The Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) yesterday celebrated the launch of its branch in El Gouna and the start of the first academic year. This is TUB's first branch outside Germany. The satellite campus offers three master studies for sustainable town development. The campus marks a milestone of education as well as of sustainable development in Egypt and will support the promotion of El Gouna as a self-sufficient town. Altdorf/Cairo - During the last two decades El Gouna has developed from a desert strip over a popular holiday destination to an integrated town with more than 20,000 inhabitants. Since yesterday El Gouna hosts another important scientific institution: the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) opened its satellite campus. TUB is one of the global leading technical universities. The campus was built by Orascom Development Holding AG (Orascom Development) (ODHN.CA) and realized thanks to the financial contribution of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development. The complex spans an area of 10,000 square meters and encompasses a lecture hall, an exhibition and reader panel as well as seven seminar, office and laboratory buildings. The opening is the result of a successful collaboration between the Egyptian and German Ministries of Education, the TUB, Orascom Development and the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development. TUB will initially offer students in El Gouna postgraduate degrees in Energy Engineering, Urban Development and Water Engineering. Besides the educational benefit, the scientific research will promote the themes of sustainable development across El Gouna, Egypt as well as the Middle East. In terms of structure and content the studies follow the requirements of the German Higher Education Act. «The TUB Campus El Gouna is a tremendous enrichment to the strategy of our university in internationalization and further education», said Jörg Steinbach, President of the TUB. Samih O. Sawiris, founder and chairman of Orascom Development and member of the Sawiris Foundation, underlined the importance that Egyptian students receive the same quality of education locally as in Germany: «The German engineer is a special brand mark and Egyptian students will profit from the quality of education.»
