Cairo University

Cairo University

جامعة القاهرة
Thoth, the embodiment of knowledge, hieroglyphs, and wisdom.
Former names	Egyptian University Fuad I University
Type	Public
Established	1908; 109 years ago (1908)
President	Gaber Gad Nasar
Academic staff	12,158
Students	280,000
Location	Giza City, Giza, Egypt 30°01′39″N 31°12′37″E / 30.02760°N 31.21014°E / 30.02760; 31.21014Coordinates: 30°01′39″N 31°12′37″E / 30.02760°N 31.21014°E / 30.02760; 31.21014
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	UNIMED
Website	www.cu.edu.eg/

Cairo University (Egyptian Arabic: جامعة القاهرة‎‎ Gām‘et El Qāhira, known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University from 1940 to 1952) is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908; however, after being housed in various parts of Cairo, its faculties, beginning with the Faculty of Arts, were established on its current main campus in Giza in October 1929. It is the second oldest institution of higher education in Egypt after Al Azhar University, notwithstanding the pre-existing higher professional schools that later became constituent colleges of the university. It was founded and funded as the Egyptian University by a committee of private citizens with royal patronage in 1908 and became a state institution under King Fuad I in 1925. In 1940, four years following his death, the University was renamed King Fuad I University in his honor. It was renamed a second time after the Free Officer’s Coup of 1952. The University currently enrolls approximately 155,000 students in 22 faculties. It counts three Nobel Laureates among its graduates and is one of the 50 largest institutions of higher education in the world by enrollment.

The university was founded on 21 December 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for higher education. Several constituent colleges preceded the establishment of the university including the College of Engineering (كلية الهندسة) in 1816, which was shut down by the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, Sa'id Pasha, in 1854. Cairo University was founded as a European-inspired civil university, in contrast to the religious university of Al Azhar, and became the prime indigenous model for other state universities. In 1928, the first group of female students enrolled at the university.