The State of the University: From Excellence to Eminence and Global Positioning

Academic Year 2023-2024 is very special for LAU. It is the year of our centennial marking a century of excellence and impact. The toil of successive generations accumulated to get us to where we now are thereby creating a defining legacy for us to build on. No sign of respect for this legacy, however, can be more meaningful than preserving it, adding strength to it, and moving it through our own efforts to the next level.

This indeed has been a main goal for the university over the past three years in the build-up to the centennial. Every effort was made to ensure that the last three years before the centennial will be a quantum leap for the university where new heights are attained despite the deepening crisis. Our resolve was to convert ominous threats to unique opportunities that propel LAU into its second century. This would require a paradigm shift that ushers in a new era of research prominence, regional eminence, and global positioning. That same shift would also witness a level of engagement with industry unprecedented at any other comparable university. Stated simply, our preparations for turning the corner into our second century were to coincide with a massive transformation of the university on multiple fronts. The essence, identity, and culture of LAU were to be preserved, together with its liberal arts philosophy but within a changed institution ready for leadership in a post-digital age. This was the promise and such was the goal. We delivered on both and here is the account.

Years of Achievement 

The LAU momentum during the run-up to our centennial picked up acceleration exponentially starting in Academic Year 2020-2021. This can be easily seen by looking at some facts that became amply apparent by fall 2023. Such uplifting facts span the entire spectrum of success parameters. Together they represent a scorecard of which we can all be proud. Here are the key elements of this scorecard.

Academic Programs and Continuing Education Offerings 

LAU led the country in shifting to online delivery, content development, online student support, innovative pedagogy, online graduate programs, and digital majors. In continuing education, ACE (Academy of Continuing Education) was upgraded to become the leading program of its kind. It now offers multiple new programs, has built effective industry partnerships, and is expanding its reach beyond our two campuses within and outside Lebanon.

Research Output

Compared to fall 2020, research output measured in terms of paper publications in Quarter 1 refereed journals has grown threefold. No evidence of this can be more telling than the fact that we tied for first place in research among universities in Lebanon according to the most recent Times Higher Education ranking. This if a first time for LAU and a harbinger of things to come. We also made a quantum leap in world ranking where we are ranked in the 600 bracket range among the top 1,000 universities in the world.

Human Capital

LAU was the only major university in Lebanon to keep a north-bound enrollment curve at the undergraduate level throughout the three crisis years since 2020. The significant expansion of our financial aid policy thanks to the Board of Trustees support, together with the extraordinary efforts of our admission team, and the sterling reputation of the institution are behind this fact.

At the faculty, physician and staff levels, the initial attrition in numbers witnessed early on in the crisis was more than made up for through new recruitment, and the return of some of those who departed. This was made possible through salary and benefit improvements and the payment of a constantly increasing salary share in fresh dollars. This share stands today at 80%; another leading practice among major universities in the country. Today we are at a point where 2020 staffing levels have not only been restored but, in many areas, exceeded by a long stretch.

University Finances

The reason we were able to do right financially by our students, faculty, physicians and staff was regaining financial equilibrium after two years of teetering with exchange rate volatility and multiple currencies. This was made possible through shifting tuition to a dollar base to restore order in university finances. LAU was the first and only university to take this bold step and hence the first to raise the percentage of financial aid to its students and dollar payments to its faculty and staff. We now stand at over $72 million in financial aid covering 80% of our students, and at 80% fresh dollars in our payroll. This borders on the miraculous for a Lebanon-based institution under the circumstances.

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic initiatives claimed the lion’s share of Academic Year 2022-2023 and even more so 2023-2024. Five such initiatives speak to how far LAU has gone down the path of future-proofing and building strategic reserves. These initiatives are:

• LAU without borders – the Iraq initiative

• The NY micro campus initiative

• The industrial hub initiative

• The LAU leadership program initiative

• The sustainability initiative  

All five initiatives are currently either under deployment or full-fledged implementation. When completed, they will add to LAU’s level of strategic prowess never before experienced.

Healthcare

We approach our centennial with LAU firmly established as a premier healthcare provider in the country. Our two medical centers and campus health services constitute today an integrated LAU health system with topmost standing and visibility in the country. What is equally positive is the fact that, for the first time, both LAU Medical Center - Rizk Hospital and LAU Medical Center - Saint John’s Hospital are past break-even into a positive margin. This was until recently almost beyond our dreams.

Where Do We Go from Here?

We have now a centennial around the corner, and unequivocal record-breaking markers that took shape since 2020. This is the case at the academic, enrollment, human and financial levels with strategic initiatives to ensure sustainability. All this points out unmistakably to one truth: LAU over the past three years has irreversibly turned the corner and is now heading to a new and much higher regional and global profile.

LAU’s new profile is yet to take its full course and needs continuous nourishment to materialize fully over the coming years. It simply needs the best we can offer as individuals, as groups, and as an institution. The world today is undergoing rapid change and academia is heavily affected. Open AI, climate change, quest for sustainability, extraordinary complexity, millennial psychology, have a combined effect that is already acting as a radical game changer. LAU has covered over the past three years considerable distance towards truly embracing the future in its second century. What was started, however, beckons us to keep going as fast as we can in this strategic race with no finish line.