Lebanese Higher Education

Lebanon's higher education is the oldest in the region. It goes back to 1866 when the American University of Beirut (AUB) was founded under the name of the Syrian Evangelical College, followed by the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in 1875, then by the Lebanese American University (LAU) in 1947 as a Beirut College for Women. The Lebanese University (LU) which is the only public university in the country was founded in1951. Haigazian University was founded in 1955, followed by the Beirut Arab University (BAU) in 1960 in collaboration with the Egyptian university of Alexandria. Most of the 40 higher education institutions currently running in Lebanon was legalised in the late nineties when the private sector flourished in a sudden and rapid expansion following the 15 year civil war that hit Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 and which had a very damaging impact on the sector of higher education of the country.