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Welcome to the New Academic Year

  1. About AUC
  2. AUC Statements
  3. Welcome to the New Academic Year

September 7, 2025

Dear AUC Community,

Welcome to the 2025-2026 academic year to both newcomers joining us for the first time and returning faculty, staff and students. We are eager to welcome you all to campus and look forward to another successful year ahead.

We had a strong student recruitment cycle this year with a significant increase in the number of applications over last year and a continued strength in our yield, which is a testament to AUC’s strong reputation in an increasingly competitive international environment. Our freshman class has top performers in each degree, including some of Egypt's highest achievers in IB, IG, thanawiya amma and other high school diplomas. The Excellence Scholarship program awarded more than 360 scholarships to 256 students. This year, 58 outstanding students received full-tuition scholarships. We also welcome a strong cohort of new faculty in 16 fields who come from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Lebanon, Australia and Egypt. I’ve met many of the newcomers during orientation and hope you join me in ensuring they benefit from the warmth of the AUC community as they navigate their first few weeks and months.

We have amazing work taking place on campus every day, with many exciting initiatives slated for the year. While I can’t cover them all here, I will mention a few key areas:

Campus 2026

This is the year we take our vision from a big idea to a tangible reality. Over the past several years, the University has worked to shape the plans for campus expansion that were first envisioned as part of the original campus design and later carefully refined to advance AUC’s strategic vision. This year, we will work together to take the three transformative, strategic projects from detailed plans to effective programs. Throughout the year, we will see steady progress in construction and more developed programmatic details. Campus 2026 is an opportunity to engage with industry partners and the global business community who share our commitment to workforce development and bridging academia with the real world.

Building on AUC’s success in naming the Onsi Sawiris School of Business last year, the three Campus 2026 projects continue to be at the center of our fundraising work in the coming years. Each of the projects provides opportunities for supporting students, faculty, research, workforce development, innovation, and industry collaboration. Along with the three projects, we are also working on scholarship funding for outstanding students, supporting signature academic programs in which AUC excels, as well as initiatives for culture and heritage preservation.

Strategic Priorities Roadmap

Over the past few years, we’ve made significant progress in each pillar of AUC’s Strategic Priorities Roadmap. While we’ve accomplished key milestones and established a strong base in nearly all areas, we collectively recognize that excellence is a constantly evolving target. Given our ambitions to remain a leading University in the region and to compete on a global scale, we cannot become complacent. In a world that is moving faster than ever before and a changing global landscape of higher education, we must remain steadfast in our pursuit of excellence.

Task Force on AI Strategy

One specific area of focus in the coming year is Artificial Intelligence. AI is reshaping the landscape of education, research, and society at large. Significant work has already been done at AUC in the AI space. Building on this work, a university-wide task force will assess current AI-related initiatives across the university and integrate them into a holistic AI strategy for AUC. The Task Force will also identify strategic priorities to ensure that AUC education and operations are benefitting from AI technologies, develop a roadmap for long-term AI integration throughout the university and recommend policies and frameworks for responsible AI use.

As you settle into the start of the new semester, I wish you all a fruitful, intellectually challenging and rewarding year ahead. I look forward to seeing you on campus in the coming weeks and at the first Campus Conversation of the year, scheduled for Thursday, October 2, at 1 pm in Alwaleed Hall.

Sincerely,

Ahmad Dallal
AUC President