Year-long and semi-annual sessions

The DEAC offers a year-long program from October to June. This program is divided into two semesters. We advise students to complete both but students may choose to complete only one semester.

Year-long session offer

For each semester, there is a set curriculum, in the first six weeks of the year-long and semester programs, students have 16 to 18 hours of Modern Standard Arabic (fusha) and 12 hours of the Egyptian dialect. The objective is for learners to begin to function independently in Cairo as soon as possible. After the first six weeks, the course load in dialect is reduced from 12 to eight hours a week, whereas the course load in Modern Standard Arabic remains the same (16 to 18 hours)..

Starting from the seventh week, students may choose to enroll in optional modules:

• The optional modules: the student can choose two modules of two hours each per week (one in fusha and the other in dialect). In dialect, we offer four modules (songs, cinema, folklore, theatre and dabkeh), in fusha we offer six modules (writing workshop, songs, book club, modern history, classical literature and translation).
• Tutoring: the student may choose to receive one individual lesson per week in dialect and another in fusha, each thirty minutes. The student chooses the topics.

Luxor session: For a week, the program relocates to Luxor, Upper Egypt, for an intensive linguistic and cultural immersion course focused on the region. The issues specific to this part of the country are addressed through a thematically unified series of seminars, guest lectures and guided tours.
In February 2024, the session focused on the following themes: tourism and the excavation of certain sites, public health, customs and traditions, agriculture, housing, and sufism.

The Luxor session is only open to students who are enrolled in the year-long program.

Academic calendar

Program dates 2025-2026 :
from October 5th, 2025 to June 11th, 2026

First semester:
The year begins with placement tests from 29 September to 2 October 2025
Courses start on Sunday 5 October 2025
End of semester 1: Thursday 29 January 2026

Second semester:
Placement tests for new students from Sunday 15 to Thursday 19 February 2026.
Classes start on Sunday 22 February 2026.
End of semester 2 and the year: Thursday 11 June 2026.

Registration deadline

Assessments

Two sets of exams are organized during the year; the first is scheduled for the end of January and the second in June. Students receive graded transcripts