Cairo - Egypt --   On September 15th, 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between Cairo University's Faculty of Commerce and Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business at the Grand Celebration Building. This partnership is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through a three year grant of US$ 400,000.

Dr. Aly Abdel Rahman, President of Cairo University and Mr. John Groarke, Acting Mission Director for USAID/Egypt will witness the signing ceremony. Dr. Mohamed Youssef, Dean of Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University will sign from the Egyptian side and Dr. Fenwick Huss, Dean of J. Mack Robinson School of Business will sign from the U.S. side.

This partnership will strengthen the alignment of business education in the Faculty of Commerce with private sector needs, particularly through giving students professional skills that are required in professional certification examinations in areas such as accounting, finance, and management.  The project will build a resource library, facilitate curriculum and course development, and strengthen teaching and research, including case writing.

The undergraduate business program at Georgia State has consistently been ranked among the nation's top 50 business school programs by the U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" guide.  Three of the program's departments - Risk Management and Insurance, Computer Information Systems, and Real Estate -are ranked among the top 10 in their respective categories.