Overview

LAU Fundraising Efforts

Soon after the October 17 revolution, when it became clear that, due to the devaluation of the Lebanese pound, high inflation, and capital controls, students were struggling to meet their tuition fees, LAU launched the Emergency Financial Aid Fund and a series of measures to help them along.

The financial aid target was raised to $50 million for AY2019-2020 to cover 60 percent of the students, tuition payments were maintained for as long as it was possible in Lebanese pounds at the official exchange rate of 1,515, and new installment windows put in place.

An austerity plan adopted by the university a year earlier had already allowed it to redirect significant cost savings to financial aid. Additional measures were also introduced, such as a hiring freeze for non-essential services, reduced campus operations costs, and many more belt-tightening measures.

In addition, LAU reintroduced loans with no interest until graduation (to be covered by the university’s own capital) to circumvent the suspension of credit facilities in the country.

As the outbreak of COVID-19 exacerbated the financial crisis, LAU embarked on the second phase of the fund, redoubling its fundraising efforts to raise donations for 250 scholarships. In the wake of the horrific blast at the Port of Beirut on August 4, which left hundreds of casualties and thousands of homes destroyed, a special appeal was made by the then President Joseph G. Jabbra and President-Elect Michel E. Mawad.

The ongoing Emergency Financial Aid Fund has drawn an unprecedented large number of LAU donors and alumni worldwide, as well as first-time donors, who made it possible for hundreds of students to continue their studies.

Teams of the Development Office, Alumni Relations Office both in Lebanon and LAU New York Headquarters Academic Center, and the Strategic Communications Department continue to exert great efforts in the fundraising campaign.

Furthermore, in May 2020, LAU offered up to 150 full scholarships for distinguished final-year students or graduates interested in pursuing a master’s degree in 13 specialized fields, in a bid to promote excellence in higher education and enhance the quality and quantity of research.

Accreditations

Years of hard work by faculty, staff and students at The School of Architecture and Design (SArD) culminated in two prestigious accreditations by the American National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

In May of 2020, SArD became the first in Lebanon and the third internationally (outside the US) to obtain full accreditation for its Bachelor of Architecture from NAAB, the only agency recognized by registration boards in US jurisdictions to accredit professional degree programs in architecture.

The accreditation entitles graduates of the BArch program to sit for the licensure exam in the US, provided they complete the required training, and places them in a better position to compete for architecture jobs in the region and internationally.

In September, collective efforts by SArD added another strategic advantage for LAU as an accredited institutional member of NASAD, a testimony that art and design education offered at LAU meets established standards set within the United States.

The BS in Nutrition and Dietetics Coordinated Program (CP) at the School of Arts and Sciences was also granted candidacy for accreditation by the accrediting agency for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in the US, in May. As the first step in the four-year accrediting process, the candidacy by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) grants current and future students the same rights of a fully accredited program.

Rankings

During AY2019-2020, LAU held its solid position among the top 10 universities in the region and no. 2 in Lebanon in both the Times Higher Education and QS rankings, standing out in learning, research and employability.

In September 2019, the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed LAU second in Lebanon for the quality of teaching, the volume and reputation of research, and international outlook, a ranking that the university preserved in the 2021 edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, reinforcing its position among the top universities in Lebanon. The same report ranked the Adnan Kassar School of Business as first in Lebanon in all subjects of Business and Economics.

The QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020 also placed LAU second in Lebanon based on its employability scores in a highly competitive job market in Lebanon and the MENA region, with the proportion of LAU graduates employed or in post-graduate studies within 12 months of graduation standing at 87 percent.

The university’s academic strength, reputation with employers and research impact placed LAU among the top 10 universities in the Arab World for excellence in Business and Management studies in the 2020 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject.

Furthermore, and for the second year in a row, LAU continued to climb the QS World University Rankings for 2021 moving up to the 551-560 range and maintaining its position among Lebanon’s top universities. Remarkably, LAU soared 72 slots on Employer Reputation, one of six major indicators that QS uses to rank universities’ performances.

In the Webometrics report, a worldwide indicator of the cyber-performance of higher education institutions, LAU surged by seven positions globally. The report, which has been issued since 2004, aims to promote academic web presence and support open-access initiatives that significantly increase the transfer of scientific and cultural knowledge generated by universities and shared with the public at large.

The high-quality research output and collaboration earned the university second place in Lebanon and among the top 15 in the Arab world in the Nature Index 2020, which tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.

An analysis of the data ranking LAU for Academic Excellence in the 2020 edition of the Times Higher Education in July 2020 - which the university conducts regularly for benchmarking and identifying areas of strengths and areas of improvement - revealed that it ranked first in the Arab World for Teaching, or the learning environment.

Research and Faculty Achievements

From fellowships to grants and awards, our faculty across the schools have been garnering recognition for their track record in their respective fields and the quality of their research. 

Phase II of the Reaction Wall and Strong Floor (RWSF) Structures Lab at the School of Engineering was completed. A continuation of the first phase that was finalized in Fall 2018, Phase II of the project goes beyond what any lab facility in the MENA region currently offers - and LAU students and faculty are reaping the benefits.

In December 2019, an internationally competitive research grant proposal for sustainable wastewater management by Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Moustapha Harb was selected to receive more than €400,000 in funding from the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program.

In January 2020, Assistant Professor of Music at the School of Arts and Sciences Seba Ali was presented with the prestigious iphiGenia Gender Design Award at the Cologne Museum of Applied Art for her outstanding gender-sensitive design work in the IMAGINE Workshop and Concert Series. Dr. Ali has established herself as one of the Communication Arts Department’s trailblazers, securing more than $100,000 in external grants for the IMAGINE series.

A study on Media Uses and Trust During Protests at SoAS’ Institute of Media Studies and Research (IMRT) led by IMRT Director Jad Melki and IMRT Research Director Claudia Kozman surveyed a nationally representative random sample of 1,000 Lebanese at the height of the protests (December 5-12). Released in March 2020, and published in Arabic in Al-Adab Journal, the research was funded by SoAS and the Office of Graduate Studies and Research.

A research paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Adnan Kassar School of Business Omar Itani featured in Forbes and renowned media platforms, reaching the top 5 percent and 98th percentile of all research output ever tracked by Altmetric. The study, titled “When poignant stories outweigh cold hard facts: A meta-analysis of the anecdotal bias,” that examined how and why people tend to base decisions on anecdotal information rather than facts when feeling anxious and vulnerable, first appeared in the Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

In June 2020, the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution at LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences received a $500,000 grant from Carnegie Corporation New York for a research project on resilience and inclusive governance in the Middle East.

Assistant Professor of Practice at the School of Architecture and Design Marwan Zouein and his team shared the winning prize for their entry at the Beyond Cement Competition, focused on the environmental, economic and urban challenges facing Chekka, Koura and the Collar Towns.

One of the key faculty members at the School of Pharmacy, Director of Experiential Education and Acting Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Lamis Karaoui (PharmD ‘05) was elected Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP).

Joining a substantial number of her colleagues at the SOP, Clinical Assistant Professor Yara Mary Kuyumjian earned the Board Certification in Critical Care Pharmacy - a strong endorsement of her expertise in delivering pharmaceutical care to critically ill patients.

Similarly, Chair and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at LAU Caesar Abi Shdid (BE ‘99), was awarded a fellowship of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) - an honor held by less than three percent of its members, who exceed 150,000 from 177 countries.

Faculty Recognition

In the annual faculty meeting during which the Office of the Provost recognizes faculty members who have distinguished themselves in teaching innovation, the Excellence in Teaching Award was granted to Associate Professor and Communication Arts Chair Jad Melki and Assistant Professor of Marketing Zahy Ramadan (BS ‘98, MBA ‘00).

COVID-19 Measures, Research and Initiatives

With the outbreak of COVID-19, our faculty members across the schools rallied to combat the spread of the disease. From the measures adopted at LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital to invaluable research and community-targeted initiatives, all contributed to the fight against COVID-19. Very quickly, the President’s Cabinet formed an emergency committee, the Emergency Health Response Committee, to introduce and coordinate initiatives.

Measures

Preparations at LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital to receive COVID-19 patients was paramount, and time was of the essence with the fast-spreading pandemic. Stringent protocols were implemented in the admission of COVID-19 patients and in the outpatient clinic, and access points to the hospital clearly demarcated.

Two separate isolated rooms with negative pressure outside a temporary ER unit were allocated to screening and isolating suspected COVID-19 cases. Seventeen beds were available in the Medical Surgical Unit on floor 6 of building B where international standards were observed and all personal protective equipment (PPEs) for these critical patients and the staff met the recommendations of the Infectious Diseases team.

At the request of the President’s Cabinet, in March 2020, an Emergency Health Response Committee was formed to propose practical and systematic ways of addressing the COVID-19 threat. The committee was tasked with raising awareness on the COVID-19 threat; recommending means for campus preparedness and the needed training for staff, faculty and students; identifying resources and recommend action plans and procedures; monitoring progress; drafting and communicating an emergency preparedness plan.

Under guidance from the committee, a Health Response Task Force was created to support the LAU community on all COVID-19 related matters, from taking the PCR test to self-quarantine and at-home treatment in case of infection.

Faculty from our health schools collaborated in the effort. Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice in Infectious Diseases Hanine Mansour (PharmD ‘02), and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice in Critical Care Yara Mary Kuyumjian (PharmD ‘14) worked with critical care and infectious diseases physicians Drs. Fayez Abillama, Khalil Diab, Jacques Mokhbat and Rola Husni on developing a protocol for the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients.

To this day, our healthcare providers - physicians, nurses, residents, and hospital staff ­- remain at the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19.  Amidst it all, on the evening of August 4, they were subjected to the unimaginable, having to treat the hundreds injured in the horrific blast, which they did selflessly and valiantly, putting their sense of duty ahead of their own losses and suffering.

Preparations are also underway at LAU Medical Center-Saint John’s Hospital, which should become operational in 2021.

Research

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Office of Graduate Studies and Research at LAU compiled data forecasting the impact of the pandemic in Lebanon, and the level of social distancing measures required to contain it. The study, titled COVID-19: Extreme Social Distancing Can Save 150,000 Lives in Lebanon was released shortly after the outbreak, in March 2020. The forecast of the daily number of infected cases, recoveries and deaths due to COVID-19 in Lebanon was projected in a window of 112 days, beginning March 19 and ending by end of June 2020.

In April 2020, a team of microbiologists at LAU, led by Chair of the Natural Sciences Department in the School of Arts and Sciences Sima Tokajian, discovered a variation in part of the genome of two recovered SARS-CoV-2 viruses, focusing on the ORF3a protein. The study, which involved LAU biology alumni Tamara Salloum (BS ‘13, MS ‘15), Balig Panossian (BS ‘17, MS ‘19) and Georgi Merhi (MS ‘19), and senior undergraduate biology student Elio Issa, was published in the American Society for Microbiology Journals. In parallel, the team worked on customizing an online tool initially designed for the analysis of bacterial genomes, spearheaded by Panossian that would serve professionals in the medical field interested in the population genomics of SARS-CoV-2.

Subsequently, in June 2020, the department partnered with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health and Rafik Hariri University Hospital to launch a project for the whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 recovered from Lebanon. The project, titled Genetic Code of COVID-19: Insights into the Spread, Evolution, and Control, was also led by Dr. Tokajian.

In April, Associate Professor of Bioinformatics Georges Khazen and a team of SoAS faculty and students developed an interactive dashboard for validated historical testing data about COVID-19. The testing data could be used by the Ministry of Public Health, as well as healthcare professionals, to track the pandemic, prepare for potential surges in infection rates, and plan mitigation strategies accordingly. A genomic variability section further provides insights on how the virus is changing within and between countries.

A team of computer scientists at SoAS, led by Associate Professor and Associate Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics Azzam Mourad, investigated the ways that social media platforms have reflected the public’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving rise to an infodemic. SoAS Associate Dean Haidar Harmanani provided the quantitative analysis of the primary data, while graduate computer science student Ali Srour contributed to the project.

In partnership with 12 researchers from four universities, the Institute of Media Research and Training at SoAS spearheaded a working paper on media and communication uses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, Mitigating Infodemics, aimed to help mitigate the pandemic by examining and combatting the dissemination of false and potentially life-threatening information and fake news related to the virus, by examining Lebanese residents’ knowledge of COVID-19, as well as their perceived knowledge, belief in myths and false information, fear of the virus, and compliance with prevention measures.

Later in the year, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Jad Melki, who was a principal investigator in the study, received the prestigious Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers - the second such award for LAU - for his work on the impact of social media in the Arab world.

Committed to supporting innovative research endeavors, LAU became the only institution from Lebanon to take part in the international COVID-19 Fever Project organized by the global provider of neuroscience technology and research NEUROHM. By measuring the public’s responses and general attitude to the pandemic, the study and its findings can help define the right message that would in turn mitigate the spread of the virus and thereby ease the burden on the health system. Assistant Professor of neuromarketing and business communication at the Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB) Dunia Harajli took part in the project.

Initiatives

In April 2020, the university responded to the shortage of certified testing centers for COVID-19 in the country by launching the LAU Mobile Clinic to help stem the spread of the pandemic. The LAU Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, under the leadership of Dr. Michel E. Mawad - then dean of the school - and the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital joined forces to administer free PCR tests nationwide, reaching communities in remote regions in the country who otherwise would have been unable to afford them. The clinic also served to train and build the capacity of local health providers to run the tests securely and efficiently.

The initiative was made possible through generous donations from Mersaco, the Czech Embassy, General Electric Healthcare, General Medical Equipment, and Majid Al Futtaim’s “Feel the Beat” Campaign. Lebanese businessman, philanthropist, and long-time supporter of LAU Ambassador Gilbert Chagoury also offered what he termed a “humanitarian gift,” covering 10,000 free PCR tests. An additional donation by the President of the Association of Lebanese Business People in the World (RDCL World) Fouad Zmokhol (BS ‘96, MBA ‘99), who was then a member of the LAU Board of Trustees, helped to fund more than 800 PCR tests. Furthermore, 500 million Lebanese pounds donated by Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) Antoun Nabil Sehnaoui went toward purchasing PCR tests, PPEs and other necessary equipment and supplies for the hospital and the LAU Mobile Clinic.

In addition to the PCR tests, the school of medicine and the hospital sought to minimize exposure to the disease by setting up a virtual free-of-charge clinic, the LAU Coronavirus Telecare, whereby physicians provided patients with online consultancy.

To help alleviate a potential shortage in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Lebanon at the onset of the pandemic, the School of Engineering in collaboration with the school of medicine and the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital designed and 3D-printed face shields to protect those working in high-risk areas. The initiative was led by Clinical Professor and Division Head of Infectious Diseases at the school of medicine Rola Husni-Samaha. The design and production of the face shields were supervised by SOE Associate Dean and Professor in the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Michel Khoury, while clinical professors and physicians from the school of medicine and the medical center actively engaged in providing feedback on prototypes.

With the uncertainties surrounding the novel coronavirus and its impact on campus life, LAU launched the COVID-19 website to keep its community safe and appraised of precaution measures, awareness building communications, new research and resources, as well as university protocols and updates. The website was also a valuable source of advice for the wider community with informative articles by faculty on health and other issues arising from the disease and lockdowns, as well as emergency contact numbers. The website was, and continues to be, updated on a regular basis.

Learning

Since 2017, in accordance with the Third Strategic Plan, and the fast-approaching Fourth Industrial Revolution, LAU has set out to foster a culture of innovation and incorporate technology in its pedagogical delivery, paving the way for online learning. 

The shift was expedited by the many closures that the university experienced during AY2019-2020, with available support from the Department of Information Technology and the newly established Center for Innovative Learning. Going beyond available online tools, faculty members created custom-built programs and devised their own tools to facilitate virtual internships, simulate consultations and engage students through gamification. Gamification in learning was led by Assistant Professor of Practice in Mechanical Engineering Ali Ammouri. The end result was the successful completion of the academic year across the schools. Highlights of achievements enhancing learning and research in AY2019-2020 are as follows:

LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences collaborated with Continuing Education (LAU CE) to launch a series of free webinars in April, Knowledge Unlocked, that addressed some of the most pressing and common questions brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic. The second phase of the series  encompassed the schools of medicine, engineering, pharmacy, nursing, along with Continuing Education and the Arab Institute for Women.

In partnership with the Education Department at SoAS, the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine launched an innovative outreach program, the Anatomy Academy, that serves to share expert knowledge on anatomy, physiology and science education with middle- and high-school teachers across Lebanon.

The School of Pharmacy and the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital joined forces to develop the Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) Pharmacy Residency - a program that provides residents with advanced, hands-on experience in clinical practice, education and research.

The School of Engineering offered a series of free webinars in May,  SOE TeleTech, including webinars on How to Build an Open Source Ventilator for the COVID-19, Gamification in Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

In June, the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine becomes the first in Lebanon to conduct the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) - the rigorous assessment of Med IV students for clinic competency - virtually. The team who made this possible was composed of Professor of Nephrology and Associate Dean for Medical Education Sola Aoun Bahous, Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Clinical Simulation Center (CSC) Vanda Abi Raad, OSCE Director and Associate Director at the CSC Nadia El Asmar, Associate Professor at SoAS Lina Abyad, the IT Department and staff and faculty at the school of medicine.

In mid-June, the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine held its first-ever online hooding ceremony, graduating its 8th class and honoring its residents.

Partnerships

LAU’s Continuing Education (LAU CE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Real Estate Syndicate of Lebanon (REAL) in March 2020, paving the way for a long-term collaboration starting with a new certificate in real estate brokerage.

In July 2020 LAU’s School of Engineering (SOE) cemented its three-years-and-counting partnership with BMW Group, one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers, to promote research and internship opportunities that benefit the students, LAU and BMW at large.