Managing Today; Reaching for Tomorrow

March 22, 2023

Dear AUC Community, 

This semester has seen a whirlwind of activity, new initiatives and achievements by many individuals of our community. Despite the turbulent start to the semester with another devaluation, our community has demonstrated resilience and a deep commitment to continuing to advance and excel.  

The impact of the devaluation is not behind us. As we prepare next year’s budget and develop assumptions beyond that, we must carefully consider the effect of the economic conditions on each of our constituencies and on our operations. Our tuition is a challenge that we must find ways to address as best as we can. We stand firmly behind our commitment that no current student is prevented from completing their degree due to an inability to pay. We will continue to prioritize financial aid for current students. In addition, we launched the Excellence Scholarship Program that will provide scholarships for new students starting in the fall based on their merit and financial ability. We believe this new approach will ensure AUC is affordable for the most outstanding students in Egypt and beyond.

Our staff, who are paid in EGP, have also felt the brunt of the devaluation, especially those at the lowest end of the payroll. In addition to the interventions and one-time payments we made this year, we are modeling scenarios for permanent increases for consideration in the upcoming budget. We also realize that we cannot continue to operate as we’ve done in the past. We must be more efficient, eliminate waste and find creative ways to achieve our goals. If there is a silver lining, it is in our ability to leverage the talents on campus and in our community to rethink how we operate. The mandate to be nimbler and more responsive will far outlast the current circumstances and is a necessity for universities everywhere in the world.   

Looking Forward

While we work through the current issues, it is imperative that we not allow ourselves to lose sight of the future. There will never be a moment that is free of obstacles — and opportunities — and the world around us will continue to evolve at a dizzying pace. History, including AUC’s own past, is filled with examples of how trying times can serve as a catalyst for progress, ambitious thinking and new ways of doing things. The pandemic is perhaps the most recent example of this. In this spirit, we dedicated the last Campus Conversation earlier this month to discussing our Strategic Priorities Roadmap.  

Through hundreds of individual and group conversations since I joined AUC with faculty, students, alumni, staff, trustees, donors and external stakeholders, I have seen a consistent desire to see AUC excel in areas around which there is almost universal alignment. In fact, in some cases, ideas have been under discussion for years. The Strategic Priorities Roadmap captures these collective ambitions in four key pillars that have all been integral to AUC’s identity since its founding.  

Academic Excellence: The vital importance of ensuring excellence in our academic offerings, teaching and research cannot be overstated. Our faculty are best positioned to lead the rethinking of our academic offerings to ensure we develop the programs of the future and adapt our approach. The world is rapidly changing and humankind is facing unprecedented changes in fields like climate change and sustainability, urban growth, data science and AI, among many others. These complex problems require multidimensional solutions that cross traditional boundaries of academic fields. We need programs that foster the kind of creative problem-solving and interdisciplinary thinking essential for the leaders of tomorrow. 

Student-Centered Culture: Students have always been at the heart of AUC. Going forward, we must attract top students from diverse backgrounds and deliver programs, services and support in ways that give them a truly transformative experience. There are a number of programs underway to enhance the AUC experience and prepare students after graduation, including the Mental Health Initiative, co-op and internship programs that allow students to work while studying, more exchange opportunities abroad and an overhaul of campus services.   

Future of Work: Under this strategic pillar, AUC aims to strengthen our contribution in developing Egypt’s workforce on a larger scale. Markets are undergoing fundamental shifts. As new sectors emerge and others disappear, young professionals seek opportunities for reskilling or deepening existing skills to contribute more effectively to the workforce. To serve this growing need, AUC will expand its offerings of micro-credentials, diplomas and professional programs. One remarkable example that demonstrates the reach and impact of AUC’s capacity building in Egypt is AUC’s University Career Center Development project which expanded to establish 46 new career centers in 34 Egyptian national universities, providing millions of students with career mentoring services and employability skills. And just last month, we launched the Road to College English-language program to help Egyptian high-school students prepare for academic study at English-medium universities and open a window to countless possibilities. 

Civic Engagement: Our fourth and final strategic pillar is civic engagement. This has been a part of AUC’s DNA for a century with hundreds of examples of active participation — through research, outreach, community service, course work and capacity building — in the country’s advancement on key projects and priorities. We want to consolidate and better position our civic engagement and community service as strategic priorities that are constitutive of our core values and identity as an institution. This is one of our main differentiators from other higher education institutions. In line with this, we are reimagining how to better utilize and integrate the Tahrir campus into the life of the University, as we expand our civic engagement and connect with more diverse communities.  

These four foundational pillars are not new to AUC and are each key to our strategic directions in the future. We have made significant progress on specific key initiatives and will intensify our efforts in the months to come. To support each of these pillars, there are tangible campus building projects that are also underway. In 2019, during its centennial, the University began a consultative process to imagine the next phase of campus development. Today, we are developing and moving forward on those ideas, each linked to one of the four priority areas (To learn more about the projects, click here).  

An Enabling Environment

Essential to our ability to deliver on our plans is a robust, responsive and service-minded operation. As part of the Strategic Priorities Roadmap, we’ve also included a set of initiatives, related to our campuses, effective management and operations, and creating a culture of service and care. Our staff and administrative support infrastructure must deliver at the highest levels to enable the University to reach its full potential.  

I recognize — and I am often asked — if this is too much to focus on at once. The reality of the world in which we operate is that we do not have the luxury of working sequentially or at a slower pace on any of our priorities. We must address the issues of today head on and at the same time remain relentlessly focused on our pursuit of AUC’s ambitions for the future. Our secret weapon is in the strength, passion, intellectual promise and capabilities of the AUC community. Everyday the impact our alumni are having in the world, the work of our faculty at the forefront of their fields and the creativity and talent of our students give me confidence in our ability as a University to reach and exceed our vision for the future of AUC.  

Yesterday, Egypt celebrated Mother’s Day and earlier this month International Women’s Day. I take this opportunity to thank all of the women of AUC who have broken boundaries and set a new bar in everything from sports and business to leadership and science. This week also marks the start of Ramadan for many members of our community, giving us a moment of reflection. I am deeply grateful to all of the members of the faculty on whose shoulders AUC stands; the staff who tirelessly work to make sure the operation runs smoothly and our students and alumni who are at the heart of our mission and the real inspiration and hope for the future. For those who are observing, I wish you all and your loved ones a blessed month of Ramadan. To all of the members of the AUC community, I wish you a successful and productive remainder of the spring semester. 

Sincerely,

Ahmad Dallal
President