After almost a decade, El Fiqi to return to teaching
Ashraf El Fiqi, the Vice-President of Student Affairs, announced he is stepping down from his current post, which he took in 2005, and returning to his tenure as a full-time faculty member at the AUC Physics Department.
“I am quite excited and looking forward to the challenge of interacting again with my students in the classrooms. After around nine years away from teaching, a good deal of catching up with modern teaching tools will be an exciting challenge,” El Fiqi said.
As for the reasons for stepping down, El Fiqi believes this is for the best of the institution. “This is a proper time, we need new blood. We need to make sure new ideas are coming in,” he added.
El Fiqi earned his high school degree from the French school College De La Salle. He did two Bachelor’s degrees at CairoUniversity, one in Electronics Engineering and another one in Physics. He later got his PhD from the University of Nevada in the United States.
During the last two years of internal turmoil and economic hardships in Egypt, El Fiqi had an increasing number of Egyptian students applying for financial aid.
Despite the economic crisis in Egypt, El Fiqi ensured that students were still supported by the solid scholarship budget.
“Additional funds were provided for two consecutive years to support students who are suffering from the present situation in Egypt,” El Fiqi added.
With the current economic turmoil, the closure of some companies across the country has caused an increasing rate of unemployment among graduates.
However, El Fiqi believed that the employment fair at AUC is an indicator of a high rate of employment among AUC graduates.
“Most of the companies are multinationals and thus we did not witness a large drop. An indicator would be that at least seventy companies will be present in the employment fair next week,” El Fiqi said.
He also faced a decline in international students’ enrollment, which he associated with the travel advisories placed on Egypt.
“From the US, students who would register for courses in Egypt, despite the travel advisory, did not have a transfer of credit to their own institute. Thus, a large drop in enrollment in study abroad students was witnessed,” he said.
According to El Fiqi, AUC had made several declarations to international institutes that provisions have been taken by the university to ensure the safety of the students.
“Although we had a large drop, we are still maintaining the Arabic language students and the international students at AUC,” El Fiqi said.
El Fiqi hopes that the AUC community maintains its values in facing the turbulent times. “As AUCians, we guarantee freedom of expression and the respect for others’ rights and for our own rights.”
Moreover, as he recalled the gates’ closure of last semester, El Fiqi emphasized that negotiations and dialogue are always the best suitable solution when differences arise.
