in the fall of 2008, auc left the greek campus and officially inaugurated auc new cairo, a new 260-acre suburban campus in new cairo, a satellite city about 20 miles (and 45 minutes) from the downtown campus. new cairo is a governmental development comprising 46,000 acres of land with a projected population of 2.5 million people. auc new cairo provides advanced facilities for research and learning, as well as all the modern resources needed to support campus life. in its master plan for the new campus, the university mandated that the campus express the university's values as a liberal arts institution, in what is essentially a non-western context with deep traditional roots and high aspirations. the new campus is intended to serve as a case study for how architectural harmony and diversity can coexist creatively and how tradition and modernity can appeal to the senses. campus spaces serve as virtual laboratories for the study of desert development, biological sciences, and the symbiotic relationship between environment and community. the two campuses together host 36 undergraduate programs and 46 graduate programs. the new cairo campus offers six schools and ten research centers.