The Lebanese American University (LAU) has earned the approval of the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) to provide accredited online courses and academic programs for upcoming semesters. According to its website’s statement, NECHE is “recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a reliable authority on the quality of education” for the colleges and universities it accredits in the United States, as well as for its affiliated institutions in Switzerland, Lebanon, Greece, Morocco, Bermuda, and Bulgaria. The approval earned by LAU was based on a comprehensive evaluation report on the quality of the university’s online education during the pandemic, and…
Author: Rim Zrein
The American University of Beirut (AUB) gave its students an official ultimatum that will jeopardize their academic standing at the prestigious university. If current students do not settle the highly unreasonable tuition payments by the deadline set on March 2, 2021, students risk getting expelled. The administration sent out a firm email with a harsh ultimatum, pressuring the students to pay their dues by Tuesday, while students are still trying to figure out ways to pay the newly increased tuition. The tuition, which is listed in US dollars, is now issued at an exchange rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds for…
Deputy House Speaker Elie Ferzli, who was one of the Lebanese MPs who got vaccinated against ensuring equitable access to the vaccines, called out the World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar Jha in a strongly-worded statement. Ferzli told journalist Timour Azhari that the regional director is a “hypocrite and a liar and if he doesn’t apologize, I won’t let him stay in Lebanon,” threatening to kick him out of Lebanon. This comes after Kumah Jha commented on the breach in the contract by Lebanese officials who decided to vaccinate themselves against the rules set in place by Lebanon and the…
Lebanon’s vaccination plan is materializing as another chapter of misgovernance, in the country’s book of notorious chaos. From some hospitals reportedly bypassing the registration platform, and some elders of the priority group getting refused vaccination, to culminate on Tuesday with over a dozen MPs breaking the rules to get themselves vaccinated …before those in crucial need of the vaccine. Rani Haddad, the Co-founder of Beirut-based Axon Technologies, a cybersecurity company, took to Twitter to share how his father, an elderly of 75 years of age, was refused vaccination by two hospitals for not being Lebanese. According to one of these…
The Lebanese public went outraged after the news came out that Lebanese MPs decided to “skip the line” of priorities, being the health workers and the elders, and get themselves vaccinated. In a country where “lawmakers” break the law, a reaction is surely guaranteed. Not that Lebanon has had little of that. Social media was swarmed with people’s reactions towards the injustice that could cost Lebanon the funding of the World Bank for the COVID-19 vaccine, which could prolong the nation-wide pandemic even further. Starting with the head of the COVID-19 vaccination committee resigning in protest, and the World Bank’s…
15 parliament members of the Lebanese Forces Bloc (LF) signed a petition urging an international investigation into one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history. Their parliamentary delegation handed the petition on Monday to the UN Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi, addressing it also to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They issued, in a statement, that their petition was due to the Lebanese people’s mistrust in the local investigation, notably the many obstacles hindering it and delaying it in uncovering the truth. “Truth, justice, and compensations are three objectives that the entire Lebanese people will not rest before achieving,”…
Dr. Abdul Rahman Bizri, head of the coronavirus vaccination committee in Lebanon, announced during a live conference that he will not resign, only hours after explicitly stating that he will be doing so. The World Bank has noted down the breach in contract, which could be the reason why Dr. Bizri retracted his resignation, calling it a “natural reaction” from his side.” According to him, though, it was the pressure from his peers in the committee that made him change his mind. Yet, he maintained that he might still resign if an official clarification is not made by 6 pm…
Adnan Daher, Secretary-General of the House of Parliament, announced a list of Lebanese MPs that put the vaccination rollout in Lebanon at risk. Here’s the full list of the parliamentarians who violated the contract set by the World Bank when they went ahead and vaccinated themselves in the first phase of the inoculation campaign, giving themselves priority over those who are critically in need of the vaccine, like the health workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Abdel-Rahim Mrad, also a former Minister and founder of the Lebanese International University.Wehbe Qatisha, representative in the Lebanese parliament as a member of the Lebanese Forces party…
Secretary-General of the House of Parliament, Adnan Daher, told local media reporters that Tuesday will be marked by the vaccination of Lebanese MPs who are over the age of 75. However, Daher noted that the media will not be present to document the process, which violates the plan agreed with the World Bank that is funding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Lebanon. In a tweet, Saroj Kumar Jha, World Bank Regional Director explicitly stated that the vaccination of Lebanese MPs will be recorded as a breach of terms that were set to ensure a fair vaccination process. The World Bank has previously…
Lebanon’s vaccination campaign was up and running directly after the country received its first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine on February 13th, containing around 28,500 jabs of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine. However, circulating reports have been criticizing the inoculation process, as some hospitals have been bypassing the government registration program set as a strict requirement to ensure tracking, and that elderly and health workers get vaccinated as a priority. It prompted Lebanese on social media to urge officials to be wary of hospitals violating the ethical and legal procedures set by the Health Ministry. Larissa Aoun, producer and reporter at Sky…
