Dr. Diane Nauffal
Assistant to the President for Institutional Research and Analytics
Dr. Diane Nauffal is Assistant to the President for Institutional Research and Analytics and Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Psychology and Education at the School of Arts and Sciences. She joined LAU in 2008 with the mandate to establish the university’s institutional research function, which she has led ever since. Today it is the Department of Institutional Research and Analytics, reporting directly to the President.
In her role, Dr. Nauffal leads the research and analysis that underpin strategic planning, policy development, accreditation, and institutional effectiveness at LAU. Her department is the university’s official source of institutional data, providing evidence for decision-making across the institution.
Her academic research addresses governance, policy, and strategic planning in higher education; the contribution of universities to sustainable development and national economies; graduate employability and the alignment of academic programs with labor market needs; and student engagement, including during crises. Her work has appeared in journals including Higher Education and Prospects. She has led the university’s labor market studies and, drawing on institutional data, conducted a 2017 study of LAU’s economic impact on Lebanon, which was the first of its kind in the Arab world.
Beyond LAU, Dr. Nauffal has contributed to higher education policy in Lebanon and the Arab region. She has been appointed to numerous national committees, including the Ministry of Education and Higher Education committees drafting the National Quality Assurance Law and the National Qualifications Framework. She is a member of Lebanon’s Higher Education Reform Experts (HERE) team under the European Union’s Erasmus+ program, co-authored a UNESCO-commissioned report mapping higher education across the Arab States, and has consulted for the World Bank on higher education policy and quality enhancement.
A founding member and President (2015–2020) of the Middle East and North Africa Association for Institutional Research (MENA-AIR), she also served as President of the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies (LAES, 2012–2014) and has been a member of the US-based Association for Institutional Research (AIR) since 2007.
She earned her Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Educational Management and Policy from the University of Birmingham, UK, and her B.S. in Mathematics, M.A. in Mathematics Education, and Teaching Diploma in Teaching Mathematics in Secondary School from the American University of Beirut. Prior to joining LAU, she was a faculty member at the University of Balamand for fourteen years.
Contact:
Dr. Diane Nauffal
Assistant to the President for Institutional Research & Assessment
Lebanese American University
Tel: +961-1-786456, Ext. 1232
diane.nauffal@lau.edu.lb