Michel Mawad: Lebanon’s Education Sector to Witness Five Lean Years

Michel Mawad: Lebanon’s Education Sector to Witness Five Lean Years

The president of the Lebanese American University in Beirut (LAU), Dr. Michel Mawad, said that the education sector in the country would witness five lean years, as a result of the financial and economic crisis and the lack of resources.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Mawad pointed to the danger of the human capital flight, which he said would take several years to compensate.

He stressed that brain drain and the loss of educational energy in the higher education sector would have long-term repercussions and require many years to address.

“At the university, we face many difficulties, and we thank God that we overcome them one by one,” Mawad said.

“The great difficulty that people do not notice is the brain drain from Lebanon and the university. Today, we have lost between 20 to 25 percent of doctors who have specializations from abroad. This affects the education of students in medicine, pharmacy or nursing…” he warned.

In addition to the loss of human and educational capacity in the higher education sector, which Mawad deems “harmful to the sector,” he noted that many of the students could no longer afford the tuition fees because the purchasing power has decreased by about 15 times.

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