Page 54 - EW February 2023

International News

LEBANON
AUB bouncing back

WHEN AN ENORMOUS EXPLOSION ROCKED
central Beirut in August 2020, it wasn’t just the
estate of Lebanon’s oldest university that was badly
damaged. The blast — which was caused by vast amounts of
ammonium nitrate dangerously stored in Beirut’s port and
killed 215 people — was also a huge blow to staff morale and
the already precarious finances of the American University
of Beirut (AUB). Hundreds of international students cut
their studies short or decided not to come altogether, says
president Fadlo Khuri. “We lost about 375 students and
another 600 potential students who might have accepted
places,” says Prof. Khuri on the disaster that literally shook AUB vista: positive signs. Inset: Fadlo Khuri
Lebanon (tremors were felt as far away as Europe).
“We suffered about $7.5 million (Rs.61 crore) in dam- There are positive signs that the university can bounce
age — with the windows of the new glass-fronted teaching back. “We have recruited 77 new faculty over two years and
hospital blown in,” recalls the Boston-born, Beirut-raised seen a significant increase in student recruitment.” Prof.
cancer doctor. With three of Beirut’s hospitals knocked out Khuri is upbeat about his institution’s future. “Rankings
by the blast, the university’s medical centre proved crucial don’t keep me awake at night — graduate employability
in treating some of the 6,000 people injured by flying glass does, but thankfully our students measure up with the
and masonry. “More than 750 people visited our emergency best under this parameter. Even our humanists are getting
room in the first few hours, including many of our univer- snapped up.”
sity community,” recalls the Yale- and Columbia-educated
scientist. UNITED KINGDOM
For many staff, however, the blast proved the final straw. Study visa restriction danger
In the face of Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2019, AUB
had already been forced to slash staff wages “to save the LONDON-BASED UNIVERSITIES AND post-92
university”. It was then forced to cut 850 jobs in July 2020 institutions would be hit hardest if a crackdown
after its revenues crashed by 60 percent in 2020-21, as stu- on UK international student visas goes ahead. UK
dents struggled to afford tuition fees. A triple whammy was is more reliant on international student revenue now than
completed when it lost donations and scholarships it was it was the last time there were serious threats to overseas
expecting when the pandemic hit. recruitment, during the prime ministership of Theresa May
Established in 1866 by Protestant missionaries, the (2016-19). In 2020-21, tuition fees from non-European
private university became a key study destination in the Union students aggregated about £7 billion (Rs.70,000
Arab region, with 60 percent of its students from outside crore) to universities, roughly 17 percent of their total in-
Lebanon by the mid-1970s, attracted by its US-style liberal come — up from 16 percent the year before, and 13 percent
arts teaching model. Things were tough during the civil war in 2016-17.
between 1975 and 1990 when professors and presidents Following the openness of Boris Johnson’s government
were kidnapped: one president, Malcolm Kerr, an Ameri- towards international students, his successor Rishi Sunak
can Middle East scholar, was assassinated on campus by — and in particular the home secretary, Suella Braverman
jihadists in 1984. But international students returned in the — have expressed concern about the impact of education
1990s, and now account for 22 percent of the institution’s visas on overall migration figures. But reports suggest that
8,000 students. any clampdown on recruitment could be targeted, restrict-
However, with its faculty under financial strain, ambi- ing international enrolment to ‘elite’ universities only.
tious universities from nearby oil-rich states have poached Analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency figures
staff. “We’ve raided them — particularly their administra- indicates that institutions in the Top 200 of the Times
tors who are very good and understand the Arab context,” a Higher Education World University Rankings draw about
senior leader from a Gulf state institution told THE. a fifth of their income from international students. Should
Lebanon needs a top-tier research university more than ministers decide to reduce international student numbers,
ever, insists Khuri. “The university has created a sense of they could follow a pattern they set last year when they in-
sanity amid Lebanon’s meltdown — we need to be that an- troduced a visa scheme for graduates of universities in the
chor institution so that the country can continue to inno- Top 50 of major global rankings, and restrict enrolment to
vate, lead and thrive,” he says. only that elite group.

54 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023