In response to a newspaper report stating that “the President of the Lebanese University is preventing the opening of courses in the Faculty of Letters & Human Sciences unless a certain number of students are enrolled, which is contrary to university law”, the Media Office of the Lebanese University Presidency would like to clarify the following:
- What was happening previously was a deliberate violation of the laws and decisions governing the opening of courses at the Lebanese University, as it turned out that more than 40 specialized courses at the master’s level had only one or two students enrolled in them. This constituted a persistent violation of the decisions of the University Council—not its president—which stipulate that no master’s program may be opened for fewer than 12 students, while bachelor’s programs are open to all.
- The enforcement of laws at the Lebanese University is not an abuse of power by anyone, but rather a reform process to prevent academic corruption and waste of public funds, especially since some master’s programs that had only one student often did not take place in classrooms, which constitutes a waste of thousands of fictitious hours.
- The Lebanese University operates under the umbrella of laws, decisions, and circulars that we hope you will review before engaging in the dissemination of information that encourages the spread of corruption in the service of the interests of those who publish it.
Media Office of the Presidency of the Lebanese University
Beirut, 19 September 2025