Mansour obtained his doctorate and habilitation in polymer physics from the
University of Ulm in 1992. In 1994, Mansour started the process of creating a German University in Egypt. The
German University in Cairo (GUC) is the first German university to be established outside Germany and outside European borders. It was established on the basis of a presidential decree in 2002 issued by former President
Hosni Mubarak, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, and a number of prominent figures in both Egyptian and German academia and industry. In 2003, the GUC was inaugurated outside Cairo's city limits. Mansour secured the building of a whole new technical university in New Cairo City, funded almost 15 million euros from Egyptian donors, and engaged the help of the faculties of Stuttgart and Ulm universities in order to make his concept a reality. They assisted in building and setting up the labs technically and brought their German curriculum with them. The initiative received funding from the DAAD in the amount of about 600,000 euros as a part of its Export of German Degree Courses programme. Students, scholars, and researchers from the GUC are additionally supported by the
DAAD and the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation during various study and research stays. He is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the university. After the
Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Ashraf was tipped by the
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to head the
Ministry of Higher Education in 2014 but the Egyptian Supreme Council of Universities protested his appointment.
Hossam Eisa remained in the position and was replaced by
Ashraf El-Shihy in September 2015. == Awards and recognitions ==