Arriving, Living and Studying in Cairo

Accommodation in Cairo is organized by Mrs. Hania Morsy from the GUC travel agency, whom you should contact well before leaving Ulm. The dormitories are located near the GUC and are accessible by special GUC buses. The rooms are clean and comfortable. There are supermarkets and other shops in the immediate area. Airbnb is also a good source to find options for an apartment in New Cairo.

Living in Cairo costs between 300 € and 500 € monthly. For your accommodation you have to add 150 € to 400 € per month, depending on the location of the apartment. A place in the GUC dorm is available for around 300 € per month. There also are shuttle busses between the GUC and the dorms that are free of charge.

On the GUC campus you can buy ready-to-eat sandwiches as well as hot meals. Various stalls offer a variety of hot and cold drinks.

At the GUC you will have lectures, tutorials and laboratory experiments. Grades are based on the results of midterm and final exams and other assignments (project work, homework, tests, presentations, etc.). For practical courses, the midterm and final exams are omitted and grades are based on project work and other assignments.

The lectures at the GUC are attended by 100 to 200 students. Attendance is not compulsory, but participation is highly recommended. In contrast tolectures, you must attend tutorials and laboratory exercises. The groups here consist of 25 students.

During Corona, a hybrid teaching model was implemented. The capacity of the classrooms is only half utilized. In this way, an appropriate social distance can be ensured. Research labs have also been remodeled for this purpose

Precautions are taken throughout the university. For example, surfaces are regularly disinfected and buildings may not be entered without face masks.

On campus you can use the free WiFi and work in computer rooms. With your GUC email account you can log in to the intranet and student portal.

Egypt is a very tourist-friendly country. In Cairo you can enjoy numerous sights and the national cuisine. You can also go to the sea and relax there or enjoy various water sports. In addition, Egypt offers such activities as sandboarding, desert camping and safari tours. Of course, you can also kayak across the Nile or take a trip to the Sinai Peninsula.

In addition, student groups offer extracurricular activities and organize parties. In addition, trips are organized for GUC students during the semester break, which are also open to international students.

If you are interested about the current security situation and the internal political situation in Egypt, please visit the website of the German Federal Foreign Office.

At this point you already have received a grant agreement and signed a learning agreement. The Erasmus+ KA 107 fact sheet we have compiled for you lays out the next steps that you need to go through, once you are at the GUC. In short: 

• after arriving: ask the GUC to confirm the first part of the Certificate of Mobility.
• at the beginning of the semester at the GUC: document changes in the learning agreement.
• before departure: ask the GUC to confirm the second part of the Certificate of Mobility.
• you can apply for an extension of the mobility up to one months prior to the official end of your stay.
• a stay can be shorted by a few days/ weeks, if that does not change anything in the learning agreement. The grant will be reduced accordingly. 
• it is only allowed to interrupt an Erasmus+ funded stay for health reasons, for a bereavement leave, due to an offical travel warning or due to a force majeure case.