Sir Mohamed Mansour delivers the commencement address to NC State University’s class of 2022 in Raleigh, North Carolina

Sir Mohamed Mansour, the Chairman of the Mansour Group and Founder and Chairman of Man Capital, has announced a three-year, $1.65m gift to his alma mater, North Carolina State University in the US.

Much of the funding is being made available to international students who need financial assistance, including a number of students who have travelled to NC State from the Middle East and Africa.

Sir Mohamed’s gift to the university is in three tranches. Sir Mohamed pledged $750,000 to the newly established Mansour International Graduate Fellowship Fund, with stipends designed to make NC State more attractive and supportive to top scholars.

For the 2023-24 academic year, the inaugural cohort of 20 Mansour Fellows each received $10,000 stipends.

One of the recipients was the Egyptian doctoral student Omar Madany, who said: “Receiving this fellowship was a tremendous honour, recognising both my academic achievements and the strong reputation of physics education at my previous institution. It significantly supported my transition and first year at NC State, reinforcing my commitment to excellence in physics.”

The second cohort of Mansour Fellows this autumn includes 20 students from 16 countries.

Sir Mohamed has also committed $750,000 to the university’s International Student Support Fund, which helps meet students’ unexpected needs. Last academic year, 34 students from 15 countries received grants; eight have since graduated. A further 97 “pack essentials” – grants to help students meet needs for housing, food, healthcare, textbooks, technology like laptops and more – were also arranged.

Additionally, his gift adds $150,000 to the Mansour Global Engagement Awards Fund, which was first established in 2019 to support study abroad, travel to international conferences and other experiences beyond the US for students in his home college, the Wilson College of Textiles. In 2023, grants from the fund allowed nine Wilson College students to attend the International Textile Machinery Association exhibition in Milan, Italy, as part of a larger contingent from the college.

The commitment to provide financial assistance to many students from the Middle East and Africa reflects Sir Mohamed’s own experiences as an international student at NC State in the 1960s, when he had to work as a waiter at an Italian restaurant, earning just $1.25 an hour, to make ends meet. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1968, although in his recently published autobiography, he admitted he came close to failing his course. In 2021, he received his college’s Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2022, he served as the university’s commencement speaker and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Sir Mohamed said: “The years I spent at NC State were transformational for me. I struggled financially and nearly flunked out, but the university stood by me and gave me a crucial second chance. I hope that, through the gifts I have pledged to the university, more ‘second chances’ can be created for international students who need a leg up or a helping hand.”

For international students – who face hurdles to financing their education, while living far away from key support systems — financial challenges can escalate quickly.

“They are not eligible for federal assistance, their loan options often require a US co-signor and their opportunities to work off-campus require federal approval,” Elizabeth James, director of the university’s Office of International Services, explained. “While that can be part of a strategy long-term, processing times prevent immediate relief. This gift has made it possible to assist students that need that kind of short-term emergency help that not only keeps them enrolled but can be truly lifesaving,” she said.

“Attracting outstanding students and empowering them to reach their potential is the most important part of our mission,” the NC State University Chancellor, Dr Randy Woodson, said. “The presence of international students enriches the NC State community, and global experiences help all of our students become more engaged citizens.  We are very grateful for Dr Mansour’s ongoing investment.”