Cairo University president opens Faculty of African Graduate Studies

CAIRO - 19 February 2019: As Egypt has received the presidency of the African Union earlier in February, Cairo University President Mohamed Othman el-Khosht inaugurated the new Faculty of African Graduate Studies after turning it from an institute to a faculty.

Khosht held a meeting with the faculty's board to discuss ways of developing the college in order to meet the objectives for which it was established, which serve the African continent.

During the meeting, Khosht reviewed the national plans concerning Africa to be able to link the research and studies conducted by the college with the policies of the Egyptian state.

Egypt's Al-Azhar announced raising the number of educational programs and scholarships granted to African students by 100 percent.

According to a statement issued by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb on Feb. 12, this decision comes in conjunction with Egypt’s receiving the chairmanship of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

According to recent statistics mentioned by the statement, Al-Azhar welcomes 6,108 students from the MENA region, 16,384 students from Asia, 405 students from America and Australia and 4,748 students from Africa.

In January, Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed unveiled an Egyptian initiative to treat African people from Hepatitis C, starting with the Nile Basin countries that have an estimated 3.7 million hepatitis C patients, representing 30 percent of the total number of infected people in Africa.