
56 AUC Students Receive Scholarships Amidst USAID Cuts
Administrators said these scholarships will soon also be available to other foreign universities around Egypt.
Feb 17, 2025
Dr. Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, announced the provision of 'alternative scholarships' for 56 new students accepted into the American University of Cairo.
The initiative, according to Ashour, will provide these 56 scholarships to students who were accepted into AUC during the second semester of the 2024-2025 academic year for the first time. The announcement comes after the US government announced a suspension of foreign aid to American students studying abroad.
Dr. Abdulwahab Ezzat, Secretary of the Council of Private Universities and acting Secretary of the Council of Foreign Universities Branches, said that these scholarships will soon be available to foreign schools located in the New Administrative Capital, as well as other European and Canadian universities in Egypt, including the British University in Egypt (BUE) and the German University of Cairo (GUC).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al-Ahram Weekly
5 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Egypt urges equitable funding in global plastics treaty talks - Foreign Affairs
Egypt's environment minister, Yasmine Fouad, has called for greater fairness in financing a proposed global treaty to curb plastic pollution, warning that the burden must not fall disproportionately on developing countries. Fouad raised the issue during a meeting with the European commissioner for the environment, Jessika Roswall, on the sidelines of the third United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice. The discussions come ahead of significant treaty negotiations scheduled for 5-14 August 2025 at Geneva's Palais des Nations. Egypt is concerned that 'financial resources would become a burden on developing countries or be placed on the private sector, it must stem from a shared responsibility,' Fouad said, according to Egypt's environment ministry. The treaty, which aims to establish a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, including marine waste, has emerged as a key focus for international environmental cooperation. Fouad said progress would depend on consensus over contentious provisions, including financing and implementation. She proposed Articles 3, 6, and 11 as particularly important and called for changes to ensure that developing countries are not sidelined in access to funding or technology. Fouad also advocated creating an independent funding mechanism to support the treaty's goals rather than relying on existing bodies such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF). She said this would ease pressure on limited multilateral funds and mirror Egypt and the European Union's (EU) shared approach to financing the new global biodiversity framework. She also stressed the importance of technology transfer as part of the treaty, particularly for countries transitioning away from single-use plastic, which struggle to transition effectively due to the lack of viable alternatives. Egypt has introduced several domestic measures to address plastic waste, including its first waste management law in 2020, which contains specific provisions to regulate single-use plastics. National awareness campaigns, including the recent Qallelha (Reduce) initiative, have also been launched to curb plastic consumption. According to UN data, less than 10 percent of the seven billion tonnes of plastic waste produced to date has been recycled globally. Much of the remainder ends up in landfills or in the environment, damaging ecosystems and public health. The estimated annual economic costs are between $300 billion and $600 billion. Egypt's plastic consumption was estimated at around five million tonnes in 2022–23. According to a report from the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), the sector remains one of the country's largest employers, supporting more than 550,000 jobs across the value chain. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:


Egypt Independent
5 hours ago
- Egypt Independent
The UK, Germany and Canada have slashed foreign aid this year, deepening damage done by US cuts, analysis shows
London CNN — Western countries have slashed foreign aid budgets this year and reductions will steepen in 2026, with the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada cutting the most, according to a new analysis from the Center for Global Development (CGD). The aid cuts will mean 'significant losses' for many developing nations, according to the analysis from the DC-based think tank, shared exclusively with CNN. Ethiopia is projected to lose the most aid in nominal terms, with Jordan, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo also hit particularly hard. Smaller nations will also be hammered by the reduction in foreign aid, with Lesotho, Micronesia and Eswatini each losing around 50 percent of their aid. 'It's setting fire to the bold ambitions to solve poverty and transform developing countries,' Lee Crawfurd, one of the authors of the report, told CNN. 'It's some of the poorest, most fragile places in the world that are going to be hardest hit.' The analysis looked at projections of bilateral aid – money provided directly to another country rather than routed through multilateral organizations such as United Nations agencies or the World Bank – for 2025 and 2026. The US is projected to cut the most, with a projected 56 percent reduction compared to levels two years ago. The Trump administration's gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year has already left a hole in many international aid budgets, and several other Western nations are following suit rather than filling the void. 'A big, big chunk of overall cuts in the next couple of years are going to be from the US pulling out, rather than other countries. But these other countries are making things worse,' said Crawfurd, a senior research fellow at the CGD. The UK aid cuts are estimated to represent a roughly 39 percent reduction compared to 2023 levels of spending. Meanwhile, Germany is cutting about 27 percent, Canada 25 percent and France 19 percent of their international aid budgets. The true level of aid cuts remains unclear, as the Trump administration's proposed budget and other government proposals are still making their way through legislatures. But some funding cuts are almost guaranteed. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in February that his government would increase the UK's defense spending by cutting its aid budget to 0.3 percent of gross national income in 2027, its lowest level since 1999. Many organizations and aid workers have raised alarm about European governments pitting aid budgets against defense spending. 'Cutting the already lean aid budget is a false economy and will only increase division and amounts to a betrayal of the world's most vulnerable people,' said Halima Begum, head of Oxfam GB. 'It is a false dichotomy to pit international cooperation to tackle poverty against national security interests in order to avoid tax increases.' A sign for GIZ, Germany's international development agency, is seen in February 2017. Michael Gottschalk/Photothek/Getty Images Crawfurd said that bilateral aid is a 'really small part of government budgets' and the money for defense or security could be found elsewhere. 'It's a choice… it's a political choice,' he added. The think tank wrote in its analysis that 'one striking takeaway is that some countries are projected to lose large amounts of ODA (official development assistance) simply because of who their main donors are – while others are projected to lose very little' – a game of chance, with losses not matching up to the recipient country's needs. Yemen, for example, is projected to experience a 19 percent fall in its bilateral funding compared to 2023, while its 'comparable' neighbor country Somalia is projected to lose about 39 percent. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also warned that multilateral aid cuts are threatening efforts to tackle 44 of the highest-priority, protracted humanitarian crises. As of April, only 11.9 percent of the funding for UN response plans had been covered. 'Every year, the UN has been helping more than 100 million people in the world as they go through the worst time of their lives in wars and disasters. But let's be clear: we won't reach the level of funding in 2025 that we've seen in previous years,' Anja Nitzsche, OCHA's chief of partnerships and resource mobilization told CNN in a statement. 'Vulnerable families are being left without food, clean water, healthcare, shelter or protection in places such as Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, Myanmar and Afghanistan.' Minimizing the damage The CGD is urging Western donors to reallocate aid to the poorest countries to try to 'ensure that resources are directed to populations in greatest need.' Western countries also need to improve coordination to mitigate further damage, especially as they are withdrawing from countries receiving aid, the think tank said. In some countries, the cuts will change who the largest donor is, which 'can lead to major shifts in what gets funded and how,' according to the CGD. For example, Portugal will likely overtake the US in aid to Angola, and Japan is projected to overtake France in Egypt. 'A new lead donor may not continue the same programs' or may take time to get up and running, according to the analysis. Giving a larger share of aid to multilateral organizations can also help improve international cooperation and cut down on duplication of aid efforts. 'Coordination is an ongoing challenge,' Crawfurd told CNN. 'The easiest way to do that is just to fund big multilateral funds like the World Bank.'


Mada
11 hours ago
- Mada
Update: Authorities use force to disperse Global March to Gaza participants
The march's organisers posted an urgent call in the evening for all participants to return to Cairo given the 'escalating violence.' One of the participants explained to Mada Masr the escalation that took place throughout the day: 'People started getting stopped at the second checkpoint on the road to Ismailia at around 12:30 am. More people started arriving and getting held up. There were delegations from everywhere, North Africa, France, Netherlands, Switzerland. They took our passports, and we waited for over four hours until we got the passports back. Some people left right there and then. Other people decided to stay. Those who stayed gathered in a square near the mosque. Everyone sat down and we started chanting. At this point, authorities started doing intimidation tactics. Saying either we leave willingly, or we stay and will get beaten up. Everyone was given the option and the Canadian delegation decided to stay. We were chanting and slowly they started spraying the air with something and closing in on us with some soldiers. They sent in infiltrators wearing white abayas and covering their face. They started beating people up and throwing water bottles at people. They had whips and batons and were extremely violent and aggressive. Some people were dragged on the floor. The purpose was to get people to leave.' Earlier on Friday, Egyptian authorities continued to deport several international activists taking part in the march, including foreign individuals who had entered the country via Cairo International Airport the previous day. Deportations took place as activists attempted to travel toward the city of Ismailia from various locations across central Cairo. Organizers from the different countries' delegations had circulated instructions in the morning designating a hotel in Ismailia as the meeting point. Participants were advised to travel individually or in small groups and were explicitly urged not to protest upon arrival. Organizers also confirmed that they remained engaged with Egypt's Foreign Ministry to coordinate forthcoming steps. However, police stopped several activists as they left Cairo. According to testimonies from two Belgian nationals, officers confiscated their passports and initiated deportation proceedings against them. Other participants with US citizenship reported being stopped at the first checkpoint outside Cairo, where they were detained and ordered to leave the country. After being blocked from continuing their journey, they began chanting 'Free Palestine' at the checkpoint. In an update on their Whatsapp channel, the march's organizers reported that police forces have stopped all cars coming from Cairo at a checkpoint 30 km outside the city, forcing anyone carrying a non-Egyptian passport to get off. The update mentioned that activists started a sit-in at the checkpoint. Activists at the checkpoint reported being violently treated by police to forcibly get into a bus. One activist said their passport was taken and they have been waiting for hours under the sun, while some were dragged violently into a bus. Meanwhile, an Irish activist as well as a number of Swiss activists who were bound to take part in the march reported that their colleagues, who had already reached the designated hotel in Ismailia, were detained by security forces and placed, along other protesters, on a bus guarded by armed officers. The bus remains near the hotel in Ismailia as of the time of publication. The Global March to Gaza had aimed to bring around 4,000 activists from over 80 countries, and their original plan was to take buses from Cairo to the city of Arish in North Sinai, then walk the remaining distance to the border town of Rafah, the closest point to Gaza. Organizers said the march's aim is to call for an end to the war and push the aid piled up on the Egyptian side of the border into Gaza, which has been under siege. On Wednesday, Egypt's Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that while 'foreign delegations' are welcome, visiting North Sinai requires permits. Meanwhile, a government source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity said that none of the activists will be allowed into Rafah for sovereignty and security reasons. Several activists arriving from different European countries to take part in the march were deported upon arrival at Cairo International Airport, according to the organizers and eyewitness accounts. On another front, security and military forces affiliated with the eastern Libyan authorities halted in the early hours of Friday the advance of the Sumud Convoy, a separate but parallel initiative in which around 1,000 people are travelling by land across North Africa toward Egypt. According to a statement shared via the caravan's WhatsApp channel, security officials claimed the delay was necessary pending formal approval from Benghazi. Efforts to coordinate with Libyan authorities to resume the convoy's advance toward the Egyptian border have been ongoing as of the time of the organizers' most recent statement. According to the organizers, convoy participants are camping at the site where they were stopped — an area lacking basic necessities and with recurring telecom outages. They called on authorities in Benghazi to 'honor their declared welcome of our brave initiative, as stated in yesterday's Foreign Ministry statement, and to receive our convoy.' The organizers also expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from Libyan communities in surrounding areas, who have provided water, food and tents to sustain the group as they wait for passage. In its statement, the Libyan Foreign Ministry expressed its full support for the convoy and its moral and human position which 'embodies the depth of the Maghreb and Arab world's commitment to the Palestinian cause.' However, the statement also referenced Egyptian authorities, stressing the importance of following existing laws that regulate access to the Rafah border area in Egypt.