Exceptional students at Cairo University in Egypt can now participate in an animal sciences program that includes two years of study at Penn State.

Twenty-two students at Cairo University are currently involved in the program, Deanna Behring, director of international programs in the College of Agricultural Sciences, said. The students will spend their first two years of college taking animal science classes at Cairo University. These classes will be very similar to those offered at Penn State.

The Egyptian students will then spend their final two years taking classes at Penn State, and will graduate with a joint degree from Penn State and Cairo University, Behring said.

This program will be offered to only "the cream of the crop" at Cairo University, she said.

While there is currently no plan to send Penn State students to study at Cairo, the possibility is under consideration for the future, Behring said.

The idea for this program has been developing for about two and a half years, she said.

Though this particular program is a recent development, ties have existed between Penn State and Cairo University for some decades, Behring said.

"We've had an on-and-off relationship with Cairo since the 1980s," she said.

However, "it takes a lot of dedication and hard work" to develop a program like this one, and until recently nobody had been willing to invest the necessary time and effort, Behring said.

The program became a reality largely because of the influence of Magdi Mashaly, Penn State associate professor of poultry science. Mashaly is originally from Egypt.

One major difficulty this program has faced in its development is economic in nature, Behring said. Education at Cairo University is practically free, and it is difficult for many students there to afford out-of-state tuition at Penn State.

This problem has been lessened with the help of some Egyptian businesses, many of which have been supportive of the program and have offered scholarships to Egyptian students, Behring said.

There are numerous benefits to international exchange programs such as this one, Margo Groff, assistant director of the Office of Education Abroad, said.

In addition to the benefits of studying at a large research and teaching university, especially one with an agricultural sciences program as strong as the one at Penn State, international students benefit from immersion in a different culture, she said.

"The intense personal experiential learning [of an exchange program] allows students to gain an American perspective, and to see how they as Egyptians are viewed here," she said.

Penn State students gain from this exchange as well, she said.

"Some of us aren't as educated as we should be" with regard to other cultures, she said.

Despite this, Groff said Penn State is hospitable to international students.

"It's a welcoming place, though it's awfully big," she said.

Penn State has 192 international students in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Stewart Combs, administrative assistant in the Office of International Students and Scholars, said.

A very small number are involved in the animal sciences program at Penn State, Behring said.