South Valley University (Egypt)

One of the country’s more modern higher education institutions, Egypt’s South Valley University has 16 faculties split between its three campuses in Qena, Luxor and Hurghada. Initially a branch of Assiut University, SVU was established in 1995.

Qena is a large market town on the River Nile situated next to the famous Greco-Roman temples of Dendera. Also on the Nile, Luxor is a long-time tourist hotspot that in large part attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors because of its temples, tombs and location on the site of the ancient capital of Thebes. Ancient Thebes is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Luxor is the site of SVU’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

It has a third campus in the coastal city of Hurghada, just south of where the Gulf of Suez meets the Red Sea. Hurghada is home to the Faculty of Education. SVU also runs the Aswan Power Electronic Applications Research Centre in the city of Aswan, where the Nile flows into Lake Nasser.

SVU has placed strongly among similar universities in the country in national rankings. Tuition fees are low for domestic and international students alike. More than a quarter of its students are postgraduates.

Other faculties include Arts, Law, Science, Special Education, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Engineering, Commerce, Hotels and Tourism, Agriculture and Physical Education.

SVU previously owned a campus in the city of Sohag further upstream, but this became a separate institution, Sohag University, in 2006. SVU’s Faculties of Education, Engineering, Arts, Science and Social Work had a presence here, as did the Higher Institute of Energy.