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ASU History

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O'n" University was established about 5000 years ago, and it had a wide fame as a center of knowledge and learning, especially in astronomy, engineering and medicine. Perhaps a perfect example of the knowledge and skill of "O'n" teachers is Imhotep, the chief priest, minister, and architect, who in 2700 B.C. designed the first large structure of stone known in history, Zoser's Step Pyramid in Sakkara.
Westcar Papyrus also states that the founder of the Fifth Dynasty was the Rector of "O'n" University before ascending the throne. However, the most important achievement of "O'n" University was the call for worshipping a single deity, the solar disk of Aton, at the hands of Akhenaton, who was influenced by the ideas of "O'n" priests. The emblem of the university, the obelisk and two hawks, establishes a link between the name and the ancient history of the university. The obelisk stands for the house of life at the city of "O'n", whereas the two hawks are symbolic of Horus, the Egyptian god at that time. The university is now located in the area of the Zaafaran Palace, built during the regime of Khedive Ismail. The Palace was so named because the area surrounding it was famous for saffron (in Arabic Zaafaran) plantations.

  1. The Saffron “Zafaran” Palace was built during 1901-1902, designed by the Italian architect of Austrian origin, Antonio Lasiac, for each of the two princesses Jananiar and Jeshem Avat, the widows of Khedive Ismail Pasha, and in 1912 the ownership of the palace passed to King Fouad I, who bought all its assets from the heirs, and sold it in 1925 To the government.
  2. In 1921, Sultan Ahmed Fouad agreed to replace a new secondary school in Saffron Palace, and it was called the Sultan Fuad School, then the Egyptian University replaced the school in 1925, and Ahmed Lotfi Al-Sayed became its first director, and he took the Saffron Palace as a headquarters for administration. The faculties of Arts and Sciences took the annex and the stable as their headquarters, and then other buildings were built for the rest of the faculty departments.
  3. The Egyptian University moved to Giza, and the Ministry of foreign Affairs bought it in 1930, and turned it into a VIP guesthouse, and witnessed the Egyptian-British negotiations known as “1936 Treaty”, the approval and signature of the Arab League Charter in 1945, then the Egyptian-British evacuation negotiations in 1946, in addition to many private parties.
  4. In 1950, King Farouk issued a decree to establish the Great Ibrahim Pasha University. Dr. Taha Hussein, Minister of Education at that time, adopted the project to establish the university, and there were 8 scattered faculties. In 1951, the Site Selection Committee of the Ministry of Works agreed to allocate a plot of land of 196 acres of government property as a site for building the new university faculties.
  5. In 1952, Major General Muhammad Naguib gifted the Saffron Palace to Ibrahim Pasha University, so the administration of the new university moved to him, and Prof. Muhammad Kamel Hussein, the first director of the university, then Naguib issued an order to annex the Saffron Palace to the buildings of Ibrahim University and provide places for a thousand students. In 1954 the university’s name was changed to “Heliopolis,” and then in the same year it was changed to “Ain Shams”
  6. The university began to expand by building the campus around the Saffron Palace in 1962, where the old annex building and the stable were demolished, and the existing administrative buildings were built to move the Faculty of Science to it, and the old monitoring building was demolished and the current Faculty of Arts was built in its place, then the Faculties of Law and Business also moved to the buildings that was prepared for them on the campus.
  7. The university included 8 faculties: Arts - Law - Business - Sciences - Engineering - Medicine - Agriculture - Girls, and in 1969 the Faculty of Education moved to the campus, and the Faculty of Al-Alsun moved in 1973, and in 1994 the Faculties of Pharmacy, Dentistry, Computers and Information were established, and in 1998 a Faculty was established. In 1998 the Faculty of Specific Education was established, then the Higher Institute of Nursing was established in 1980, which became the Faculty of Nursing in 2000.
  8. The Institute for Graduate Studies for Childhood was established.
  9. The establishment of the Institute of Environmental Research and Studies.
  10. A degree was issued for the establishment of two more faculties; the faculty of Pharmacy and the faculty of Dentistry, the actual study was started the following year in both faculties.
  11. The faculty of Computers and Information Sciences was established , and the study started.
  12. The last faculty to join the university is the faculty of Specific Education
  13. A decision was issued to transform the Institute of Graduate Studies for Childhood into a faculty.
  14. The Graduate Institute for Papyrus, Inscriptions and Restoration Arts was canceled and the establishment of the Faculty of Archeology was approved in 2020, thus increasing the number of university faculties to 17 faculty and 2 higher institute for Postgraduate Studies.
  15. A decision was issued to transform the Institute of Environmental Research and Studies into a faculty and the approval to establish the first electronic media faculty in Egyptian universities.
  16. Establishing the Colleges of Mass Communication and Veterinary Medicine and starting studies in them

Ain Shams University comprises seven campuses, all of which are sited in Great Cairo. The university administration, faculties of Arts, Law and Science are all located in the main campus, El-khalifa El Mamoon Street, Abassia. The faculties of Commerce, Al-Alsun (languages), Pharmacy, Dentistry, Computer and Information Sciences, Institute of Postgraduate Childhood and Institute of Environmental Studies and Research, together with the specialized Hospital are located on the second campus on the other side of the aforementioned street. Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Nursing together with the university hospitals are located in another campus at Abassia. Faculties of Engineering, Specific Education, Education, Women and Agriculture are located each on a separate campus in Abassia, Heliopolis and Shoubra El-Kheima, respectively.