The American University in Cairo’s (AUC) School of Business recently hosted a group of undergraduate students from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs (SIPA) on campus for an undergraduate study tour.
The trip was part of a cultural exchange between AUC and Princeton, focusing on Egypt and Africa, tailored specifically to SPIA students. Students attended educational sessions on topics related to labor markets, developing human capital and innovation practices with a focus on the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. They also met with public officials from the Central Bank of Egypt and the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) to discuss issues related to financial inclusion and women’s access to finance, in addition to direct talks with young entrepreneurs and NGO leaders.
Field trips to the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Islamic and Coptic Cairo, Moez Street and Khan El-Khalili, and the Giza Pyramids were part of the program as well.
On the first day, students attended lectures on labor markets and human capital as well as challenges in the region featuring Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim, associate professor of operations management, and Dina Abdel Fattah, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Economics.
Next, they visited the Central Bank of Egypt and attended a talk by top executives in the financial inclusion sector on financial inclusion policies and the bank’s initiatives to promote them. The students with Khaled Bassiouny, general manager of the bank’s financial inclusion department, Sally Abdel Kader, general manager of the financial literacy department, Hani El-Banhawy head of SMEs banks strategies, and Mohamed Fayez, head of entrepreneurship and non-financial services.
Finally, the students attended a talk by Deputy Executive Director and Head of Planning and International Cooperation of MSMEDA Tarek Shash, who discussed the agency’s ongoing efforts in financing and establishing a supportive environment for small and micro enterprises, spreading the culture of entrepreneurship, and implementing community development programs and labor-intensive public projects that contribute to employability, poverty alleviation, and improved living standards.
The visit is part of the school’s internationalization efforts, which aim to place the school as the top destination for business education in the Middle East and Africa.