawi. “Unfortunately, AUCians look at Saudi nationals in a negative way. Egyptians in general have a problem with Gulf nationals. Therefore, a lot of Saudi students tried to speak the Egyptian dialect so no one would be able to identify them as Saudis,” added Turki. Despite any difficulties students may face, most Saudi students said attending AUC changed their lives for the better. Alumni said their way of thinking changed, they were more tolerant of differing views and their desire for knowledge increased. “I became more open minded, I was more exposed to the real world. I now accept others' opinions and respect them. Basically, I learned that the world doesn't revolve around me. I learned to interact with different cultures,” said Turki. “The stereotypes I had of Egyptians and even people of different faiths changed after I enrolled in AUC. I never felt that people from different religions can live in peace as I felt it at AUC. It reached a level where I stopped caring if my friends were Muslim or Christian. I began to see people for who they were,” said Bahamdein.
