Taha Hussein was the founding rector of Alexandria University.

Alexandria University has 21 faculties and 3 institutes[1] that teach different types of social, medical, engineering, mathematics and other science.

Other branches have been set up outside Egypt in Juba, South Sudan,[4] and in N'Djamena,[5] the capital of the Republic of Chad.

At the time it became an independent institution in 1942, it had the following faculties: In 1989, four faculties, located in Alexandria and administered by Helwan University, were annexed to Alexandria University.

[12] The 2010 rankings were controversial, as a single professor's practice of publishing a great number of articles in a journal of which he himself was the editor was identified as a crucial contributing factor for the high rating of Alexandria University.