A group of outstanding Egyptian students were granted a US-sponsored, fully funded scholarship at the AUC. Dena Rashed explores the implications The American University in Cairo (AUC) has launched an ambitious grant programme providing 48 students from Egypt's over two-dozen governorates full scholarships. The students were chosen from over 1,000 public school applicants; the minimum required Thanawiya Amma grade was 85 per cent. English proficiency was also a must. The students will be funded through four years of university-level study, with their housing also provided for by the AUC. They are required to involve themselves in extracurricular activities and keep a daily diary of their activities. The Leaders for Education and Development (LEAD) programme's inauguration was attended by government officials, ministers, governors and education experts. Keynote speakers were Education Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin Moussa, Higher Education Minister Amr Ezzat Salama, Ambassador Marawan Badr (on behalf of International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abul-Naga) and Kenneth Ellis, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID is funding the programme to the tune of LE100 million. AUC president David Arnold described the event as a "celebration [of] a major investment in the future of Egypt, and its most valuable investment, human capital; we are investing in 48 bright, talented and committed leaders." By selecting and nurturing leading students, posited Arnold, AUC was aiming "at providing a world class education to the brightest students in Egypt, who in addition to having a stellar academic record, have also exhibited leadership capabilities in extracurricular activities and community service". More students will join the programme over the next three years, with two students from each governorate (one male and one female) being given a full scholarship, bringing the total number of students receiving the full package to 162. Dina Hussein, a Giza governorate student who got the grant, called it a great opportunity. Like many of the other recipients, she had also been accepted to a top faculty in a state university. Going to the American University, however, was another story altogether. Mustafa El-Fiqi, the chairman of the foreign relations committee at the People's Assembly, said "the programme opens a door for those who don't have doors." Karim Emara, also from Giza, seemed to agree. He chose the AUC scholarship over Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, where he was also accepted. "I am still going to study economics at the AUC, but I believe this is going to be a different experience," he said. Emara said it was not just the higher level of education he expected to receive, but the extracurricular activities he will most likely be engaged in. "This programme will allow us to be more engaged in the development of the community, where every month for example we will meet with different governors and discuss the problems the governorates face." Iman El-Kaffass, the AUC associate dean who is running the programme, said, "the students are going to be trained for leadership skills, decision- making, and most importantly, team building." Abdalla Ezzat from Mansoura in the Al- Daqahliya governorate said the key difference between the AUC and other Egyptian universities was the liberal education offered by the former. By liberal, he said, he meant "freedom of choice", rather than "freedom of expression". In Ezzat's case, that meant that whereas he would be studying engineering, he would also be able to take classes in different subjects as well. Before he got the scholarship, Ezzat was aiming for a public university's faculty of dentistry, where he would not be able to take anything but medical classes, he said. For USAID director Kenneth C Ellis, the celebration was an opportunity to emphasise the ongoing role USAID has played in supporting education in Egypt. "Starting in the mid 80's, we have been involved in building schools in different governorates, sponsoring IT programmes to help get more computers into public schools, as well as training programmes for teachers," Ellis said. Curriculum reform is another, more controversial, area USAID is involved in. Ellis said the critics were confused: "there is a misconception that USAID is unilaterally trying to reform the curriculum in Egypt, [but] we don't get involved in any kind of activity unless the government has asked us. We have been requested for help, and we will assist the government." Ellis told the Weekly the subjects being revised mainly involve science and information technology. "USAID is committed to quality education for all Egyptian students," he said. Critics, however, claim that USAID has economic, political and social implications. "It's true the AUC is going to provide these students with a better environment for political participation, something that has been absent in Egyptian universities for decades," said economic analyst Ahmed El-Naggar, the editor of Economic Trends at Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. At the same time, El- Naggar termed USAID an imperialistic venture meant to support programmes aiming for a specific kind of change. "If American aid was allowed to enter directly into the recipient's public budget, as is the case with USAID to Israel, then the government would have the right to use it where it sees fit." In Egypt, he said, USAID was "conditional aid". The LEAD programme is a partnership between the AUC, USAID and Egypt's Ministry of International Cooperation. It also has the support of key figures in both the government and the education sector. Hossam Badrawi, who heads the People's Assembly's education committee, called it an ideal model of what the educational system should be doing. "It's about institutional support of the educational process, a role institutions should play more often," he told Al- Ahram Weekly. "We are not just supporting education, but a lifestyle full of activities for the students." Higher Education Minister Salama said he would like to see a similar programme initiated by Egyptian businessmen; just such a project was currently being studied, he said. The students, meanwhile, are ecstatic. They are also quite aware of the tremendous expectations people have of them. After all, they were chosen precisely because of their leadership roles in their home communities. Emara, for example, has been involved in different NGOs that serve the community, and was a key figure in his school's student union. Hussein was active on the cultural level, participating in poetry contests. Ezzat was the head of the main student services club at his school, and has been an active member of other clubs that help children solve their problems. Although potential cultural difference did not seem to worry the students interviewed by the Weekly, AUC president Arnold said the students would be provided with peer groups "to help them blend in". He said that advice could even be provided on clothing styles if the students were afraid of "feeling different from their colleagues since they come from different cultural backgrounds". Some of the students, however, seemed to have other concerns. Khaled Fathi, for one, said he was worried about the extra dedication required to succeed. "We are required to participate in two extracurricular activities a year, and to write a daily diary of our activities, in addition to our normal classroom assignments." The hardest part for Fathi, who got a perfect 100 per cent score on his Thanawiya Amma, and had originally been planning to study pharmacology at a public university, was the fact that he will have to stay at the AUC hostel for at least the first semester of the programme. Osman Kamal from Fayoum felt the same way. "It's going to be tough not being with my family," he said, "but we were told that it would help us strengthen our English and get used to the new environment." The programme's student life director, Salwa Magarly, said the hostel experience would help the students become more independent; being together in the same place would also enhance their team building skills. "Since they come from different environments and cultural backgrounds," she said, it would be less of a shock if they weren't going back and forth to their homes so often. The first year was always tough, she said. Fathi, meanwhile, has already started to adapt to the more liberal environment. He said that he and some of the other students would be trying to demand that they be given the right to occasionally spend the night at their own houses. "Whatever the majority decides on, should happen," he said, with a big smile on his face.
