Abstract

With the coup d’état by Free Officers of 23 July 1952, Egypt entered a period of profound transformation with the arrival of a range of radical reforms that touched all aspects of Egyptian social life and politics, including the key sector of education. The paper intends to illustrate the reaction of a foreign educational institution, which was already greatly respected, such as the American University in Cairo. This university welcomed the political shift that occurred in 1952, trusted in the success of the revolution and, unharmed, came through the regime change that would shake other Egyptian academic institutions. From a study of contemporary documents, it attempts to illustrate factors that contribute to explaining the survival and development of the American University at a time of such radical change for Egypt.