Education in Lebanon - Higher Education

Higher Education

Higher education in Lebanon composes of Technical and Vocational Institutes, University colleges, University Institutes and Universities. The Lebanese University is the only public institution. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education administrates the private and public sectors and Technical and Vocational Institutes are under the Directorate General of Technical and Vocational Education Directorate General of Higher Education has responsibility for University Colleges, University Institutes and Universities).

According to the World Bank database, gross enrollment rate of tertiary education is 46.9 percent for male, 56.3 percent for female, and 51.6 percent for total. (The World Bank 2009) Private enrollment share of tertiary education is 53.4 percent.

Female students are seen in every university program or field of specialization.

Following high school, Lebanese students may choose to study at a university, a college, or a vocational training institute. The number of years to complete each program varies.

The Lebanese Baccalaureate is accredited worldwide. French Baccalaureate can be presented by students who have other nationality than the Lebanese. The French Baccalaureate is also accredited.

While the Lebanese educational system offers a very high quality and international class of education, the local employment market lacks enough opportunities, thus encouraging many of the young educated to travel abroad; Successful Lebanese engineers, doctors, businessmen, etc. are found practically all over the world. Lebanon has 41 nationally-accredited universities, several of which are internationally recognized. The American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Université Saint-Joseph (USJ) were the first Anglophone and the first Francophone universities to open in Lebanon respectively. The forty-one universities, both public and private, largely operate in French, or English as these are the most widely used foreign languages in Lebanon.

At the English universities, students who have graduated from an American-style high school program enter at the freshman level to earn their baccalaureate equivalence from the Lebanese Ministry of Higher Education. This qualifies them to continue studying at the higher levels. Such students are required to have already taken the SAT I and the SAT II (Subjects Test) upon applying to college, in lieu of the official exams. On the other hand, students who have graduated from a school that follows the Lebanese educational system are directly admitted to the sophomore year. These students are still required to take the SAT I, but not the SAT II.

The highest-ranked and most prestigious universities in Lebanon include the Lebanese University (LU), the American University of Science and Technology (AUST), the Lebanese American University (LAU), the Antonine University (UPA), the University of Balamand, the American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut Arab University (BAU), the Lebanese International University (LIU), Haigazian University, the Université Saint-Joseph (USJ), the American University of Technology (AUT), the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK) and the Notre Dame University - Louaize. In addition, some students choose to study abroad. The United Nations assigned Lebanon an Education Index of 0.84 in 2005.