The
American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, independent
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
,
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. It was founded as the
Syrian Protestant College by
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
missionaries in 1866. The name was changed to the
American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1920.
The university is ranked among the top 300 universities in the world.
The University is governed by a private, autonomous Board of Trustees and offers programs leading to the bachelor’s, master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. The current president is
Peter DormanPeter Fitzgerald Dorman is an epigraphist, philologist, and cultural anthropologist. He currently serves as the 15th President of the American University of Beirut...
.
Although AUB’s student body is primarily Lebanese, almost one-fifth of its students attended secondary school or university outside of Lebanon before coming to AUB. The language of instruction is English.
History
In 1862 American missionaries in Lebanon and Syria, under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, asked
Daniel BlissDaniel Bliss was the founder of the American University of Beirut.-Life and Work:...
to establish a college of higher learning that would include medical training. On April 24, 1863, while Dr. Daniel Bliss was raising money for the new college in the United States and England, the State of New York granted a charter for the Syrian Protestant College. The college, which was renamed the American University of Beirut in 1920, opened with a class of 16 students on December 3, 1866. Dr. Bliss served as its first president, from 1866 until 1902.
AUB alumni have had a broad and significant impact on the region and the world for many years. For example, 19 AUB alumni were delegates to the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945 — more than any other university in the world. AUB graduates continue to serve in leadership positions as presidents of their countries, prime ministers, members of parliament, ambassadors, governors of central banks, presidents and deans of colleges and universities, businesspeople, engineers, doctors, teachers, and nurses. They work in governments, the private sector, and in nongovernmental organizations.
On March 21, 2008, the Board of Trustees selected
Peter DormanPeter Fitzgerald Dorman is an epigraphist, philologist, and cultural anthropologist. He currently serves as the 15th President of the American University of Beirut...
to be AUB's 15th president. He succeeded
John WaterburyJohn Waterbury is an American academic that served as the 14th president of the American University of Beirut between 1998 and 2008. He was the first president to reside in Beirut since 1984...
who was president of AUB from 1998 to 2008. Dorman is an international scholar in the field of
EgyptologyEgyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
and formerly chaired the University of Chicago's
Department of Near Eastern Languages and CivilizationsThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
As of June 2011, the total number of degrees and diplomas awarded totaled 82,032.
Campus
The 61 acres (246,858.5 m²) AUB campus is on a hill overlooking the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
on one side and bordering
Bliss StreetBliss Street, or Rue Bliss, is one of the principal streets of the Hamra area, which is within the Ras Beirut District of Beirut in Lebanon. The street, which is parallel to Hamra Street, runs east-west, connecting with Rue Clémenceau on the east and ending at Avenue General de Gaulle that runs...
on the other.
Faculties and schools
- Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences (FAFS)
- Faculty of Arts & Sciences (FAS)
- Faculty of Engineering & Architecture (FEA): Architecture, Computer & Communications Engineering, Electical & Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Graphic Design
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS)
- Faculty of Medicine (FM), including the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing (HSON)
- Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB)
Research
In 2007, AUB reintroduced PhD programs and now offers six doctoral programs: Arab and Middle Eastern History, Arabic Language and Literature, Cell and Molecular Biology, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Theoretical Physics.
Medical Center
The AUB Medical Center (AUBMC) is the private, not-for-profit teaching center of the Faculty of Medicine. AUBMC, which is accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCIA) on hospital accreditation, includes a 420-bed hospital and offers comprehensive tertiary/quaternary medical care and referral services in a wide range of specialties and medical, nursing and paramedical training programs at undergraduate and post-graduate level. Since 1905, AUB’s medical services have included a nursing school. In 2008, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) invited AUB’s Rafic Hariri School of Nursing to become a full member, making it the first member of the AACN outside the United States. The American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program awarded AUBMC its prestigious Magnet designation on June 23, 2009. AUBMC is the first healthcare institution in the Middle East and the third in the world outside the United States to receive this award.
University Museum
The
Archaeological Museum of the American University of BeirutThe Archaeology Museum of the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon is the third oldest museum in the Near East after Cairo and Constantinople.-History:...
is the third oldest museum in the
Near EastThe Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
with displays covering all periods of history. The museum also carries out archaeological research projects.
Libraries
The AUB library system includes two main divisions:
University libraries
The university libraries include the Nami Jafet Memorial Library, the Engineering and Architecture Library and the Science and Agriculture Library. The Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) in the Beqa'a Valley also includes an annex to the Science and Agriculture Library.
Saab Medical Library
The Saab Medical Library (SML) serves the AUB Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing, in addition to the entire AUB campus. It is ranked as a large size medical library.
Although many library resources are accessible remotely from on and off campus, the libraries themselves are equipped with e-classrooms, computer labs, and wireless connectivity. Trained and experienced library staff conduct classes and workshops throughout the year to introduce and train users to take advantage of the libraries’ collections, information resources, and innovative technologies.
Fundraising
In October 2002, AUB launched a five-year $150 million fund raising campaign called the Campaign for Excellence to celebrate its 140th anniversary in 2006–07. The University raised more than $171 million during the campaign, which ended in December 2007, to upgrade its facilities, strengthen academic programs, enhance faculty recruitment, and increase its financial aid budget.
Accreditation
Degrees awarded by the American University of Beirut are officially registered with the Ministry of Higher Education in Lebanon and with the Board of Education in the State of New York. AUB was granted institutional accreditation in June 2004 by the Commission on Higher Education of the
Middle States Association of Colleges and SchoolsThe Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association dedicated to educational excellence and improvement through peer evaluation and accreditation...
. The University’s accreditation was most recently reaffirmed in June 2009.
In September 2006, the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) acted to accredit the University’s Graduate Public Health Program in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). The AUB Graduate Public Health Program is the first CEPH accredited public health program outside the North American continent.
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accredited AUB’s Rafic Hariri School of Nursing for five years beginning October 13, 2007.
In April 2009, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) granted the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) initial accreditation. AACSB is the leading international accrediting agency for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. Less than five percent of business schools worldwide have earned AACSB International accreditation. AUB's Olayan School of Business is the first business school in Lebanon and the second in the region to receive such accreditation.
The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture received accreditation from the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) in July 2010, becoming the first university in Lebanon to receive such an accreditation. The accredited programs include the undergraduate BE degrees in civil engineering, computer and communications engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering.
The most important donor of FEA was Mohamad Nasser-Eddine (Major donation on the 2nd of June 2009)
Notable alumni
Nineteen former AUB students were delegates to the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945. The most famous among them was Charles Malik, a Lebanese philosopher, diplomat and president of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
General Assembly from 1958 to 1959.
Afghanistan
- Yousef Pashtun
Mohammad Yousef Pashtun is the Minister of Urban Development and Housing for Afghanistan. He previously served as Governor of Kandahar province, in 2003 replacing Gul Agha Sherzai.-Biography:...
(Minister of Urban Development, Former Governor of Kandahar Province)
- Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (Former Minister of Finance, Presidential Candidate in 2009 Afghan Presidential Elections)
Bahrain
- Ali Fakhro (Minister and first Bahraini medical doctor)
- Yusuf Al Shirawi (Minister)
Iraq
- Fadhil Al-Jamali (Prime Minister)
- Saadun Hammadi (Prime Minister & Speaker)
- Adnan Al-Pachachi (Foreign Minister and President/Member of the Interim Ruling Council)
- Matti Aqrawi (Academic, the first president of the University of Baghdad)
- Abdul-Jabbar Abdullah (Scholar, Scientist and Academic, the second president of the University of Baghdad))
- Ali Al-Wardi (Scholar, Anthropologist and Social Historian)
- Hafiz Jameel (Leading Arab poet)
- Taha Baqir
Taha Baqir was an Iraqi archaeologist, author, cuneiformist, linguist, historian, and former curator of the National Museum of Iraq.Baqir is considered one of Iraq's most eminent archaeologists...
(Archaeologist and scholar)
- Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
(Architect)
Jordan
- Hussein Fakhri Al-Khalidi (Prime Minister)
- Suleyman Al-Nabulsi (Prime Minister)
- Wasfi Al-Tall (Prime Minister)
- Abdul Raouf Al-Rawabdeh (Prime Minister)
- Rima Khalaf
Rima Khalaf, , a national of Jordan, was appointed as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ESCWA by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon....
(Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and senior UN official)
- Abdul Hamid Sharaf (Prime Minister)
- Leila Najjar-Sharaf (Second woman Minister and current member of the Upper House "Majlis Al-A'yan")
- Kadri TouQan (Foreign Minister and academic)
- Umayya Toukan
-Early life and career:Toukan was born in Amman, Jordan. He obtained his undergraduate and MBA degree from the American University of Beirut. He later completed his PhD from Columbia Business School in 1987. He served as the CEO of the stock exchange in Jordan...
(Governor of the Jordanian Central Bank)
- Ahmad Touqan (Prime Minister)
Lebanon
- Adel Osseiran
Adel Osseiran was a prominent Lebanese politician and statesman, a former Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, and one of the founding fathers of the Lebanese Republic....
(Speaker of Parliament and Cabinet Minister)
- Salim Al-Hoss (Prime Minister)
- Fouad Siniora
Fuad Siniora is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those...
(Prime Minister)
- Najib Mikati
Najib Azmi Mikati is a Lebanese politician, billionaire and is the current Prime Minister of Lebanon since 13 June 2011. From April 2005 to July 2005 he was Prime Minister of Lebanon in a caretaker government...
(Prime Minister , billionaire and co-founder of Investcom)
- Ghassan Tueini (Deputy Prime Minister, Journalist and Publisher of An-Nahar newspaper)
- Walid Jumblat (Leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, member of parliament and former cabinet minister)
- Mohammad Al Safadi (Minister of Finance)
- Wael Abu Faour (Minister of Social Affairs)
- Jibran Bassil (Minister of Energy)
- Bassel Fleihan
Bassel Fleihan was a Lebanese legislator and Minister of Economy and Commerce. He died from injuries sustained when a massive bomb exploded on the Beirut seafront as he passed by in former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's motorcade on February 14, 2005. 20 other people, including Hariri,...
(Minister of Economy, assasinated in 2005))
- Riad Salameh
Riad Salameh is the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon. He was born on July 17, 1950 in Kfardebian, Lebanon, son of Toufic and Renee Salameh...
(Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon)
- Kamal Salibi
Kamal Suleiman Salibi was a prominent Lebanese historian, professor of history at the American University of Beirut and the founding Director of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in Amman, Jordan...
(Historian)
- Nadim Kassar
Nadim Kassar, Lebanese businessman is most recognized for his position as General Manager of Fransabank-Background:Nadim Kassar was born in Beirut in May 1964 into a prominent Lebanese family. His grandfather Wafic Kassar was a judge who became his country’s ambassador to Pakistan followed by an...
(Banker)
- Tony Nader
Tony Abu Nader is a Lebanese neuro-physiologist, the president of both Maharishi University of Management in Holland and Maharishi Open University, and was designated the 'First Sovereign Ruler' of the 'Global Country of World Peace'. After receiving his medical degree in internal medicine and...
('First Sovereign Ruler' of the Global Country of World PeaceThe Global Country of World Peace was declared by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and guru of the Transcendental Meditation movement, on Vijayadashami , October 7, 2000. He described it as "a country without borders for peace loving people everywhere"...
)
- Emily Nasrallah
Emily Nasrallah , née Emily Abi Rached on July 6, 1931 in Kfeir, Lebanon; is a Lebanese writer and women's rights activist. Emily showed literary talents at an early age, she took up writing and journalism while still in college a talent for which she would receive great recognition...
(Writer and women's rights activist)
Kuwait
- Abdul Rahman Al-Awadhi (Minister)
- Rula Dashti (One of the first 4 women members of Parliament)
- Ahmad Al-Khatib
Ahmad Hasan al-Khatib was a Syrian politician. He was a ceremonial head of state of Syria appointed by Hafez al-Assad to replace the ousted president Nureddin al-Atassi. al-Khatib was a civilian member of the ruling Baath party and served as president for only four months. His position was...
(One of the earliest parliamentarians)
Palestine
- Haidar Abdul-Shafi (Politician and Physician)
- Salma Al-Khadra Al-Jayyusi (Academic and poet)
- Suad Amiry
Suad Amiry is an author and architect living in the West Bank town of Ramallah. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, the University of Michigan, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her parents went from Palestine to Amman, Jordan. She was brought up there and went...
(Writer and architect)
- Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégé and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East...
(Academic and politician)
- Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad is a Palestinian politician and Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority of the Palestinian National Authority. His first appointment, on 15 June 2007, which was justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", has not been confirmed by the...
(Prime Minister of the Palestinian authority)
- George Habash
George Habash also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" was a Palestinian nationalist. Habash, a Palestinian Christian, founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which pioneered the hijacking of airplanes as a Middle East militant tactic...
(Physician and Politician - Leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineThe Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
)
- Nabeel Kassis
Nabeel Kassis is an Palestinian academic and politician from Ramallah. He is currently the president of Birzeit University. In 2003, he served as the Planning Minister of the Palestinian National Authority after previously serving as the Tourism Minister in 2002 and State Minister in 1998. He was...
(Nuclear Physicist and politician)
- Hanna Nasser
Hanna Nasser was the mayor of Bethlehem from 1997 to 2005, being succeeded by Victor Batarseh. Nasser is a Palestinian Christian.-External links:* BBC News...
(Founding president of Birzeit University)
- Kamal Nasser (Poet, political leader and member of the Jordanian parliament)
- Ibrahim Touqan
Ibrahim Abd al-Fattah Touqan was a Palestinian nationalist poet whose works rallied Arabs during their revolt against the British. Touqan was born in Nablus, Palestine during Ottoman times. He was the brother of poetess Fadwa Touqan and he tutored and influenced her to write poetry...
(A leading Arab poet)
Saudi Arabia
- Badriya Al-Bishr (Writer)
- Abdullah Jum'ah (Former President, Director, and CEO of Saudi Aramco)
- Hayat S. Olayan (Businesswoman)
- Hutham S. Olayan (Businesswomam and member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut)
- Farida Al-Sulayman (First Saudi woman medical doctor)
Sudan
- Ismail al-Azhari
Ismail al-Azhari was a Sudanese nationalist and political figure. He served as the Prime Minister of Sudan between 1954 and 1956, and as President of Sudan from 1964 until he was overthrown by Gaafar Nimeiry in 1969.-Early life:...
(First President of independent Sudan)
- Yusuf Badri (Founder of Al-Ahfad University, Sudan's first private university)
Syria
- Nazim Al-Qudsi (President and Prime Minister)
- Faris Al-Khoury (Prime Minister & Speaker)
- Mansour Al-Atrash (Head of the National Revolutionary Council 1965-1966)
- Madani Al-Khiyami (Health Minister and physician)
- Hassaan Mureiwid (Foreign Minister)
- Ghada Al Samman (Novelist and writer)
- Costantine Zurayk (Academic & Historian)
- Omar Abu Rishah (Ambassador and a leading Arab poet)
USA
- Abdulfattah John Jandali (Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
' biological father)
- Ray Irani (Chairman & CEO, Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America...
)
- Malcolm Kerr (Academic, Former President of AUB, former professor at UCLA)
- Zalmay Khalilzad
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush...
(Former American Ambassador to the United Nations and Afghanistan)
- Fawwaz T. Ulaby
Fawwaz T. Ulaby is a R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and is the Founding Provost and Executive Vice President of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology...
(Inventor and electrical engineer)
See also
- American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...
(AUC)
- American University in Dubai
The American University in Dubai is a private, non-sectarian institution of higher learning in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, founded in 1995. AUD was founded in 1995 as a branch campus of the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, Georgia, but turned into a private, non-sectarian...
(AUD)
- American University of Iraq - Sulaimani (AUI)
- American University of Sharjah
American University of Sharjah is an independent, not-for-profit coeducational higher educational institution in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, founded in 1997 by Dr. Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah...
(AUS)
External links